Ann Cleeves Press. 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
Fictional detectives Fictional detectives Fictional detectives are characters in detective fiction. These characters have long been a staple of detective mystery crime fiction, particularly in detective novels and short stories. Much of early detective fiction was written during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction" (1920s-1930s). These detectives include amateurs, private investigators and professional policemen. They are often popularized as individual characters rather than parts of the fictional work in which they appear. Stories involving individual detectives are well-suited to dramatic presentation, resulting in many popular theatre, television, and movie characters. The first famous detective in fiction was Edgar Allan Poe's C. Auguste