Book #51 Harbour Street

Harbour Street by Ann Cleeves
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It appears that I am destined to read the Vera Stanhope series in reverse order. I started with #7 The Moth Catcher (see my earlier review) and have just completed #6 Harbour Street. I came to this series in the wake of reading all of Ann Cleeves’ Shetland series.

This is, like Shetland, a classy and classic whodunit series, centred around the middle-aged, overweight DI Vera Stanhope, made famous by Brenda Blethyn in ITV’s Vera.

Vera is married to the job and still clings to memories of her long deceased father Hector, still driving around in his battered Landrover, enjoys sharing a drink with her hippy neighbours and still mentors her protégé DS - Joe Ashworth. And it is with him that this terrific read starts as Joe and his daughter Jessie are returning home on the Newcastle Metro after a carol service and are swept along with the jostling crowd. But when bad weather halts the train and the other passengers fade into the swirling snow, Jessie notices that an old lady in the corner hasn’t moved. Seventy-year-old Margaret Krukowski is dead, fatally stabbed as she sat on the crowded train. Nobody saw the stabbing take place and her killing appears to be motiveless so why would anyone want to harm a reserved and elegant old lady?....

No more of the plot save to say that Vera is relieved to have an excuse to escape the holiday festivities, which will take the team to the Northumberland town of Mardle to begin their enquiries - in Harbour Street.

Cleeves is an excellent crime writer. Harbour Street is full of good, old-fashioned detective work and the result is a perfectly crafted murder mystery.

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Bird nest prevents Christmas tree coming down

The Northumberland town of Cramlington cannot down their Christmas tree in the town centre because a blackbird has laid eggs in it. A local council in Northumberland has been forced to keep the town's Christmas tree up, four weeks after the close of the festive period, because a bird's nest was discovered in among the branches.

Jean Whisson, chair of the council’s services committee of the Cramlington Town Council said the blackbird’s nest was discovered along with three eggs in it when they tried to take down the tree on 20th January.

After checking with the RSPB the council was advised to leave the bird to finish its nesting before removing the tree. Despite the incongruous nature of a Christmas tree in February most of the locals seem delighted by having the tree and the blackbird there.

This does seem remarkably early for blackbird nesting, which usually occurs from March onwards.