Vera Stanhope's Debut Mystery Novel: The Crow Trap

Ronda Wells: First 3/4 of the book is all like women’s fiction- set up and backstory. Good writing but not much Vera! I’ve never read any books by Cleeves so this may be her style. Vera’s POV is the last quarter which reads much better and faster.

United States on Dec 09, 2023

MARIE DUPREE: I was reading this book. I needed to go back and read the ending. There was so much going on that I lost the plot and who did the murder!

United States on Dec 06, 2023

Amazon Customer: Bought for my partner.
I have rated it 4-star as I have not read it myself.
She may disagree with me.
Based on the TV series, it should be a good read.

United Kingdom on Dec 05, 2023

Amazon Customer: An interesting feature of the book is that the author first introduces three chapters each devoted to a person involved in the story, each with her own voice. Only then the detective Vera Stanhope appears. She is not painted in the most sympathetic colours, is blunt and physically not terribly attractive, but slowly grows on you. Then several different streams of narrative seem to be coming together, but the resolution is not what I would have expected. The novel is well written, but could have done with some editing, as it is quite long. Overall I enjoyed the book, and may explore sequels. I have not seen any part of the TV series, but after having read the book will try to explore it.

United States on Nov 29, 2023

Jeremy Walton: We've all enjoyed the TV adaptions of Ann Cleeves' Vera and Shetland books, and I bought this for my daughter after hearing the author speak at a local literary festival. This is the first book featuring Vera Stanhope, the unconventional Detective Inspector from Northumberland; here, she and her team are brought in to investigate a murder near an isolated cottage in the North Pennines where three women are working on an environmental survey. The survey has been commissioned to determine the impact of a quarry development on local wildlife; some characters want the quarry to go ahead, and some don't. Working out who's who, and how they might be involved in the murder, is what the book's about.

The story is closely woven, with a large array of characters, back stories and themes, including mental illness, suicide, jealousy and infidelity. This makes it an interesting read, albeit overlong and somewhat confusing in places. At one point, two characters embark on an adulterous affair despite having exhibited no signs of the uncontrollable passion which (I guess) is required to overcome barriers to consummation - thus, when they're discovered, it's almost inevitable to find one...

United Kingdom on Nov 29, 2023

OkieRo: How the author wrote in the backgrounds of all the characters for many chapters before formally introducing the detective was masterful. Yet there was a current of subtle dread almost from the beginning that kept my attention and made those characters interesting. Of course I love the Vera series on TV.

United States on Nov 07, 2023

Hadder: Great book, slow to start but came together at the end. Watch the series Vera & Shetland. Great novelist and will continue to read the series.

United States on Sep 29, 2023

AG: Me ha sorprendido muy favorablemente. Los episodios de la serie de tv "Vera" son una adaptación libre de las novelas de Ann Cleeves, mucho menos interesantes que los libros. The Crow Trap, el primero de la serie, es una novela policíaca atípica, ya que la inspectora encargada del caso sólo cobra cierto peso hacia el último tercio de libro (y sus colegas, ni eso, son meras figuras decorativas), y hasta entonces el desarrollo de la novela y la investigación corren a cargo de un trío de personajes que se ven involucrados a su pesar. Me ha gustado especialmente la forma de estructurar la novela, con tres bloques iniciales donde cada personaje narra los hechos desde su punto de vista y con una voz distintiva. El personaje de Vera también es un acierto, atípico y bien construido, de los que querrías saber más (aunque tengamos que esperar a las siguientes novelas).
A la trama le falta algo de cohesión en algunos puntos, pero no está nada mal. He disfrutado mucho leyéndola.

Spain on Jul 19, 2023

FictionFan: Three women are staying at Baikie’s Cottage to carry out an environmental impact study on land which is earmarked to be turned into a quarry. Rachael is the leader of the team, and knows the area well – her friend Bella lives on the neighbouring farm. She knows Bella loves her life in this harsh landscape so when she arrives only to find Bella dead, hanged in the barn, she finds it hard to accept the official verdict of suicide. The other two women on the team are strangers to Rachael and to each other. Anne is an extrovert, and has had a string of affairs, most recently with the man who wants to turn the land into a quarry. Grace is the complete opposite – introverted, quiet, clearly unhappy. When a body is found on the land, it will be up to Inspector Vera Stanhope and her right-hand man Joe Ashworth to work out motives and opportunity, and to connect the dots between the murder and Bella’s suicide…

Sometimes I feel like a stuck record, but at well over 500 pages this novel is ridiculously over-long – repetitive and padded to the point where I several times considered abandoning it. The underlying plot is good and Vera is an interesting, if unbelievable,...

United Kingdom on Apr 20, 2021

Read and Reviewed: The Crow Trap has the indomitable Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope in fine fettle, once against unsettling all and sundry in her presence. Although it is not until over two-hundred-pages into the novel that she becomes known to the guests at remote Baikie Cottage, bringing with her a brash demeanour and distinctly unfeminine appearance, she more than makes up for her late entrance. Originally published in 1999, this is a timeless case with a host of suspects confusing matters and keeping readers on their toes! Baikie's Cottage is the property of a charitable trust left by illustrator and spinster, Constance Baikie, in order to encourage environmental education and research and is the admittedly basic accommodation that plays host to the ensuing mystery.

Although I had picked up on Vera's domestic circumstances from reading later books in the series, it was wonderful to hear Ann Cleeves giving a précis of her history and revealing more about her father, Hector, and demonstrating her understanding on environmental matters. In The Crow Trap Vera is reunited with the hill farms and countryside that she knows so well and sees herself back in Baikie's cottage, a place she knows...

United Kingdom on Apr 02, 2017