Tag Archives: Ann Cleeves

Silent Voices Shakes Up Vera’s Healthy Habits

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Ann Cleeves’ Detective Vera Stanhope isn’t much on healthy habits, but she makes an effort in Silent Voices, only to stumble upon a dead body at her local gym. As she investigates, Vera discovers secrets behind the murder that shake the community. Cleeves’ unique voice steers the reader through twists of mystery and the personal ups and downs Vera faces, resulting in a great read. I enjoyed the book and loved seeing it on the small screen in the second season of the Vera BritBox series. 

In this blog I offer a different type of book review­—one that’s combined with vocabulary building. Silent Voicesincluded several interesting terms I’ll highlight here.

From Silent Voices:

The car Vera was driving was large, new and rather expensive. One of the perks of her rank. Mrs. Eliot would consider it the sort of car to be driven by a successful man. Yet Vera was large and shambolic, with bare legs and blotchy skin. She never wore make-up. Vera looked poor. 

shambolic, adjective informal, mainly British English: chaotic, disorganized, or mismanaged. 

From Silent Voices:

She’d bring them down with her superior looks and supercilious words. 

supercilious, adjective: behaving or looking as though one thinks one is superior to others.

From Silent Voices:

She got out of her car and smelled gorse flowers and damp foliage and cows. 

gorse, noun: a yellow-flowered shrub of the pea family, the leaves of which are modified to form spines, native to western Europe and North Africa. 

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 Definitions are typically from the dictionary on my Mac or The New Oxford American Dictionary.

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To connect or learn more about Ann Cleeves, find him at anncleeves.com

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“The word is only a representation of the meaning; even at its best, writing almost always falls short of full meaning. Given that, why in God’s name would you want to make things worse by choosing a word which is only cousin to the one you really wanted to use?” ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Detective Stanhope Shines in Hidden Depths

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Murder is a form of art in Author Anne Cleeves’ Hidden Depths. A woman finds her son strangled, his body left in a bath filled with flowers in this third Vera Stanhope mystery. Another body turns up floating in water with wildflowers decorating the murder scene. The murders set a community into turmoil and fear. Cleeves’ writing style thrives with her characterization in every book she pens, but the onery and tenacious detective Vera Stanhope is my favorite character she’s written. 

In this blog, I offer a different type of book review­—one that’s combined with vocabulary building. Cleeves’ third novel featuring Vera Stanhope included a couple of interesting Scottish/English terms I’ll highlight here.

From Hidden Depths:

He was a bit of a scally. In and out of trouble with the police, but when you talked to him you could see why. His dad had been in prison for most of the time he was growing up, and his mam never seemed to bother with him much. 

scally, noun, (slang definition) In British dialect, especially Northern England — a mischievous person or a rebellious working-class youth. 

From Hidden Depths:

Surely he didn’t talk like that while he was in the watch tower and the skuas were streaming past in a northerly gale. Then he’d shout and swear like the rest of them. 

skua, noun: a large brownish predatory seabird related to the gulls, pursuing other birds to make them disgorge fish they have caught. 

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 Definitions are typically from the dictionary that comes with my Mac or The New Oxford American Dictionary.

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To connect or learn more about Ann Cleeves, find him at anncleeves.com

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“The word is only a representation of the meaning; even at its best, writing almost always falls short of full meaning. Given that, why in God’s name would you want to make things worse by choosing a word which is only cousin to the one you really wanted to use?” ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Second Vera Mystery Sorts Truth in Old Murder

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The second Detective Vera Stanhope novel by Ann Cleeves involves the murder of a teenage girl and the conviction of a local in the East Yorkshire village that is questioned ten years later. New evidence in the case throws the village into chaos as Stanhope calmly sorts it out and sets the facts straight. Telling Tales is also the second episode of the Vera television series available on BritBox TV. Both the book and the television episode are well worth the time.  

In this blog I offer a different type of book review­—one that’s combined with vocabulary building. In Telling Tales, I found a couple of interesting Scottish/English terms in it that I’ll highlight here.

From Telling Tales:

At the same time the baby begins to grizzle and to claw blindly in the air with both hands. 

grizzle, verb (no object) British English informal: (of a child) cry fretfully: (grizzling as adjective) / complain; grumble — Origin: mid-18th century (in the sense ‘show the teeth, grin’) of unknown origin.

Also, as a noun or adjective: a mixture of dark and white hairs or having dark and white hairs mixed.

From Telling Tales:

The other table was empty, and the waitress was in the shop gassing to the woman behind the counter.

gassing, slang: engaging in long, casual or rambling conversation. Also known as “shooting the breeze.”

Other slang definitions included hyping up or praising something, or being extremely happy, thrilled or looking forward to something.

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 Definitions are typically from the dictionary that comes with my Mac or The New Oxford American Dictionary.

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To connect or learn more about Ann Cleeves, find him at anncleeves.com

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“The word is only a representation of the meaning; even at its best, writing almost always falls short of full meaning. Given that, why in God’s name would you want to make things worse by choosing a word which is only cousin to the one you really wanted to use?” ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Vera Stanhope Stories Shine In Print and On Screen

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I love the intricate plots of the Vera Stanhope novels by Ann Cleeves. As for vocabulary building through reading, I especially find it fascinating the different spellings of words by British or Scottish writers versus American writers. I like the added u in words like colour, neighbour, or favour. I’ve read the Vera books and loved each of them, but I have to confess to catching Vera first on BritBox TV. The series is well done, highlights the scenic beauty of Northumberland in North East England on the border of Scotland, and it’s cast with a perfect choice of Brenda Bletha to play this cantankerous detective.

In this blog I offer a different type of book review­—one that’s combined with vocabulary building. The first Cleeves novel featuring Vera is The Crow Trap. I found a couple of interesting Scottish/English terms in it that I’ll highlight here.

From The Crow Trap:

“No, Jan’s taken the bairn to visit his grandma. They’ll not be back until after the weekend.”

bairn, noun, Scottish English Northern England: a child — Origin, old English bearn, of Germanic origin; related to the verb bear.

From The Crow Trap:

It would be easy for walking but not, she suspected, very interesting for birds. The other was a piece of heather moorland, managed for grouse.

moor, noun: an uncultivated upland, a heath / a tract of land preserved for shooting— Origin, old English mor of Germanic origin

moorland, noun, also moorlands, mainly British English: an extensive area of moor

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 Definitions are typically from the dictionary that comes with my Mac or The New Oxford American Dictionary.

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To connect or learn more about Ann Cleeves, find him at anncleeves.com

—

“The word is only a representation of the meaning; even at its best, writing almost always falls short of full meaning. Given that, why in God’s name would you want to make things worse by choosing a word which is only cousin to the one you really wanted to use?” ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft