If a person's not heavily into birds - and Ann isn't - there's not much to do on Hilbre and that was when she started writing. They were the only residents, there was no mains electricity or water and access to the mainland was at low tide across the shore. Soon after they married, Tim was appointed as warden of Hilbre, a tiny tidal island nature reserve in the Dee Estuary. She was attracted less by the ornithology than the bottle of malt whisky she saw in his rucksack when she showed him his room. While she was cooking in the Bird Observatory on Fair Isle, she met her husband Tim, a visiting ornithologist.

After dropping out of university she took a number of temporary jobs - child care officer, women's refuge leader, bird observatory cook, auxiliary coastguard - before going back to college and training to be a probation officer. Ann's Shetland series bring us DI Jimmy Perez, investigating in the mysterious, dark, and beautiful Shetland Islands.Īnn grew up in the country, first in Herefordshire, then in North Devon. Ann's DI Vera Stanhope series of books is set in Northumberland and features the well loved detective along with her partner Joe Ashworth. Įnjoy more of Vera Stanhope’s investigations with Telling Tales, Hidden Depths, and Silent Voices.Ann is the author of the books behind ITV's VERA, now in it's third series, and the BBC's SHETLAND, which will be aired in December 2012. But then another death occurs, and a fourth woman enters the picture – the unconventional Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope, who must piece together the truth from these women’s tangled lives. Rachael is the first to arrive at the cottage, but when she gets there she is shocked to discover an apparent suicide. And then there is Grace, a strange, uncommunicative young woman, hiding plenty of her own secrets.

Anne, a botanist, sees the survey as a chance to indulge in a little deception of her own. Rachael, the team leader, is still reeling after a double betrayal by her lover and boss. Three women who each know the meaning of betrayal. Three very different women come together at an isolated cottage on the North Pennines to complete an environmental survey.

The Crow Trap is the first book in Ann Cleeves’ Vera Stanhope series – which is now a major ITV detective drama starring Brenda Blethyn, Vera. Introducing Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope.

The crow trap book