The Long Call by Ann Cleeves and a few other Book Club recommendations

 Seems like I have been missing for a couple of weeks. I don't know where I have been though. I guess we lost an hour with the end of Daylight Savings time. Still working at home and missing interacting with people other than grocery store clerk, I think. Oh I lost a filling so I got to go to the dentist twice in a week. Oh boy. Anyhow...time to catch up on my books.

For the November Mystery Book Club, we read The Long Call (Two Rivers #1) by Ann Cleeves. This is a new series for the author.

About: "In North Devon, where two rivers converge and run into the sea, Detective Matthew Venn stands outside the church as his father’s funeral takes place. Once loved and cherished, the day Matthew left the strict evangelical community he grew up in, he lost his family too. Now, as he turns and walks away again, he receives a call from one of his team. A body has been found on the beach nearby: a man with a tattoo of an albatross on his neck, stabbed to death. The case calls Matthew back into the community he thought he had left behind, as deadly secrets hidden at its heart are revealed, and his past and present collide.

For the first time in 20 years, Ann Cleeves --international bestselling and award-winning author of the Vera and Shetland series, both of which are hit TV shows-- embarks on a gripping new series."

I have watched a few episodes of Shetland and really liked it. I didn't get to watch more just because of time. I had not read Raven Black in our book club many years ago and liked it also.

I liked this book enough to want to read another in the series. I thought it was a good mystery and the characters and setting were interesting, with room to grow. I thought the backstory has some "modern day components i.e. Matthew has a husband, who works for a center that provides day care and life skill teaching for people with Down's syndrome. The story deals with aging parents of these people and their worries and hopes for them. Matthew being gay is an issue for the evangelical community he grew up in. He is a very likeable character, I thought. Good story on how he deals with the return to the community, how he leads the murder investigation and then another thing happens that doesn't seem like it is part of the murder, but he has to solve that also.

The other members of the book club mostly liked it. It seemed the people that had read the Vera series, didn't care for this book as much. Those of us that have not read many other books by this author, liked it. Maybe it is very different from her other books?

We then went on to share other books we have read and tv show recommendations. Here they are: 

1. Big Sky: television adaptation of The Highway by C.J. Box will start 11/17/20 on ABC as a new series.

2. Young Wallander is a new series on Netflix, for fans of the Wallander series. I did put it on my list.

3. Lockdown by Peter May: Well well well...

Lockdown is a 2020 mystery thriller by Scottish crime writer Peter May, set against the background of a deadly influenza pandemic. May wrote the novel in 2005, but it was rejected by publishers as being unrealistic. During the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns in 2020, the book was finally published.

We read Blackhouse in this group a few years ago.

4. You're in Big Trouble by Laura Lippman: Tess Monahan is in Austin Tx for this book in the series. Also recommended are her "standalones":  several of the characters in these books make appearances from other books. 

5. Murder in Cold Street by Sherry Thomas: the Lady Sherlock book 5

6. The Tenant by Katrine Engberg: takes place in Copenhagen, Korner/Werner #1 in a new suspense series.

7. Miss Scarlet and the Duke: Masterpiece theatre in 2021. 

Currently reading: Don't Look In, which I should be sharing about soon.