The Moth Catcher (Vera Stanhope)

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By now I imagine you’re cursing the day I stumbled on to your blog. Please forgive me for my rants, love, but here I go again… This is my first Ann Cleeves mystery, but fans will know the Vera Stanhope character well and may have watched Vera, the British television series, starring Brenda Blethyn. Cleeves has created a unique personality—Vera is middle-aged, overweight, controlling, a little obsessed, with a few regrets and buried insecurities. But she’s a genius detective who knows how to dig. She is often bossy with Joe and Holly, who have their own talents and a little personal baggage. Both Joe and Holly silently crave Vera’s respect and confidence, and hope for one of Vera’s rare nuggets of praise. I enjoyed this work dynamic and think it’s one of the book’s strongest elements. Weekly Top 10 Programmes: ITV+1 w/e 29 April 2012". Broadcasters' Audience Research Board . Retrieved 8 May 2012.

Weekly Top 30 Programmes: ITV w/e 20 May 2012". Broadcasters' Audience Research Board. Archived from the original on 15 December 2012 . Retrieved 28 May 2012. With Joe now promoted, Vera and her new sergeant, DS Aiden Healy, investigate a fatal explosion at a caravan park that killed Deena Viner, sister of the park's owner, Jim. The mystery deepens when Vera and Aiden discover that Deena died in the caravan before it blew up. DCI Vera Stanhope is called to a remote lighthouse where a body has been discovered lashed to a sailboat. Immediately setting about her investigation, Vera soon discovers that the body is local council enforcement officer and experienced amateur sailor Frank Channing. A family man, with strong friendships, who was well respected at work, surely this really was just an accident? However, it's not long before Vera discovers evidence suggesting foul play. Vera and her team piece together Frank’s final days and soon discover that his life wasn’t all plain sailing. A nice mixture, in the British tradition, of social comedy and detective work. More Vera, please.” --Booklist (starred review) 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.Vera has to unravel the circumstances of self-styled entrepreneur Freddie Gill's death when his body is found by bailiffs attempting to repossess his house. 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. Vera is a British crime drama series based on the Vera Stanhope series of novels by Ann Cleeves. First broadcast on ITV on 1 May 2011, it stars Brenda Blethyn as the principal character, Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope.

For those fans who reach the end of the series and are still itching for more, Ann Cleves has signed on the dotted line to produce two further Vera books, taking the series to at least 12. And in the meantime, there’s always her Shetland series and standalone crime novels, too. Vera and her team investigate the death of a young man dredged up from a slurry pit. Vera discovers the victim was a traveller who had left his camp following a row with his parents about his being gay. Vera locates the victim's camper van, which contains a wad of notes, suggesting the victim was involved in something illegal. However, it is a deaf little boy who presents Vera with the solution to the case.

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Filming of the first episode of series 10 had finished by May 31 then by July they were halfway through the whole series and other locations since then included Port of Tyne international passenger terminal in North Shields which, eagle-eyed viewers might recall, featured in a previous episode of Vera in 2017. Weekly Top 10 Programmes: ITV+1 w/e 3 June 2012". Broadcasters' Audience Research Board . Retrieved 12 June 2012. 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!” Up until The Escape Turn, this the only appearance by Chanel Cresswell as Aiden's partner Charlie which is far less airtime than the 8 stories in which Sonya Cassidy appeared as Joe Ashworth's wife Celine in David Leon's 16 appearances as Aiden's predecessor.

The series is filmed in Newcastle upon Tyne and throughout Northumberland in North East England. Locations include Gateshead, North Shields, Whitley Bay, Amble, Warkworth, Alnmouth, Bamburgh, and the Holy Island of Lindisfarne. [3] The farmhouse used for the exterior shots of Vera's home is located on the Snook, part of the Holy Island of Lindisfarne at 55°41′10″N 001°50′29″W / 55.68611°N 1.84139°W / 55.68611; -1.84139 or grid reference NU1006543635. [4] Cleeves’ characters struggle with many issues. For Vera, Joe and Holly, they question their career choices. The hedonists secretly wonder if retiring out in the country has given them enough to do with their days. Other themes include family, money, relationships and women’s roles. Vera's Brenda Blethyn confirms details of 'special' episode after filming before Christmas". ChronicleLive. 11 January 2023 . Retrieved 31 March 2023. I don't have any interest in reading any more of Ann Cleeves books because this has been so disturbing to me. 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.Weekly Top 10 Programmes: ITV+1 w/e 5 April 2015". Broadcasters' Audience Research Board . Retrieved 18 April 2015. Weekly Top 10 Programmes: ITV HD w/e 20 May 2012". Broadcasters' Audience Research Board . Retrieved 28 May 2012. But for those who reach the end of the show’s feature-length episodes and wish that they would just continue for a little longer, the original source material may go some way to filling that void. Author Ann Cleeves has put pen to paper for 10 books starring our favourite North East detective. The deaths of P.D. James and Ruth Rendell have left a slight void in my need for an occasional crime fiction fix (of the non-hard-boiled type), which is being filled to an extent for me by Ann Cleeves. The Moth Catcher is the latest in her Vera Stanhope series, the only series I have sampled so far, and it is quite a complex plot, with many well-drawn characters from different strata of society. It is difficult to review a crime writer's work in any detail without inserting spoilers. Suffice to say that The Moth Catcher will satisfy those who like their murder mysteries to be more than jigsaw puzzles. Acute social commentary and observations on human nature are a part and parcel of Ann Cleeves' work, and she is an extremely skilled writer. In this novel, some critical observations about the criminal justice system in the UK are included, which we can assume are based on the author's previous experiences working as a probation officer. After a woman commits suicide, evidence comes to light exonerating her for the murder of a teenager 11 years previously. This story comes to life in series one, episode two. Hidden Depths

Over the past year, the Vera cast and crew have been spotted on location at a variety of different places all over the region. Almost as it was confirmed that production had started on series 12, eagle eyed fans spotted filming taking place at Amble at outside of Morpeth larder. And they are puzzles. I can never guess who the perpetrator is and that held true in The Moth Catcher as well. Actress Brenda Blethyn filming the latest series of the ITV drama Vera on Whitley Bay beach in North Tyneside (Image: Owen Humphreys/PA Wire) Series 8 Cleeves had a previous career as a probation officer and it seems obvious that that experience has informed her understanding of the UK criminal justice system and those philosophical observations on human nature that I mentioned. Here, she gives us the tale of two very different human beings who are brought together by their interest in moths. One is a recent college graduate, a young ecologist who has been hired by a couple to house sit and care for their dogs while they are in Australia for the birth of their granddaughter. The other is a middle-aged former teacher who is a bit of an outcast, someone who never can quite manage to fit in. They are both passionate about moths and thereby hangs a tale. The body of Lisa Millworth, an HR advisor of a local turbine company, is washed up on the banks of the River Tyne. Vera and her team discover a mountain of lies as told by Lisa's family regarding both their own and Lisa's whereabouts and their knowledge of the incident.

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The body of teenager Ethan Dewley is found floating in a reservoir. When Vera and her team discover that Ethan had been missing for three days, they look to a rural timber community for answers.