Ann Cleeves Ann Cleeves Ann Cleeves (born 1954) is an English crime-writer. In 2006 she won the inaugural Duncan Lawrie Dagger, the richest crime-writing prize in the world, for her novel "Raven Black". Cleeves studied English at Sussex University but dropped out. She then took up various jobs including cook, auxiliary coastguard, probation officer, library outreach worker and child care officer. She lives in Whitley Bay, and is widowed with two daughters. The Vera Stanhope novels have been dramatized as the TV detective series "Vera" and the Jimmy Perez novels as the series "Shetland". In 2014 Cleeves was awarded an Honorary Doctorate
Detectives on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown the footprint of a 1970s platform shoe are found at the scene, inspiring him to bring in 1970s-style detectives to help solve the crime – initially Bonehead, Foyle and George. When the platform shoe is revealed to be from the early 1970s, Jason Bentley is added to the team, and the commander insists that Bentley's methods alone are to be used ("no guns, no fast cars, no shouting"). Bentley consequently drives the detectives to a random country house, drinks copious claret, smokes endless cigarettes, and predictably gets nowhere with the case. The frustrated detectives have a punch-up while they are