The Moth Catcher (Vera Stanhope)

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When the dead body of the young ecologist is found in a ditch by a country lane, DI Vera Stanhope is called to the scene. When she and her sergeant Joe Ashworth go to the victim's flat to search for clues, Vera stumbles upon a second body. It is that of the former teacher. What could possibly have led to the murder of these two mild-mannered, inoffensive men? Could it have anything to do with their mutual interest in moths? Vera is confronted with the sight of Caden Lennon's murder, by knife, in a coastal town's shipyard. The teenager had absconded from his support worker's care six weeks previously but, with few leads, Vera looks into a gang connection and discovers a drugs network. I also enjoyed the author’s descriptions of homes, their interiors, and a sort of running commentary on what the gardens were like and whether or not they were weeded. Food and caffeine sources also get frequent mention, keeping the reader amused. Wow. Really really good! Nothing to complain about here. I have to say though, the book was much better than the actual episode based on the book I thought. I loved all of the characters and the three couples who center on the investigation. I did like how everything came together in the end. And this one gave us more Holly (which I appreciated) who seems to be going through a crisis and wondering if she just wants to remain with the police force.

In the third novel, Vera is called to investigate the deaths of two young people, who were murdered in the same way - placed in water and surrounded by flowers - before a third murder is committed. Watch this one in Vera’s TV debut in series one, episode one. Silent Voices DCI Vera Stanhope has two apparently unrelated murders and a kidnapping. Her life is complicated by the death of her father and her decision to live in his home which sadly contains the cluttered remains of his life. The story unfolds with Vera discovering that the murders are tied to photos and a missing camera. Filming for that had been first noticed in Tynemouth in September 2020 where Blethyn - masked up between scenes - was seen, together with Vera's familiar Land Rover, in Beach Road and Broadway. In the opening episode, called Witness, the story started with the finding of a body at the base of Collingwood Monument. Weekly Top 10 Programmes: ITV HD w/e 3 June 2012". Broadcasters' Audience Research Board . Retrieved 12 June 2012.

From Ann Cleeves— New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of the Vera and Shetland series, both of which are hit TV shows—comes The Moth Catcher. She told The Chronicle she got to see puffins and seals but was drenched by a wave during a choppy crossing, adding: “I’ve got good sea legs!” And they are puzzles. I can never guess who the perpetrator is and that held true in The Moth Catcher as well. The judging panel consisted of Geoff Bradley (non-voting Chair), Lyn Brown MP (a committee member on the London Libraries service), Frances Gray (an academic who writes about and teaches courses on modern crime fiction), Heather O'Donoghue (academic, linguist, crime fiction reviewer for The Times Literary Supplement, and keen reader of all crime fiction) and Barry Forshaw (reviewer and editor of Crime Time magazine). Weekly Top 30 Programmes: ITV w/e 15 May 2011". Broadcasters' Audience Research Board. Archived from the original on 15 December 2012 . Retrieved 2 July 2011.

The newest instalment in the book series, released in September 2022, The Rising Tide follows a group of friends who journey to Holy Island to celebrate their friendship. After one of them is found hanged, Vera is called in to help get to the bottom of things. This is the second time this season Verahas employed the imagery of a girl running in the darkness - this time inter-cut with images of a glowing pyramid full of moths. Investigating the hit-and-run death of the girl, Alex Gartside, Vera and Aiden stumble onto a setting a bit out of their usual oeuvre of rugged plains and modern architecture: a stately home. As Vera's commented before, if it's a stately homes, there's alwaysbeen a murder - and sure enough, Vera and Aiden stumble across another body - this one male. I’m pretty sure at some point writer Paul Matthew Thompson (or perhaps Ann Cleeves before him) broke rule No. 19 from Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling: coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating. I found myself cringing every time another character had to make some remark about her size...not just once but several times.Social worker Jenny Lister is murdered whilst out swimming. Everybody speaks of Jenny as if she was perfect, arousing Vera's suspicions, especially when she learns that Jenny was writing a book about some of her cases. Mod Sheila wrote: "I've got a question about how this discussion works. Do we read a certain # of chapters by a certain date and then comment with spoilers or what? One of the first sightings of Vera was at a gym in Gateshead - or rather in the snooker hall above Low Fell Life Gym - where Blethyn was inside filming while location vans took up space in its car park.