A visit to her local prison brings DI Vera
Stanhope face to face with an old enemy: former detective
superintendent, and now inmate, John Brace. Brace was convicted of
corruption and involvement in the death of a gamekeeper - and Vera
played a key part in his downfall.
Now, Brace promises Vera
information about the disappearance of Robbie Marshall, a notorious
wheeler-dealer who disappeared in the mid-nineties, if she will look out
for his daughter and grandchildren. He tells her that Marshall is dead,
and that his body is buried close to St Mary's Island in Whitley Bay.
However, when a search team investigates, officers find not one
skeleton, but two.
This cold case case takes Vera back in time,
and very close to home, as Brace and Marshall, along with a mysterious
stranger known only as 'the Prof', were close friends of Hector, her
father. Together, they were the 'Gang of Four', regulars at a glamorous
nightclub called The Seagull. Hector had been one of the last people to
see Marshall alive. As the past begins to collide dangerously with the
present, Vera confronts her prejudices and unwanted memories to dig out
the truth . . .
The Seagull is a searing new novel by Sunday
Times bestselling author Ann Cleeves, about corruption deep in the heart
of a community, and fragile, and fracturing, family relationships.