ANN CLEEVES

British author Ann Cleeves has an affinity for remote areas and how these isolated regions affect her characters.

- Oline H. Cogdill

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.