In this second Matthew Venn mystery, DSI Jen is at a party when she meets Nigel, who says he wants to talk with her professionally. He apparently decides she is too inebriated and tells her he’ll call her.

The next day he is found stabbed to death with a shard of glass from a vase made by Eva, a glassmaker, in her studio at Westacombe, a farm owned by wealthy Frank Ley. Also living on the premises is Wesley, another artist, and the Grieve family, who work the farm and dairy.

When Jen goes to question her friend Cynthia, the hostess of the party, she finds herself faced with a stiff and uncooperative person. Soon, the team finds out that Nigel was investigating the suicide of a young man and trying to find out whether the mental health system was at fault. It turns out that Cynthia’s husband Roger was dismissed from a position elsewhere as a result of a similar suicide. Soon, though, Wesley is found dead at the Woodyard, Matthew’s partner Jonathan’s workplace, also stabbed with a shard of glass, and Eva has been tricked into discovering the body.

On the personal front, Matthew’s estranged mother is coming for her birthday dinner to his home with Jonathan. Matthew is anxious.

Although I enjoy Cleeves’s Vera and Jimmy Perez series, I’m still not sure about this one. Matthew is so stiff and self-contained that he seems to have no personality. I just don’t feel I’m getting to know him.

Also, although Cleeves’s mysteries are hard to guess, I don’t think she gives any clues to the identity of the murderer in this book, which doesn’t seem quite fair.

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