Sisters in Crime Australia was totally delighted that Ann Cleeves, whose books have brought Vera and Shetland to the screen, could speak from the UK to national co-convenor, Karina Kilmore, for this week’s Murder Mondays interview.
(Click on the image below to go to the YouTube recording.)
Ann has a huge number of fans in Australia. One of the few highlights of the lockdown has been recent Sunday nights on the ABC – Shetland followed by Vera. The good news is that Ann’s Shetland series is continuing on TV though she has stopped writing it. Brenda Blethyn continues to shine in the Vera series even though Vera hasn’t yet been reported to Human Resources for bullying poor old Kenny. Her latest novel, The Darkest Evening, is the ninth in the series.
Ann also has a brand-new Two Rivers series, set in North Devon, where she grew up. The first, The Long Call, introduces the reserved and complex Detective Inspector Matthew Venn, estranged from the strict evangelical community in which he grew up, and from his own family, but drawn back by murder into the community he thought he had left behind. It has been optioned by Sliver Prints Pictures, the partnership that has produced Shetland and Vera. Hooray!
The Long Call won the Agatha Award in the Best Contemporary Novel category. In 2017, Ann was presented with the Diamond Dagger of the Crime Writers’ Association, the highest honour in British crime writing, at the CWA’s Dagger Awards ceremony in London. In 2006 she was the first winner of the Duncan Lawrie Gold Dagger Award for best crime novel of the year, for Raven Black, the first volume of her Shetland series.
Murders Mondays are available on Sisters in Crime YouTube channel at 6pm on Mondays. Previous guests include
Murders Mondays are available on Sisters in Crime YouTube channel at 6pm on Mondays. Previous guests include Sara Paretsky, Judith Rossell, Sulari Gentill, Sarah Epstein, Mirandi Riwoe, Kerry McGinnis, Kathy Reichs, Ellie Marney, Katherine Kovacic, Candice Fox, Anne Buist, Dervla McTiernan and Val McDermid.