North Devon is enjoying a rare hot summer with tourists flocking to its coastline. Detective Matthew Venn is called out to a rural crime scene at the home of a group of artists. What he finds is an elaborately staged murder--Dr Nigel Yeo has been fatally stabbed with a shard of one of his glassblower daughter's broken vases.

Dr. Yeo seems an unlikely murder victim. He's a good man, a public servant, beloved by his daughter. Matthew is unnerved, though, to find that she is a close friend of Jonathan, his husband.

Then another body is found--killed in a similar way. Matthew soon finds himself treading carefully through the lies that fester at the heart of his community and a case that is dangerously close to home.

DI Matthew Venn returns in The Heron's Cry, in Ann Cleeves powerful next novel, proving once again that she is a master of her craft.

Detective Matthew Venn is called to the scene of a bloody murder - Dr Nigel Yeo has been killed in his daughter’s glass blowing studio, a large shard of glass impaling his throat.  The murder seems hard to explain. The scene is an unlikely one for a brutal murder, an artist’s colony situated on the estate of a wealthy philanthropist and the victim, Dr Yeo was good man and devoted father who advocated for improved patient care in the NHS. Motives seems unclear though the night before the murder Dr Yeo had talked briefly  to DC Jen Rafferty at a party and was coming to the station the next day to talk to her, And then there is a second murder, one of the artist’s from the artist’s colony is murdered at the Woodyard. As the investigation continues the two murders increasingly seem connected to two earlier suicides and the intertwined lives of numerous people, who otherwise would not seem connected, with some shocking revelations about several people close to the case.

The case, once again, mixes Matthew’s professional and private life as Yeo’s daughter Eve is a good friend of Matthew’s husband Jonathan and the second murder takes place at the charity Jonathan runs. On the personal front, Matthew’s mother comes to lunch at Matthew and Jonathan’s home which is quite a step forward in their reconciliation as she is a very conservative Christian and still a member of the cult Matthew was raised in and left.  For his co-workers, the case may affect one of Jen’s close friends and Ross is still trying hard to impress while worrying that his wife is unhappy in their marriage,

We get more character development for our three major players - Matthew is coming closer to a partial reconciliation with his mother, Jen is examining her friendships and her attitudes about marriage and abuse while Ross is, maybe, becoming a bit more self-aware that his attitude as alpha male may not always be the right approach for his marriage. We have a lovely rural setting. The three main characters are interesting and complex, it would be nice to see a little more of Jonathan’s inner thoughts but overall there was a good level of character growth for a second novel in a series.  I look forward to more books in the series and, having watched the ITV adaptation of the first book, The Long Call, I look forward to seeing this book adapted as well. Highly recommended. ~~ Stephanie L Bannon

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