The Dying Light, Ann Cleeves
The Dying Light, Ann Cleeves
List: $26.99 | Sale: $18.89
Club: $13.49

The Dying Light
A Detective Matthew Venn Novel

Author: Ann Cleeves

Narrator: Jack Holden

Unabridged: 10 hr 33 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 09/29/2026


Synopsis

“Everything Ann Cleeves writes is incredible.”—Richard Osman

DI Matthew Venn peels back layer upon layer to discover the dark secrets one family is keeping in this searing new novel, brimming with energy and taut with claustrophobic tension.

A scorching heatwave marks the start of the summer in Devon. Detective Matthew Venn is called in to investigate a puzzling death, when the body of a young woman, Lottie, is found in the swimming pool of a luxurious holiday home. The girl’s best friend, Hannah, whose family owns the house, is missing. The girls had arrived a few days earlier to celebrate the end of their school exams, quickly stirring unrest in the small community with incendiary social media videos mocking the place as parochial.

When further tragedy strikes, Venn and his team begin questioning a community filled with secrets. The fact that Hannah’s father, Paul Armstrong, is a rising political star with powerful enemies draws intense media scrutiny to the case.

With the summer heat come holidaymakers, and it emerges that some of them may have stronger connections with the Armstrong family than first thought. Venn knows all too well that the real answers lie not in what people say, but in the silences that they keep.

Taut, atmospheric, and brimming with suspense, this searing new novel finds DI Matthew Venn caught between a powerful family’s secrets and a powder keg of local tensions.

About Ann Cleeves

ANN CLEEVES is the multi-million copy bestselling author behind three hit television series—Shetland, Vera, and The Long Call—all of which are watched and loved in the United States. All three are available on BritBox.The first Shetland novel, Raven Black, won the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger for best crime novel, and Ann was awarded the CWA Diamond Dagger in 2017. She was awarded the OBE in 2022 for services to reading and libraries. Ann lives in the United Kingdom.

About Jack Holden

Jack Holden trained as an actor at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and has participated in the Royal Court Young Writers Programme and the Channel 4 Screenwriting Course. He was recently on attachment at the National Theatre Studio.His debut play Cruise-a kaleidoscopic, musical odyssey through Soho and the AIDS crisis of the 1980s-premiered at the Duchess Theatre in Summer 2021 to widespread critical acclaim, and was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best New Play 2022. Its second sold-out run took place at the Apollo Theatre in August 2022, and it received its first international production in Johannesburg. Cruise premiered in Australia in February 2025, with productions in Mexico, Brazil and Uruguay forthcoming.Jack wrote the book for Club NVRLND, an immersive club musical based on J M Barrie's Peter Pan, which premiered with a sold-out run at Assembly Checkpoint, Edinburgh in Summer 2025. For the Almeida Theatre, Jack adapted Alan Hollinghurst's Booker Prize-winning novel The Line of Beauty. The production, directed by Michael Grandage, played to sell-out audiences in October/November 2025.Jack is also developing screen projects with Working Title, Independent Entertainment, World Productions, MMXX, and Michael Grandage Company. He has taken part in development writers rooms for Joi Productions and Genial.As an actor, Jack was most recently seen in John Morton's Ten Percent (Amazon) and Stefan Golaszewski's Marriage (BBC One). He has also starred in British independent films, and on stage at the National, the RSC, the Almeida, and multiple times in the West End. Jack has also produced award-winning short films. Blood Out Of A Stone premiered at BFI Flare 2018; The Rev was backed by BFI Network and premiered at London Film Festival 2022; Under The Blue has been winning awards around the world since 2024. In January 2025, Jack made his debut as writer-director with his short film Safari, produced by My Accomplice. Together, they are developing Jack's debut writer-director feature film, Man Made.


Reviews

There are currently no user reviews for this audiobook.

Quotes

“Continuing to portray Venn as the antithesis of a hard-hitting, cynical cop, the prolific Cleeves solidifies the approachable appeal of her introspective, self-deprecating detective in the fourth installment in her popular Venn series, following The Raging Storm.”—Booklist

“A sophisticated, fast-moving novel that many readers will relish.”—firstCLUE (Book of the Week)

“In The Dying Light, we say hello once more to Detective Matthew Venn in a twisty, solemn case involving the murders of two very different teenage girls with lots of potential suspects and motives set around a touristy town that also holds its own secrets. Ann Cleeves routinely makes the difficult look easy, and here the plot sails along with purpose and gravitas, the characters shine and manipulate, and the prose is as first-rate as ever. Whatever Cleeves comes up with next, I will be reading it. And so should you.”—David Baldacci

“Everything Ann Cleeves writes is incredible.”―Richard Osman

“In Matthew Venn, Ann has created a complex, daring, subtle character.” —Louise Penny

"Matthew Venn is a keeper."―David Baldacci

"Brilliant, thoughtful and deeply engaging."—Sara Paretsky

"Ann Cleeves is a phenomenal talent. Her instantly iconic Detective Matthew Venn is a treasure—and we will all follow him anywhere."—Hank Phillippi Ryan

"Cleeves's true strength lies in her descriptions of the natural world, gorgeously captured."―New York Times Book Review

"[Cleeves's] newest detective―buttoned-up, gay, married, ex-evangelical Matthew Venn―is a righteous successor."―People

“Venn remains an appealing lead every bit as memorable as the author’s Vera Stanhope or Jimmy Perez. Cleeves’s fans and newcomers alike will be hungry for the next entry.”―Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

“[Cleeves] tells a captivating story.”―Wall Street Journal

“If there is a writer who does atmospherics better than Ann Cleeves, I don’t know who it is. . . her grasp of character is impeccable.”—Globe & Mail