The Dark Wives by Ann Cleeves

It’s as if this house is on its own in the world, as if I’m on my own in the world and nobody would care if I died. Sometimes I dream about killing myself, then I think about Josh. It seems to me that he might care. This place is worse than the bin where Mam’s locked up. It’s worse than prison.
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In a nutshell

The Dark Wives is the eleventh novel in the Vera Stanhope series. The book begins when a young man’s body is found just outside Rosebank, a care home for troubled teens. The victim is Josh, a staff member who never showed up to work. DI Vera Stanhope is called in to investigate a murder with the only clue the disappearance of one of the home’s residents – a fourteen year old girl Chloe. As Vera and her team get deeper into their investigations, a second body is found, making them more desperate to solve the murder and find Chloe.

Book Club Notes

This is the first of the series I’ve read and to me it was the perfect “chick-lit” murder mystery. Not gory, easy to get into and follow, and the reading was equivalent to eating a bag of popcorn – addictive. If you’re wanting an easy yet gripping book to get lost in, look no further than The Dark Wives.