The Sleeping and the Dead

I have read and loved all of the books in Ms Cleeves' Vera and Shetland series, and I decided to find out what she had written earlier in her career. And I am delighted that I did. This stand-alone mystery/thriller is terrific. It is riveting and compelling, full of interesting people who are interesting in themselves and in their relationships with each other. I particularly like the relationship between Hannah and Rosie, which will ring true with anyone who has lived with an adolescent daughter.Some enterprising company needs to reissue all of Ms Cleeves' early works. I am now going to start my search for all her other books, many of them long hard to get. . . .

First Line: Peter Porteous walked to work.Detective Chief Inspector Peter Porteous couldn't really handle the stress of big city policing, so he moved to a small village where he could walk to work and carefully structure his life to avoid as much turmoil as possible. Unfortunately the countryside is going through a period of drought. The level of Cranwell Lake lowers to the point where a body is uncovered. Porteous soon identifies the body as that of Michael Grey, a teenager who went missing thirty years before. But instead of speeding the investigation, the identification of the body only creates more mystery.I first came to the books of Ann Cleeves through the excellent Raven Black, the first book in her Shetland Islands quartet. Then I read A Bird in the Hand, the first George and Molly Palmer-Jones mystery, and then The Crow Trap, the first Inspector Vera Stanhope mystery. I was beginning to think that Cleeves could do no wrong. And although she doesn't do much wrong in The Sleeping and the Dead, compared to her other books, this one hits a bit of a sour note.The sour note has almost everything to do with the main character, Peter Porteous. Perhaps it was a mistake to portray him as a bit of a washout from a city police force. He's a fussy man who loves to keep to a certain schedule throughout the day. He believes that overtime is unnecessary during a murder investigation, and his true sleuthing strength lies in finding the small clues and details that are buried deep in the paperwork. Not exactly exciting or particularly cerebral. Peter Porteous does know his own limitations, and he is better suited to the life of a small town copper.There's really nothing wrong with this book. The characters are well-drawn as is the setting, and the mystery does need to be unraveled. It's a very competent book, and that shows the brilliance of Ann Cleeves-- that a very "competent" book is nowhere near her best!

This book had a very slow start, but warmed up. I like the characters and the plot. I enjoy Anne Cleeves books, but Porteus the detective was hard to like.

Very enjoyable. I guessed the outcome but got the reason totally wrong. Would recommend. Shame there weren’t other Peter porteous books

Very good Ann Cleeves. Her characters, and there are a lot of them in this book and all well drawn. Even though her detective, Inspector Peter Porteous is not one of her regulars like Vera Stanhope or Jimmy Perez he is nonetheless interesting. Wouldn't mind see him in another novel. Again this stand-alone is well plotted and plenty of twists and turns to keep one guessing until the end.

Great story with a new and different characterDetective Inspector Porteous is the main character - he likes life quieter so relocated to a smaller village from the big city. And, of course, a body is discovered in the lake - one that had been there for many years. Who is the body, and how and why did he come to be murdered and placed in the lake?

What is there to say? Ann Cleeves is the best. She creates interesting, multi-layered characters and good plot twists. In this book a body is revealed when drought lowers a reservoir. Those who knew the victim cast their minds back 30 years and their suspicions upon former friends. Inspector Peter Porteous must sort through past and present in search of motive, means and opportunity.

Ann Cleeves writes a great story, and her characters evolve throughout the book

As a reader of ‘Vera ‘& ‘Shetland ‘books by Ann Cleeves I was interested to see how a different detective & location would be.I wasn’t disappointed this was a good story, well written which held the attention from beginning to end.I would recommend it to ‘Vera ‘& ‘Shetland ‘fans.

A great read from a great writer. I continue to enjoy all of Ann Cleeves books and can re read them with as much enjoyment the second time around......Well , I have just finished this book for the third time. I really enjoyed it! Well done Ann. A modern day Agatha Christie.

How can I be giving Ann Cleeves only 1 star? Doesn't seem possible, but this book is just not anywhere near the quality of her others. Difficult to believe that it was written by the same person. Her Vera & Shetland books are crisp, sharp, and totally absorbing. She has certainly honed her skills since this.

I'm not sure about this book,found it long winded, it started of well than it got completed, why did they bring up the boy who lived on the farm who went missing, what had that to do with the crimes, I thought it would be explained,but it went on and on, only in the last chapter did you find out what was happening,not a good book I thought it was thrown together.

I started reading the first pages and thought she's at it again. Another flawed detective with an aspiring character for a longish series but then found out it was written 18 years ago. Touch of the indecisions again as in Jimmy Perez and Stephen Ramsay although now that she has created Matthew Venn it seems like everyone has to suffer in trying to be a police detective.This is a superb story and the writing in itself is enjoyable. Written in a gap between the first 2 Vera Stanhopes it has the quality of the Shetland and Vera stories after the confines of Stephen Ramsay's world.

I didn’t realise till the end that Ann Cleeves had written this story almost twenty years ago but it stands the test of time well.She draws on her own experience by setting part of the story in a prison but it is her ability to create characters with depth and credibility that I really admire.Hannah Morton is coping with the public nature of the breakup of her marriage when she decides to attend a school reunion. What unfolds over the next few days places both her and her daughter Rosie in danger. I like that the police officers involved are shown to be capable and determined without the irritating quirks some writers feel the need to give their characters.It was a good well-written story and I would certainly recommend it to fans of crime fiction

This is the first Ann Cleeves book I have read. I'm a fan of the Shetland TV series and have bought the 7 book set as a result. I thought I'd try this book first to get an idea of her writing style. I really enjoyed the twists and turns. However, the ending didn't go the way I'd expected, which added to the big build up I think. I would recommend this as an exciting crime thriller if you like this kind of thing.

Another excellent novel from the pen of Ann Cleeves this time without either her Shetland hero Perez or Vera Stanhope. This time we are introduced to Peter Porteous a police inspector who has suffered from a breakdown and is sent to a quieter area to carry on policing. A kayaker has found a body very close to the surface of a reservoir due to a drought and the water levels being much lower then normal. The police are called to investigate and realise that the body had been anchored in place for a long time. They look at all the missing young males from the time and with dental work carried out they identify the male as Michael Grey. This is when the investigation really starts as this was not his real name and the police are still looking for answers when another teenager is found murdered.

The first third of the novel really kept my attention but I did find things a little laboured for a while after that. But, things picked up and pulled together over the final chapters. I thought the characters were generally well written and realistic and the concept of the story and character links in it were well conceived . The main Detective character has potential.

This is the story of three bodies, one from the past and two recent which need clarification. It's a well-structured story with strong characters. It's easy to follow the switches from present to past and back again. There is no great sense of the actual location: it is NE England but it could be anywhere. There are knife-edge endings to lots of the chapters which aren't always continued until a chapter or two further on. There's a very p[lausible and credible denouement.

Oh dear, I so wanted to enjoy this book after reading the good reviews,but I found it very poor. Has the author done any in depth research on police procedures? Yet again we have the senior officer and his trusty sergeant doing everything and resolving the murder!! Such a shame after the opening chapter when the body is discovered.

I have joyed the Shetland series., but This book does not compare. The prose feels dated . As do the police procedures, we rarely see or hear of anyone other than the sergeant or his boss.The story switches between time frames . It is the kind of story where ,if you guess the killer to be the lest likely person you can think of, you will be right. The ending is slapdash and contrived.

You shouldn't judge a book solely by its ending, except when it's a crime novel that depends on a satisfying resolution of course. And that sadly didn't happen here. I liked the initial premise, the characters and setting were engaging to the point of making me overlook a few coincidences and inconsistencies that were far fetched...but then the ending was completely tacked on and the motive unconvincing. Shame, really.

As a fan of Ann Cleeves I looked forward to reading this book but was disappointed. I started well but the characters weren't fleshed out sufficiently and the plot really lost its way. The story meandered on until in the final 2-3 chapters the author obviously got tired of it and brought it to an end swiftly. These final chapters were also poorly edited with quite a few details unchecked for continuity. Unfortunately well known authors can try to "rest on their laurels" and, because of their popularity, editors are afraid to challenge them resulting in a poor experience for the reader.

Anything by Ann Cleeves is alright with me, an engaging story with the usual good characters. My only gripe is that the end seemed rushed. I've found with a couple of her books that she seems to employ someone else to write a very sudden end, almost as if the editing has lopped off a chapter.