The Darkest Evening by Ann Cleeves

Minotaur Books, 379 pages, $27.99

Vera Stanhope may resemble the dotty, busybody, spinster aunt who haunts many a cozy British mystery, but most of that description falls far from who she really is. Vera is the genius creation of British author Ann Cleeves. And at this point, Vera is also the creation of actress Brenda Blethyn who plays her on ITV’s “Vera.” DI Vera Stanhope has progressed from Cleeves' first novel, “The Crow Trap,” in 1998, in which Vera doesn’t appear until half-way through, to be the most definite star of the series.

Vera has overcome her lonely and dysfunctional past to become a detective inspector with the police in Yorkshire. Her mother died young, her father was an alcoholic and eccentric thief of birds’ eggs, and she dropped out of school at sixteen. She was a plain girl who became a plain woman who is now a plain old woman. She is single and has never received a proposal, “Though it might have been nice to be asked … just once.” In “The Darkest Evening,” we see all these elements come into play, because this book is as much about Vera’s past as it is about a present day murder.

It is close to Christmas, snow has begun to fall, and the temperature begins a downward slide. Vera is on her way home after work and, uncharacteristically, she takes a wrong turn and temporarily loses her way. She was raised in the rural and sometimes wild Yorkshire surroundings, so the disorientation doesn’t last long. In fact, she discovers, she is near her father’s ancestral home. Hector was long disgraced and disinherited by the time he died, but on occasion during Vera's childhood, he insisted on visiting the old estate where he was raised and would drag her along. Although she was the embarrassed daughter of the wayward son -- who mostly wanted to cage some money from his near and dear -- she is surprised at her emotional response upon seeing the Stanhope home again. But that’s getting ahead of the plot.

So, back to driving home after work. As Vera is trying to figure out where she is, she comes across a car that seems to have slid into a gate near the now slippery road. She sees the driver’s door is open but there is no one in sight. When she stops to be a good Samaritan, she discovers a baby in a car seat in the back. Where is the driver?

Vera can’t leave the “bairn” in the freezing car, so she piles the car seat into her ancient Land Rover and toddles off in what she eventually recognizes as the Stanhope land. She arrives at the ancient manor, a place she has not visited since she was a wee lass. The eldest Stanhope, Hector’s brother, died a long time ago, and his son, Vera’s cousin, died a few years back, so the ancient pile belongs to his daughter, Juliet. Juliet is a youngish woman who is trying to bring the manor back to life by helping her husband turn the manor into a theatrical venue. Juliet’s mother, Harriet, still lives in the house, and she is still fully capable of playing lady of the manor, even though she is there at Juliet's sufferance. Juliet is helped by a college friend, Dorothy. Dorothy lives in one of the lodges on the property with her husband and young son. Dorothy is a formidable housekeeper and organizer, but hardly a Mrs. Danvers type.

It was a dark and stormy night …

Upon entering the house, Vera finds she is crashing a fancy dinner party. She is shuttled to the kitchen, where she proceeds to do police-y things to solve the problem of the baby. While she is there in the cozy kitchen with the competent Dorothy and the youngish Juliet, the neighboring farmer has come to collect his teenage daughters who were helping serve the dinner. He pulls up in his tractor, a more capable beast than Vera’s Land Rover in the snowstorm. When he enters the kitchen, he is visibly upset. Call the police, he hollers, there’s a dead woman in the snow. Well, pet, Vera says, I am the police. Ba dum DUM!

Who is the young woman? Is she the baby’s mother? What was she doing out in the middle of nowhere? When it turns out she was a local woman, it becomes even more mysterious. Where was she going? When it turns out she was hospitalized for anorexia as a young woman, but returned anyway to her home area despite the assurance she would face gossip and whispers, Vera is determined to discover the character of the woman. And, lastly, who was the baby’s father?

In the process of investigating, she stumbles across some of her own family history, if rather obliquely. As a woman who has never had substantial ties to any other person, except maybe Joe and Holly on her investigating team who are protégés and not friends, suddenly Vera is awash in relatives and potential relatives.

It is hard to see Vera vulnerable. Her loneliness and “differentness” is on display, even if she’d rather they weren’t. She even recognizes her increasing frailty, as do her shocked cohorts Joe and Holly. They move in to protect her as they would an ailing, crotchety aunt. She also is beset by emotional tides and that leads to rumination with whiskey and firelight.

But do not fear. I don’t believe this is the end of the road for Vera just yet. But it was a bittersweet preface to what some day may be a final work in the series.

Yes, you betcha, this gets an MBTB star! But Vera really takes a lickin' in this one and it is hard to fathom how she could keep on tickin'.