The Heron’s Cry

Written By Miriam Hanna

The Heron’s Cry by Ann Cleeves

Reviewed by Mimi
📘📘

The second in a series of crime novels based in North Devon, The Heron’s Cry centres on the sudden murder of a local doctor in a rural area. The murder weapon? A shard of glass from his daughter’s artwork. Matthew is a lead detective on the case but finds it tough to manage with his husband being best of friends with the victim’s daughter.

I was hoping to be slightly more thrilled reading this book. I think the joy of crime fiction is the pace, twists, and turns even if you can sort of see what's coming. I didn't feel that Matthew was really driving the narrative and it was one of those reads that I felt was put together as part of the pressure to get a second book out. I know it has been quite popular but this one wasn't for me!

Miriam Hanna

Aka Mimi. I have known Linda for a very, very long time. We grew up together and you learn very quickly that when she gets an idea in her head, you would be an idiot not to back her to see it through. When the idea of the book club came up it was another lightbulb moment where I knew this wasn't only going to be a success but really fun.


I have always been a bookworm. Remember when you were little and you went shopping with your mum or dad and they gave you a toy or something to occupy yourself with whilst you were in the trolley? I used to get books to keep me quiet. They were and are my ultimate form of escapism and more and more they are about understanding who I am as a person. Books make me cry more than films and TV Shows. I can get lost for hours. I love historic fiction, political thrillers and gritty crime novels but also biographies and memoirs of people I find interesting like sportspeople. I was fortunate to be in the Harry Potter generation and if weren't for those books I don't know what I would have. Young literature was so poor at the point. To have a book that had me and my family queuing up at midnight to buy was seriously special.

Whether you listen to audio books, read off a kindle or stick to carrying around good old fashioned hard copies (that's me!) I truly believe reading is the best way to spend some time every day.


The books I would have with me on a desert island? 📚🏝Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Akzaban, Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, The Chimp Paradox by Steve Peters, The Power by Naomi Alderman, Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou, Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian, Born a Crime by Trevor Noah and The Time Traveller’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

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