It’s been a long time since I was able to take a day off and really relax. I credit Ann Cleeve’s lastest Vera Stanhope mystery, The Darkest Evening for getting me to sit for hours in the wicker rocking chair, the dogs at my side, by the woodstove and read.
I don’t usually read mysteries, but Jon had just finished the book and I love the Vera character from the TV series, so I thought I’d give it a try.
And it worked.
I have a hard time relaxing at home, I think partly because it’s where my work. But also because there are always so many things I want to get done around the house on the weekends.
It does help when it’s cold outside and the woodstoves inside are so inviting. I actually pretended I was at a Bed and Breakfast somewhere far from home. And then it only took reading a few pages in Cleeve’s mystery to bring me even further away to the Brockburn Estate in Northumberland, England.
I plan to go back again this afternoon.
Oh, Maria, I LOVE Vera and never miss an episode on TV! 🙂
I’m going to round up some of Ann Cleve’s books on Vera as soon as I manage to work my way through the many hundreds of books our late sister left behind. Mysteries are my favorite!
I think it’s hard not to love Vera Fran. Enjoy all your good reads.
I love Vera too; and I bought the book from Connie in Sept. as a birthday present to myself. I also never liked mysteries, but now I do. It’s odd thinking of a Murder mystery as cozy but somehow Ann Cleeves makes it feel that way. Her focus is more on relationships and what went wrong & why?
It is a stange thing how they can be comforting Mary. But it’s true that Cleeves’ stories aren’t gory or scary, like some. And her characters are well rounded and their relationships complex. I like that too.
Maria, when I looked at the artsy composition of this picture, I immediately envisioned a quilt lying on YOUR bed with the exact layout of the pups in the picture in the center of it. Do you accept the challenge?
Ha! I don’t know about that Gina, but it’s a neat idea. 🙂
I would love the book even more if I, too, had the woodstove burning and my three wonderful dogs camped out by my side.
They are their own “Three Musketeers” and how peaceful and content they must be.
Lucky you!
It does add something to it Jane. 🙂