The Dying Light - Two Rivers #4

 

The Heron's Cry is the fourth Matthew Venn procedural murder mystery by Ann Cleeves. Due out 29th Sept 2026 from Macmillan on their Minotaur imprint, it's 384 pages and will be available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats.  It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links throughout.

This is another beautifully written mystery set in North Devon and featuring Detective Matthew Venn, a cerebral and solemnly intelligent investigator tasked with unraveling the tragic deaths of two young women at a very high-end summer home. The pacing of the investigation is unhurried and the characters built up so well and in such detail that they live and breathe. The secondary characters are carefully and completely delineated and distinct. Even Lucy Braddick from the earlier books in the series is included tangentially in this book as well. It really was a delight to read. 

Although it's the fourth book in the series, it works very well as a standalone. This book is also quite intricately plotted, but there aren't any major spoilers if they're read out of order. The denouement and resolution were exciting and well crafted, although melancholy.

The language is rough in places (R-rated), and there are some blood/gore descriptions on page. 

The unabridged audiobook has a run time of 10 hours 48 minutes, and is expertly read by series narrator Jack Holden. He has a pleasantly nuanced voice and manages numerous characters with widely divergent accents (and ages, and both sexes) impressively well. One of the main characters is from Liverpool, the secondary characters are varied and have accents from Scotland to the Southwest and points in between, and he manages all of them with expertise and precision. Sound quality and production values are high throughout.

Four and a half stars. It would be an excellent choice for public or home library acquisition, as well as a series binge or buddy read.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.