I have enjoyed watching the BritBox series Vera on PBS. It's based on the Vera Stanhope detective novels by Anne Cleeves. After reading the first book in this series, The Crow Trap (#976), I'm inclined to think I'll enjoy the TV series more than the books. Billed on the cover as a psychological thriller, it seemed to take on awfully long time to get to the point.
In a remote locale, with a potential mine to be re-opened on uplands near a national park, the characters circle around an environmental impact study, greed, mental illness and long-held grievances with nothing tying the disparate parts together until halfway through this lengthy book. Vera Stanhope herself only has an unidentified cameo in the first three hundred pages. That's a long time to wait.
I must say, Brenda Blevin has tidied up Vera's character considerably for the small screen. She's no fashion plate, but neither is she the bag lady encountered in print by the three women at a funeral. The one thing that is the same in both is the stark beauty of the northern English landscape and coast. There the camera definitely has the advantage. Can't say I'll be in a hurry to read other entries in this series, even though it's provided a great base for quality TV.
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