Vera Stanhope

Vera Stanhope is the Northumberland detective chief inspector protagonist of Ann Cleeves's beloved crime series — an overweight, unglamorous, sometimes difficult woman of exceptional investigative intelligence who has spent her career in the northeast of England and knows its landscape, communities, and people with the intimacy of someone deeply rooted in place. Cleeves writes Vera with the same sense of place that distinguishes her Shetland series, using the Northumberland moors and coastline as a constant atmospheric presence.

Brenda Blethyn's portrayal of Vera in the ITV television series has made the character one of British television's most beloved detectives, with the actress bringing tremendous warmth and specificity to a character who could easily be played as merely eccentric. The television series has been running since 2011 and consistently draws large audiences.

The novels offer a Vera who is somewhat darker and more psychologically complex than Blethyn's interpretation — Cleeves writes her with genuine loneliness and social difficulty rather than the TV Vera's more comfortable eccentricity. Both are excellent; the novels are the more challenging and rewarding version.

Begin with The Crow Trap and read in order.