I like Vera Stanhope. She's an unlikely detective heroine. Plain, overweight, socially awkward, lonely, she is nevertheless veey good at her job. And this particular job involved finding out who the murderer is who enjoys laying his victims out in water surrounded by flowers. Will he strike again? The time she spends examining the lives of a closely knit group of friends proved to be time well-spent.

A book to enjoy to discover how the various characters come to life, to savour the Northumbrian landscape, and to relish a first-class whodunnit. ( )

3rd in Vera series. Complicated case of determining who murdered two people by strangulation and surrounded their bodies with flowers while lying in water. An intriguing story. Publishers Weekly� In Cleeves?s captivating third mystery featuring Det. Chief Insp. Vera Stanhope of the Northumberland police (after Telling Tales), Vera and the members of her team look into the murder of teenager Luke Armstrong, who was found strangled in his bathtub. The way Luke?s body was laid out, anointed with perfumed oils and surrounded by wild flowers, suggests a certain respect for the victim. A college student is later discovered on a beach, once again with flowers scattered around the corpse. The two murders appear to be related, but Vera and crew will have to do a lot of digging to determine the exact connection between them. All the players¥the suspects, police officers, and surviving relatives of the victims¥are fully realized individuals. Vera, a reflective middle-aged woman who doesn?t suffer fools gladly, is particularly vivid. She drinks her beer straight from the bottle and seldom says no to a drop of whisky. Readers will want to devour the entire series just for the pleasure of spending time in Vera?s complex and inviting world.

Vera Stanhope 3

Julie Armstrong comes home after a night out and finds her son dead in the bathtub with flowers scattered over the water. He was strangled, not drowned. DCI Vera Stanhope investigates.

More like TV Vera than the earlier books. ( )

In the third Vera Stanhope mystery, two young people are murdered just days apart, and under eerily similar circumstances. But there are no apparent links between the two victims, and authorities are stymied. The first victim is a local boy who recently lost his best friend in a drowning. But who would want to kill him? The second victim is a young woman, new to the area, seemingly with no ties to anyone. As the investigation proceeds readers meet the boy’s family, a group of middle-aged male friends, and various other locals. Some are more suspicious than others, but no one seems to have a clear motive. Gradually, Vera makes the connections and cracks the case.

I have to admit I had my suspicions about the character who turned out to be the perpetrator: their personality made them a somewhat obvious choice. But the motive was less obvious, and I enjoyed the process of Vera getting to the bottom of things. ( )