Book Review: The Crow Trap By Ann Cleeves

Series: Vera Stanhope Book #1
Paperback  560 pages
Publisher: Pan Books; New Edition edition
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1509815899

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. Three very different women come together at isolated Baikie's Cottage on the North Pennines, to complete an environmental survey. Three women who each know the meaning of betrayal ...Rachael, the team leader, is still reeling after a double betrayal by her lover and boss, Peter Kemp. Anne, a botanist, sees the survey as a chance to indulge in a little deception of her own. And then there is Grace, a strange, uncommunicative young woman, hiding plenty of her own secrets. Rachael is the first to arrive at the cottage, where she discovers the body of her friend, Bella Furness. Bella, it appears, has committed suicide - a verdict Rachael refuses to accept. When another death occurs, a fourth woman enters the picture - the unconventional Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope ...Also available in the Vera Stanhope series are Telling Tales, Hidden Depths, Silent Voices and The Glass Room. Ann Cleeves' Shetland series (BBC television drama SHETLAND) contains five titles, of which Dead Water is the most recent.

The Bookman's Tale: A Novel of Obsession by Charlie Lovett

Genre: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction
Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Penguin Books; Reprint edition
Release Date: May 27, 2014
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0143125389

Description:
A mysterious portrait ignites an antiquarian bookseller’s search through time and the works of Shakespeare for his lost love

Guaranteed to capture the hearts of everyone who truly loves books, The Bookman’s Tale is a former bookseller’s sparkling novel and a delightful exploration of one of literature’s most tantalizing mysteries with echoes of Shadow of the Wind and A.S. Byatt's Possession.

Nine months after the death of his beloved wife Amanda left him shattered, Peter Byerly, a young antiquarian bookseller, relocates from North Carolina to the English countryside, hoping to outrun his grief and rediscover the joy he once took in collecting and restoring rare books. But upon opening an eighteenth-century study of Shakespeare forgeries, he discovers a Victorian watercolor of a woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to Amanda.

Peter becomes obsessed with learning the picture’s origins and braves a host of dangers to follow a trail of clues back across the centuries—all the way to Shakespeare’s time and a priceless literary artifact that could prove, once and for all, the truth about the Bard’s real identity.

My Thoughts:
Every now and then I am fortunate enough to encounter a novel that exceeds all expectations.  The Bookman's Tale By Charlie Lovett is one such novel and is destined to be one of my favorite books read in 2014.  Lovett has created not only a unique and fascinating Shakespearean mystery, but also a compassionate and intricately woven story of love, loss, and finding closure.  The course of the novel travels graciously through three different time periods and tells three different stories that all lead to the present moment and Peter Byerly's future.  Extremely well-developed characters, thorough pain-staking historical research, and great attention to detail, make this a literary gem to behold and a must for all book lovers and fans of Shakespeare alike.  Not a Shakespearean scholar, you say?  Not to worry...Charlie Lovett has presented a magnificent and easy to follow introduction to the Shakespearean controversy that is quite easy to follow and one that actually makes decades of debate much more understandable.  I look forward to reading Lovett's next novel, First Impressions: Or, A Cautionary Tale of Pride and Prejudice  which is sure to delight Jane Austen fans!   I highly recommend The Bookman's Tale and easily give this FIVE stars!