The Raging Storm

I have not read any of Ann Cleeves books previously--at least any that I have written down--but I have watched multiple episodes of two TV series based on her Vera and Shetland books. Not familiar with the protagonist in this series, Detective Matthew Venn.  I'm relying on Library Journal's review for a plot summary:

"Greystone, in England's North Devon, is a remote, forbidding, stormy coastal community where lifeboats are essential. When Jeremy Roscoe walks into the Maiden's Prayer, he's welcomed as a local legend, an adventurer who attended Greystone schools and left to sail the world, becoming a TV star and celebrity. Now he's right there, renting a cottage, buying rounds in the bar every night. He slyly hints he's waiting for someone. But when he fails to show up one night, the locals feel cheated. Then the lifeboat is called out for a rescue, but it's too late--national treasure Roscoe is dead, in a stolen dinghy. Detective Matthew Venn and his small team report to Greystone, and it's a bitter return for Venn, who was there as a child with his parents' religious group, the Barum Brethren; some of the locals still belong to the group that Venn left. When another body is found, Venn realizes he's not the only one with bitter memories of Greystone. The third... in Cleeves's award-winning series is an atmospheric police procedural that builds on the other books while introducing fascinating suspects." This novel can easily be appreciated on its own without reading the previous two.

Booklist closes their review by saying, "Quiet tension, a moody atmosphere, and engaging characters heighten the mystery." There is also a nice summary of the story in Kirkus' review which closes with this high praise, "A surprising denouement moves this character-based mystery to the top tier." The New York Journal of Books rightly notes that the novel "includes the weather as a factor so strong as to qualify as a character—in this case, gray, cold, and wet, a ferociously windy antagonist that influences almost every character’s attitude." Their overall review is more lengthy and nuanced, starting by saying, "...for mystery readers who like boots-on-the-ground British police procedurals, book three in the Two Rivers series delivers." And they conclude their review, "...for readers who want a brainteaser to unravel by following the characters through the procedures of investigation—including coaxing needed information out of a recalcitrant, oftimes hostile community—The Raging Storm will keep them plenty intrigued." Publishers Weekly lands on the positive side, closing with "Cleeves crafts a devilishly intricate mystery that will surprise even seasoned genre fans, and Venn remains an appealing lead every bit as memorable as the author’s Vera Stanhope or Jimmy Perez."

Less

This book by Andrew Sean Greer was selected for this month's book group (4/11/23), it won a Pulitzer, and I have read favorable reviews; so I was looking forward to this. But I have to say that until the very end, I did not particularly like Arthur Less. Library Journal sums up the plot line this way: "This hilarious and touching novel follows Arthur Less, a gay man, as he travels around the world in order to avoid attending the wedding of his former lover. The wedding invitation was the final realization for Arthur that he never should have broken up with Freddy, and as Arthur's 50th birthday approaches, he realizes he may be alone forever."  In addition to providing an escape hatch from his emotional distress, the trip provides "both a parade of colourful characters and a voyage of self-discovery (The Guardian). Interestingly, because Arthur's latest manuscript was turned down by his publisher, he is in the process of rewriting it as he travels. And at the end we realize that the emotional arc of the rewritten novel mirrors the emotional arc of this book. Or at least that's how I saw it because, at the very end, I did finally experience some empathy towards Arthur, just as the fool of a protagonist in his book goes from being a despised character to one towards whom the reader feels compassion.

Publishers Weekly calls the novel "wistful," while Kirkus labels it a "literary picaresque." Hmmm, perhaps. Kirkus goes on to conclude, "this is a very funny and occasionally wise book." Booklist says the novel is Greer's "his finest yet" and goes on to conclude, "Less is a wondrous achievement, deserving an even larger audience than Greer's best-selling The Confessions of Max Tivoli (2004)." And finally, The New York Times offers a glowing review, in part: "Less is the funniest, smartest and most humane novel I’ve read since Tom Rachman’s 2010 debut...Arthur’s wanderings as he makes his way from disaster to disaster are hilariously, brilliantly harrowing. But laughter is only a part of the joy of reading this book. Greer writes sentences of arresting lyricism and beauty... Delights of language abound...Even Arthur’s random observations are entertaining. Why, he bitterly wonders, do today’s young gay men insist on marrying? 'Was this why we all threw stones at the police, for weddings?' And as for quaaludes, 'is there any more perfect spelling than with that lazy superfluous vowel?'...By the time Arthur reaches Japan, the reader isn’t just rooting for him but wants to give the poor guy a hug."