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
Leander Perez was elected district attorney in 1924 and became involved in a dispute over trapping lands; this ended in a shootout known as the "Trappers' War." He served as district attorney until 1960, never earning more than $7,000 a year. In 1928, Perez allied with Huey Pierce Long Jr., who was elected governor. In 1929, he successfully defended Long in the latter's impeachment trial before the Louisiana State Senate. Perez became wealthy by subleasing state mineral lands. In 1940, the state Crime Commission investigated Perez at the request of then Governor Sam Houston Jones. In 1943, Jones sent state troopers to