Excerpt from The Long Call by Ann Cleeves, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

'Quite right. Who found him?'

'A woman dog-walker. Lives in one of those new houses in Chivenor. She's arranged for a neighbour to pick up her kid from school, but she wanted to be home for him. So I checked her ID, took her address and phone number and then I let her go. I hope that was okay.'

'Perfect. No point having her hanging around.' Matthew paused. 'Are there any other cars down there?'

'Not any more. An elderly couple turned up to their Volvo just as I was arriving. I got their names and addresses and took the car reg, but they'd been walking in the other direction and said they hadn't seen anything. Then I still thought it was an accident so I didn't really ask them much and let them drive off.'

'I don't know how long you'll be here,' Matthew said. 'I'll get someone to relieve you as soon as possible.'

'No worries.' The man nodded towards the cottage. 'I had to explain to them what was happening and they've already been out to offer tea. They say they'll keep an eye if I need to use their loo.'

'I'll be back to chat to them. Can you ask them to stick around until I get to them?'

'Oh, they wouldn't miss it for the world.'

Matthew nodded and drove on. He'd left the window down and now he could hear the surf on the beach and the cry of a herring gull, the sound naturalists named the long call, the cry which always sounded to him like an inarticulate howl of pain. These were the noises of home.

Excerpted from The Long Call by Ann Cleeves. Copyright © 2019 by Ann Cleeves. Excerpted by permission of Minotaur Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.