The Crow Trap by Anne Cleeves

This is the first book in the Vera Stanhope series. I was not aware of this series or the author before reading this book. I've since learned that it was made into a t.v. series and it's part of a bigger series.

I picked this book up on my Kobo with a coupon, I believe. It was one of the oh so many recommendations that Kobo loves to give, and seeing as it's a British mystery (spoiler alert: I love British mysteries) I picked it up for next to nothing.

This book took me quite a long time to read. I tend to read e-books at work on my lunch break and occasionally late at night when I can't sleep. Because of this, I was reading this book for quite a long time.

Parts of it felt a little long winded and a little too detailed about things I didn't feel were important to the main story. It did pick up at the end though and I enjoyed the twists and turns the story took to solve the mystery.

I was a little surprised to learn that this was the first one in the series, because that is when you first meet the detective that will become the centre point of the series and I felt like I didn't get enough of her to connect with, that she wasn't the centre of it for me, that she didn't thrill me enough to make me run to the library for the second book.

This book follows three women who come together to do an environmental survey on some land. For one of the woman, the owner of a cottage on this land is a friend, and upon arrival, she finds her friend dead. There are secrets, lies, and many things that are not as they seem.

It's definitely a complex book, and even though it wasn't my absolute favourite, I do think I might pick another book up in this series at the library if I come across one. I will say that a lot of my feelings about this book might have to do with how I read it in little fits and starts here and there over a long period of time.

Recommendation: Check this out for yourself for sure, especially if you've got a hankering for British mysteries like I do.