The Sleeping and the Dead: A Stunning Psychological Thriller From the Author of the Vera Stanhope Crime Series

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The innocent sleep, sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleeve of care, the death of each day's life, sore labour's bath, balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, chief nourisher in life's feast-- Contento, William G. "Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections". Archived from the original on 2008-01-06 . Retrieved 2008-01-07. Cleeves again excels in her sense of place in this cleverly plotted psychological thriller.”— The Times (London)

After trawling through the missing persons files, he comes to the conclusion that the corpse is Michael Grey, an enigmatic and secretive young man who was reported missing by his foster parents in 1972. A good enough story but oh boy I hate it when I'm left with unanswered questions... why did he do that or what happened to him are a couple... The Sleeping and The Dead is a tense psychological thriller from Ann Cleeves, author and creator of the three astounding TV series: Shetland, Vera and The Long Call. A suspenseful crime story that puts Ms. Cleeves in the Rendell class.”— Peterborough Evening Telegraph the sleeping, and the dead,/ Are but as pictures’ – The idea of death being the ‘picture’ or image of sleep, and vice versa, is common in both Shakespeare and other writers of the period, but, here, Lady Macbeth seems to mean that the sleeping chamberlains and the murdered Duncan are only to be thought of as visual images – ‘pictures’ – since they can do no harm. Duncan, although ‘painted’ with blood, only appears a horror; he can no more threaten or hurt than a ‘painted devil’ in a child’s picture book. Lady Macbeth had earlier considered the close relationship between death and sleep in lines 7-8. Macbeth’s weakness here seems to spur her to recover her own strength of purpose. He has a completely different attitude to such imagined ‘pictures’, which he regards as more disturbing than real horrors (cf. I.iii.137-8).The Sleeping and the Dead is a tense psychological crime thriller from CWA Gold Dagger award-winning writer, Ann Cleeves. Ann is the author of the books behind ITV's VERA, now in it's third series, and the BBC's SHETLAND, which will be aired in December 2012. Ann's DI Vera Stanhope series of books is set in Northumberland and features the well loved detective along with her partner Joe Ashworth. Ann's Shetland series bring us DI Jimmy Perez, investigating in the mysterious, dark, and beautiful Shetland Islands... It is however Porteous whose steadfast investigation, along with Stout and the team, that enables him to make the connections which lead to solving the murder. Porteous is a thorough detective. He had been moved to this quieter station after having a breakdown and his superiors felt it would be less stressful. Now he’s in charge of a murder investigation.

We have what is happening from the point of view of Hannah too. She has become friendly with a colleague to whom she turns for advice. He becomes interested in the investigation and does a little sleuthing too. I enjoyed reading this book, I quite liked Porteous and whilst there was enough about him in this book it did seem as though this could have gone on to be more than just one book if Ann Cleeves had wanted to expand his character and, of course, had in mind other cases or had wanted to venture down the cold case road. Michael Grey, an enigmatic and secretive young man who was reported missing by his foster parents in 1972. You can take a look at the scene here. Using the following steps, remember to look at it line by line and if you’re looking at the scene for the first time, don’t worry if you don’t understand everything at once. Strong elements were the empathy for , and understanding of troubled youth, the recognition that many of us struggle to contain and overcome our prejudices, stereotypes and assumptions, the establishment of trust as a precarious commodity, and the understanding that secrets and evil can be hidden in plain sight.

This is one of Ms. Cleeves earlier standalone novels, preceding most of Vera and all of Shetland. A detailed police procedural, it has her usual careful narrative and credible characters, as well as her trademark twists and turns and what was to me a completely surprising though, in retrospect, a completely appropriate ending. The Sleeping and The Dead is a tense psychological thriller from Ann Cleeves, author and creator of three astounding TV series: Shetland, Vera and The Long Call. The First Issue was released with two covers, one by Mike Mignola and an alternate by Scott Hampton. Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/ Clean from my hand?’– Similar images are to be found in a number of classical tragedies: Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus , 1227; Seneca, Phaedra , 715-8; Seneca Hercules Furens , 1323-9. The setting as always in Ann Cleeves's books is excellently portrayed and that's the reason I miss her Shetland series so much!