Two Rivers Books in Order

This reading order guide provides the complete list of Two Rivers books in order, from the very first to the latest, so you won’t miss anything!

About the Two Rivers Series

When you look out at the North Devon landscape, two rivers meet and merge into the sea and are the backdrop to the thought-provoking crime novels that make up Ann Cleeves‘ Two Rivers series, and at the heart of these stories is Detective Inspector Matthew Venn, a compassionate and tenacious investigator who navigates the complexities of the cases he’s working on and the difficult memories of his own past. Returning to the strict evangelical community he’d left behind, Matthew is catapulted into a web of secrets, lies and family squabbles when a stunning murder takes place on the beach, and it is the first in the series. Well-known local murder, The Heron’s Cry, welcomes a summer of tourists to the North Devon coast, but a cleverly staged murder in an artist’s home sends the town into an uproar and brings danger frighteningly close to Matthew’s private life. The chilling short story The Girls on the Shore shows Matthew encountering two young girls whose secrets are about to lead him to the edge of town. The Raging Storm is the third instalment in the series, where a tempestuous sailor arrives in the town with winds of death. Matthew must untangle a web of superstition, gossip and real threats in a town he once knew as a child. Ann Cleeves is really good at weaving together atmospheric settings, multi-dimensional characters and hairpin-turn plots that can’t help but be devoured in one sitting, and will appeal to readers of crime novels, coastal mysteries and emotional stories that stay with you even after the end.