The Raging Storm by Ann Cleeves

In a North Devon fishing village one dark night, celebrity sailor Jem Roscoe walks out of a storm and into a crowded pub. He is renting an isolated cottage while he waits for an important visitor, whose identity he keeps secret. Jem, who grew up in a nearby town, blends seamlessly into the small community of Greystone, until he disappears as unexpectedly as he arrived. Everyone assumes he has left to seek fresh adventures, until the village lifeboat is called out on a false alarm. When Jem’s dead body is discovered, curled up naked in a stolen dinghy and floating among rocks reputed to be haunted by the spirits of drowned sailors, DI Matthew Venn is called in.

Ann Cleeves is famous for using weather and landscape to give texture and tone to her writing, and The Raging Storm is no exception. This is especially true of the scenes where Mary takes the helm of the Greystone lifeboat. I could almost hear the wind whistling around spooky Scully Cove. When a huge storm cuts off the power and blocks the roads with fallen trees, the sense of nature’s power is dramatic.

DI Venn was born into the Barum Brethren, a strange religious sect with many adherents in and around Greystone. The Brethren disowned him when he came out as gay, but he is still affected by their influence. He feels uncomfortable about going into pubs and suffers from an abiding sense of guilt. While he is investigating Jem’s death, he is affected by memories of his boyhood among the Brethren. Although he is repelled by their judgemental ways, a part of him appears to miss the security of their community.

Aided by his team, Jen and Ross, Venn meticulously follows up sparse leads. Jen is a single mother of teenagers, with all the problems involved in managing a family while juggling long shifts at work. She is dedicated to her job and loyal to her boss. Ross, on the other hand, is an ambitious young policeman who finds Venn’s slow pace of work irritating. It does not help that Venn cannot resist provoking him.

The Raging Storm is the third in the Two Rivers series by Anne Cleeves. It works well as a stand-alone, and the characters are so engaging they made me want to read the first two novels.