Telling Tales
- Published
- 1 January 2005
- Pages
- 410
- ISBN-13
- 9781250122780
- Type
- novel
About this book
Telling Tales (2005, 410 pages) follows The Crow Trap and is where Vera Stanhope truly steps forward as the series' lead -- some readers even start here rather than with the debut. It continues Ann Cleeves's slow-burn, atmosphere-first procedural style, more interested in grief and small-community secrets than flashy plotting.
Key facts about Telling Tales
Ann Cleeves wrote Telling Tales, a novel on our list. It has been out since 2005. The book has 410 pages.
We list 2 editions of this novel. Since each edition has its own ISBN, search for 9781250122780 to find the main one.
Telling Tales is book 2 of 13 in the Vera Stanhope series. The series has 13 published books. However, the series starts with The Crow Trap (1999). The Dark Wives is the latest book in the series with a full release date, out on 27 August 2024.
Additionally, Ann Cleeves writes George and Molly Palmer-Jones, Inspector Ramsay and Shetland, plus 1 more series. Those series sit on our cozy mystery, police procedural and mystery shelves. Meanwhile, The Killing Stones is the latest published Ann Cleeves book on file, from 7 October 2025.
About Ann Cleeves
Ann Cleeves is an English crime writer whose atmospheric, character-driven procedurals are rooted in remote, weather-beaten landscapes she has often lived in herself. Early jobs cooking at a Fair Isle bird observatory and, later, years spent on the tidal, no-electricity Hilbre Island fed directly into her fiction. See every Ann Cleeves book in order.
Its place in Vera Stanhope
Telling Tales is book 2 in the Vera Stanhope series. It follows The Crow Trap. It is followed by Hidden Depths. See the full Vera Stanhope reading order.
DI Vera Stanhope is a rumpled, overweight, prickly detective working the Northumberland coast, and one of British crime fiction's most deliberately unglamorous protagonists: no tortured backstory played for sex appeal, no maverick charm, just a lonely, socially awkward woman who is very good at reading people precisely because she's spent a lifetime being underestimated by them. Ann Cleeves built the series around procedural rigor grounded in real police work and a strong sense of place — the bleak, beautiful…
Editions
- edition · unknown publisher · — · ISBN 9781250122773
- edition · unknown publisher · — · ISBN 9781250122780