Emma's parents, who moved Emma and her young brother to Elvet from York ten years earlier, are a little strange too. With such a muck up of the investigation including sending an innocent to jail, DI Vera Stanhope has been assigned to re-open the murder case and find the real killer. She said: "I have never won anything before in my life, so it was a complete shock - but lovely of course.

Ann is the author of the books behind ITV's VERA, now in it's third series, and the BBC's SHETLAND, which will be aired in December 2012. Excellently written and thought out in each detail with the characters playing their parts on the surface and uncovering their darker sides beneath. Blessed with good looks Abigail could have any fellow she took a fancy to, including the much older ones as well. However, ten years later and turned down for parole, Jeanie Long’s suicide prior to a new witness coming forward sees DI Vera Stanhope casting fresh eyes over an investigation that the neighbouring force of Yorkshire originally presided over.While she was cooking in the Bird Observatory on Fair Isle, she met her husband Tim, a visiting ornithologist. Ann's Shetland series bring us DI Jimmy Perez, investigating in the mysterious, dark, and beautiful Shetland Islands.

Now, evidence has emerged that proves her innocence and means that Abigail’s killer still roams free.

I had read The Crow Trap a couple of years ago and enjoyed very much, then got sidetracked by her Shetland series. However Abigail’s life was destined to be short when her cold body was found lying in a drainage ditch with a scarf wrapped tightly around her pale, thin neck. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about reading this one since I've watched the episode on TV (twice) but it was fascinating to see the differences. Vera is genuine and astute, lacking in airs and graces and is often intrusive and tactless, but she also represents a brand of detective that the reader can identify with. DI Stanhope may be confident and very proud but crucially she also recognises her own fallibility, and berates herself for missing the obvious (although it is never quite so obvious to her readers as to Vera).

I had previously read the Shetland Quartet (one further one was added recently) and had hoped this series would be as good, and it is. Telling Tales is the second book in the Vera Stanhope series and I loved this one as much as the first. On hearing the news, Emma Bennett is haunted once more by memories of her vibrant best friend, Abigail, and by the thought that her killer is still at large. Franklin's performance is direct and punchy, matching the speed and shrewdness of Vera's first-rate mind. Vera’s presence is felt throughout the book, her no nonsense direct approach really fits with the Northern setting.It is a compelling mystery as a young woman is wrongfully accused of murdering her boyfriend's teenage daughter. In the autumn of 2006, Ann and Tim finally achieved their ambition of moving back to the North East. Now Inspector Vera Stanhope is making fresh enquiries amongst the residents of Elvet, the small East Yorkshire village where Emma and Abigail grew up. Why a body (or two), of course, which draws the attention of our less-than-attractive police inspector, Vera Stanhope.

There was more information about her in this book than the first, but I haven’t been “grabbed” by this character yet. Now residents of the East Yorkshire village of Elvet are disturbed to hear of new evidence proving Jeanie's innocence.Things change one day when her husband James comes home on the news that the woman (Jeanie Long) who went to jail for murdering her best friend (Abigail Mantel)10 years ago has committed suicide.