Literary reviews by Tim Love.
Warning: Rather than reviews, these are often notes in preparation for reviews that were never finished, or pleas for help with understanding pieces. See Litref Reviews - a rationale for details.

Saturday, 30 September 2023

"The long call" by Ann Cleeves

An audio book.

It's set in North Devon. Matthew Venn watches his father's funeral from afar. We later learn that his parents belonged to a strict religious cult that disowned him. He's not seen his parents for 20 years. He's an inspector, married to Jonathan who runs a woodyard (a cultural/community centre).

Jenn (single with 2 teenage kids) and Ross work with Matthew.

The Marsdens, a childless couple, the retired man a birdwatcher, found the body.

Morris, an old widower, has a Downs daughter Lucy, 30, who goes to a daycentre at the woodyard.

A stabbed body at the beach turns out to be Simon, divorced, 40. He was volunteering at the woodyard cafe. He lived with Gabby (who is resident artist at the woodyard) and Caroline (Cas, whose mother killed herself, whose father gave money to the woodyard project. She works in a church charity for troubled people). Somehow Simon paid the rent though he'd claimed to be homeless and troubled. Years before he'd killed a child in a car accident. He used to talk to Lucy on the bus.

A Downs syndrome woman, Christine, disappears. The aunt and uncle who look after her belong to the cult. The uncle, Dennis, is a wife-beater. He's on the woodyard board.

There are many suspects. Matthew convincingly keeps an open mind. It's discovered that Simon has £200,000 and was writing a will - to the woodyard? He owned a flat and Gabby had been to the bedroom there. Christine is found. She'd been questioned in the flat then dumped in a wood. Then someone had destructively searched the flat.

Lucy is abducted in the street while her father's back is turned. Matthew interviews Christine's mother, who works in an old people's home. She says that Christine was sexually abused at the woodyard (which is why she no longer goes) and that the committee paid her off, claiming that bad publicity wouldn't help the daycentre users. They said they'd deal with the culprit - Cas's boyfriend, the Rector. She'd kept evidence - stained clothing. But the evidence has recently disappeared from her room (which Lucy has visited).

Lucy is found on the beach, but not before Matthew is knocked unconscious there.

Grace (Dennis's wife) is mentally frail. She says that she met Simon, who made her feel confident. She told him too much, and to save her husband's reputation she killed Simon. The punchline is that the child Simon killed had severe learning disabilities and had months to live.

Themes include -

  • Untrustworthy religious people
  • Widowers and divorced men trying to atone
  • Women with mental illness/incapacity

"He felt tears welling in his eyes" is a sentence I've seen in other books. Maybe I'm over-sensitive to redundancy.

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