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The Sleeping and the Dead

A Stunning Psychological Thriller From the Author of the Vera Stanhope Crime Series

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The Sleeping and the Dead

By: Ann Cleeves
Narrated by: John Telfer
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About this listen

The Sleeping and the Dead is a tense and twisting detective story from Ann Cleeves, creator of the Shetland and Vera Stanhope series.

Northumberland detective Peter Porteous is called to Cranwell Lake, where a diving instructor has made a gruesome discovery. In the water lies a corpse – the body of a teenager who has clearly been dead for many years.

After trawling through the missing persons files, Porteous comes to the conclusion that the corpse is Michael Grey, an enigmatic and secretive young man who was reported missing by his foster parents in 1972.

The news report leaves prison officer Hannah Morton in shock. Michael had been her boyfriend, and she had been with him the night he disappeared. And now the discovery is bringing back dreaded, long-buried memories from her past . . .

'Cleeves again excels in her sense of place in this cleverly plotted psychological thriller' – The Times

Ann Cleeves Classic Crime - engaging mysteries to savour, beloved characters to meet again.

Praise for Ann Cleeves:

'Ann Cleeves is a stone cold genius' – Marian Keyes, author of My Favorite Mistake

'Everything Ann Cleeves writes is incredible' – Richard Osman, author of The Thursday Murder Club

'Ann Cleeves’s elegance as a wordsmith, the ingenuity of her plots, and the depth of her characters can be matched by few writers' – David Baldacci, author of The 6:20 Man

 Crime Thrillers Fiction Mystery Police Procedural Psychological Thriller & Suspense World Literature Thriller Crime

Critic reviews

Cleeves again excels in her sense of place in this cleverly plotted psychological thriller
A suspenseful crime story that puts Ms Cleeves in the Rendell class
A triumph . . . one of Britain's best crime writers
All stars
Most relevant
I literally didn’t work it out until the last 10 minutes. I read loads of crime books and thought I was well tuned to pick up the clues and spot the red herrings, but this one really kept me guessing. Great narration too.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book

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Certainly not one of my favourite Ann Cleeves books.
As others have said, the detectives were not fleshed out at all, I felt they could have had a far more prominent. The two main characters were not particularly interesting. Rosie came across as quite self centred and I didn’t much warm to her.
The ending felt very rushed, and again, as others have said, it took a bit of concentration to remember who was who when all the characters were named in a jumble at the end.
I’d have liked to have know about Marty’s fate. He was one of the few characters I had any feeling for.
I’ll not be listening to anymore if this pair of detectives become a series.

Bit disappointing

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My first audio book. I’ve read Ann Cleeves before so picked this one as a tried and tested author. Loved John Telfor’s characterisations, especially the subtle changes for the women.

Good storytelling

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Great listen and narration was excellent. Exciting right until the very end, Clever twist too, nuff said.

Good Story

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New ‘tec series (to me, at least), featuring Peter Porteous. Set, more or less, in ‘Vera country’, it is, as you might expect from Ann Cleeves, the audio equivalent of a page turner, well plotted and well told. Good narrator, too: someone I hadn’t come across before. I’ll definitely be buying the next one.

A new series

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