Short Story Wednesday Review: The Girls On The Shore: A Detective Mathew Venn Short Story by Ann Cleeves

Sometimes random chance puts you in the right place at the right time to make a difference. Such is the situation detective Matthew Venn finds himself in as The Girls On The Shore: A Detective Mathew Venn Short Story by Ann Cleeves begins. If things had not been quiet in recent days at the police station, if he did not have a lot of time off accumulated, he would not have been taking the morning off and hanging out at home. If he had not been at his kitchen window, as he was, he would not have seen the two girls out on the beach.

 

But Detective Inspector Matthew Venn was home, and this was there to see the two very young girls out on the beach. It is January, cold and windy with ice on the ground, and the girls clearly are not dressed to be out there. They are dressed in school uniforms. They are doing nothing but staring out at the water.

 

Why? He has no idea. It is a school morning and he becomes increasingly concerned about them as he makes his way out to them.

 

Detective Inspector Venn eventually gets the young girls to come back to his house. It quickly becomes clear that something is going on with their mother who might be nearby. After getting his sergeant, Jen Rafferty, to come to his house and keep an eye on the girls, he goes back out to look for their missing mother.

 

What follows is an interesting 14-page mystery short story. A tale that becomes increasingly complicated and ends in an unexpected way.

 

Also included in the short read is a short preview of approximately the same number of pages of the new book, The Rising Tide. This book is the latest in the DVI Vera Stanhope series. (It was recently reviewed here by Lesa Holstine.)

 

About 10 pages of this 36-page read is title page, author bio, listing of books, publisher info, and other filler material. Something to keep in mind when considering the price of this short read. Fortunately, I was able to get my copy from the Libby/OverDrive app via the Dallas Public Library System.

 

Kevin R. Tipple ©2022