ANN CLEEVES
Mystery Scene|Fall #169, 2021
British author Ann Cleeves has an affinity for remote areas and how these isolated regions affect her characters.
Oline H. Cogdill
ANN CLEEVES

Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope, who patrols the wilds of England’s Northumberland; Inspector Matthew Venn from the countryside of North Devon; and Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez of Scotland’s the Shetland Islands each have a personality and quirks that spring from the environments where they live and work.

“Place comes first with me,” says Cleeves, during a Zoom interview from Whitley Bay, a seaside town on Northumberland’s northeast coast. “Vera-land,” she says with a smile.

Cleeves has explored the connection between places and characters through 40 novels, including five series and two standalone novels, a travel book, and dozens of short stories. Her novels have launched two popular television series, with a third in development.

Stories that emphasize those out-of-the-way places and their impact on the characters are part of the British way, she says.

“Within the British tradition of crime fiction, the central characters are often loners, a bit remote, and live in rural areas,” says Cleeves. “American mysteries tend to be set in the mean urban streets. I tend to go for the traditional British mysteries and explore these places. In traditional crime fiction set in a remote village, you look for the darkest corners. These also are the places I know best, as I have never lived in a city for very long,” says Cleeves, 67.

The beauty in bleak places has become a trademark of Cleeves and her dramatic stories.

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Denne historien er fra Fall #169, 2021-utgaven av Mystery Scene.

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