by Ann Cleeves
Part of Two Rivers
First published 2026
Detective Matthew Venn arrives at Tide House, a luxury holiday home in North Devon, where a young woman's body floats in the swimming pool. The property belongs to Paul Armstrong, a rising political star, and media attention descends immediately. The victim's best friend has vanished without explanation. Venn learns both women attended a local music festival the previous day, where locals mixed with visitors in ways that may connect back to the Armstrong family. A brutal heat wave grips the region as Venn's investigation deepens. Another tragedy strikes, raising the stakes further. The detective finds himself caught between the Armstrong family's closely guarded secrets and simmering tensions within the local community. Festival attendees and residents alike seem bound by unspoken agreements and hidden knowledge. Venn realizes the truth lies not in what witnesses reveal, but in what they refuse to say. He must decode the community's silence to find the missing woman and solve the death.
Genres: mystery, crime, contemporary, adult-fiction, british-literature, thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, gritty, suspenseful, tension-filled
Tropes: community-conspiracy, hidden-knowledge, unreliable-witnesses
Setting: Tide House, North Devon
Period: contemporary
369 pages · Paperback · Macmillan
Content warnings: death, murder