The Baby-Snatcher

Ann Cleeves Classic Crime - engaging mysteries to savour, beloved characters to meet again

The Baby-Snatcher is the sixth and final mystery novel in the Inspector Ramsay series by Ann Cleeves, Sunday Times bestselling author of the Shetland, Vera Stanhope and Two Rivers crime series.

Marilyn Howes and her mother Kathleen are an inseparable duo, until one night Kathleen doesn't come home . . .

Fifteen-year-old Marilyn turns up alone and frightened on Inspector Ramsay's doorstep, so he takes the young girl home to the isolated coastal community known as the Headland. But in the Howes' dark and cluttered kitchen they find Kathleen safe and apparently well, though acting rather mysteriously.

Six months later, Ramsay has more or less forgotten the strange incident, busy as he is on the trail of a local child abductor. Until he receives news that Mrs Howes has disappeared once more. And for the second time he is drawn into the strange relationships of the families living on the lonely Headland.

Then a woman's body washes up on the beach . . .

Praise for Ann Cleeves:

'Clever, compassionate and atmospheric, with a great cast of new characters to love' - Elly Griffiths, author of the Ruth Galloway series

'Nobody does unsettling undercurrents better than Ann Cleeves' - Val McDermid, bestselling author of the Tony Hill & Carol Jordan series

About the Author

Ann Cleeves is the author of more than thirty-five critically acclaimed novels, and in 2017 was awarded the highest accolade in crime writing, the CWA Diamond Dagger. She is the creator of popular detectives Vera Stanhope, Jimmy Perez and Matthew Venn, who can be found on television in ITV's Vera, BBC One's Shetland and ITV's The Long Call respectively. The TV series and the books they are based on have become international sensations, capturing the minds of millions worldwide.

Ann worked as a probation officer, bird observatory cook and auxiliary coastguard before she started writing. She is a member of 'Murder Squad', working with other British northern writers to promote crime fiction. Ann also spends her time supporting access to books and advocating for reading to improve health and wellbeing. In 2021 her Reading for Wellbeing project launched with local authorities across the North East. She lives in Northumberland where the Vera books are set.