Before Shetland and Vera, Ann Cleeves wrote the Inspector Ramsay series featuring a talented, brilliant detective—now available for the first time in the US.
The Inspector Ramsay series is a set of six classic British crime novels featuring Detective Inspector Stephen Ramsay, set in and around Northumberland, England. The books were originally published in the 1990s and showcase Ramsay’s methodical investigations into murders in small towns and rural communities, often revealing tangled personal relationships and hidden tensions beneath quiet village life.
A Macmillan Audio production from Minotaur Books.
Link to shop the series
Author: Ann Cleeves
Series: Inspector Ramsay, #1
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Genre: Mystery & Thrillers
Narrator: Simon Mattacks
No. of Pages: 178
Date of Publication: January 6, 2025
My Rating: 4 Stars
DESCRIPTION:
Who hung the headmaster in the playground on the night of the school Halloween Party?
Almost everyone in Heppleburn either hated or feared the viper-tongued Harold Medburn. Inspector Ramsay is convinced it was the headmaster’s enigmatic wife but Jack Robson, school governor and caretaker, is determined to prove her innocence.
With the help of his restless daughter Patty, Jack digs into the secrets of Heppleburn, and uncovers a cesspit of lies, adultery, blackmail and madness . . .
*First published January 1, 1990
MY THOUGHTS:
Headmaster Harold Medburn has been murdered and Inspector Stephen Ramsay is tasked to find his killer. Who is the guilty party? The more he learns about the man, the more questions he has. It is soon made clear that Medburn was unliked by several people leaving Ramsay to decipher clues as to the killer’s identity.
As things soon turn out, it seems that Ramsay is not the only one investigating the murder. When a woman is arrested as the prime suspect, caretaker Jack Robson at the school where the victim worked, steps in and also begins looking for the murderer.
As A Lesson in Dying is the first book in the Inspector Ramsay series, the setting is built by strong character development. It is almost as is this first book in the series presents a cast of characters and sets them around a table in order to identify the killer. I love the way this was done in this book.
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Title: Murder in My Backyard
Author: Ann Cleeves
Series: Inspector Ramsay, #2
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Genre: Mystery & Thrillers
Narrator: Simon Mattacks
No. of Pages: 258
Date of Publication: January 6, 2025
My Rating: 4 Stars
DESCRIPTION:
No one in Heppleburn has a bad word to say about Alice Parry . . . but here she is, murdered in her own backyard on a bitter St. David’s Eve.
When detective Stephen Ramsay starts asking questions in the village, a more ambiguous picture begins to emerge. Yes, old Mrs. Parry was loved by everyone, but sometimes her kindness had caused trouble. Yes, her two nephews were devoted to her, but they didn’t really want her interfering in their rather complicated personal lives. Even among her neighbors, Alice Parry’s helpfulness had sometimes misfired. And after her death, tension tight as a clenched fist grips the uneasy village.
Meanwhile, the suspects keep rolling in, and Heppleburn’s friendly neighborhood killer continues his nasty piece of work . . .
*First published March 2, 1991
Inspector Stephen Ramsay is trying to move on after his divorce from his wife, Diana, when his attention is drawn to a new murder case. Alice Parry has been killed, and as Ramsay begins questioning those who knew her, he quickly learns that she was widely liked, so her murder doesn’t make sense.
A man named Charlie seems most likely suspect, but he disappears before Ramsay could be rule him out, So Ramsay continues to dig deep. Ramsay grapples with a key question: was Alice truly as well liked as everyone claimed, or was she simply someone who involved herself in everyone’s lives, perhaps earning goodwill while quietly crossing boundaries?
As the suspect list grows from one to many, Ramsay’s investigation unfolds in an engaging way in this second book of the Inspector Ramsay series. I appreciated the straightforward approach to the storytelling—there is a murder, a set of suspects, and a careful investigation. It’s a classic formula, and one that works well here.
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Title: A Day in the Death of Dorothea Cassidy Author: Ann Cleeves
Series: Inspector Ramsay, #3
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Genre: Mystery & Thrillers
Narrator: Simon Mattacks
No. of Pages: 224
Date of Publication: January 6, 2025
My Rating: 4 Stars
DESCRIPTION:
For Dorothea Cassidy, Thursdays were special. Every week she would look forward to the one day she could call her own, a welcome respite from the routine duties of being a vicar’s wife. But one Thursday in June would be her last—the day Dorothea Cassidy was strangled.
As the small town of Otterbridge prepares for its summer carnival, Inspector Stephen Ramsay begins a painstaking reconstruction of Dorothea's last hours. He soon discovers that she had taken on a number of deserving cases—a sick and lonely old woman, a disturbed adolescent, a compulsive gambler, a single mother with a violent boyfriend and a child in care—and even her close family have their secrets to hide. All these people are haunted, in one way or another, by Dorothea's goodness. But which of them could have possibly wanted her dead?
It is not until a second body is discovered that Ramsay starts to understand how Dorothea lived—and why she died. With the carnival festivities in full swing and dusk falling in Otterbridge, Ramsay's murder investigation reaches its chilling climax . . .
First published January 1, 1992
MY THOUGHTS:
Dorothea Cassidy’s body is discovered by two teenage boys. She was the much younger wife of the local vicar, and Inspector Stephen Ramsay begins his investigation by questioning her husband as well as her stepson, Patrick. It soon becomes clear that the age gap between Dorothea and the vicar was not the only thing that set them apart.
Ramsay learns that Dorothea’s attention often lay outside her husband’s church and was focused instead on people who were less advantaged. This raises the possibility that one of these connections may have led to her murder.
As the small town of Otterbridge prepares for its annual summer festival, Ramsay begins to wonder whether the event has any relevance to the crime. The case grows even more complex when it becomes clear that Dorothea is not the only victim, pushing Ramsay to dig deeper as he works to uncover the killer.
I thoroughly enjoyed this third book in the Inspector Ramsay series. The U.S. releases are narrated by Simon Mattacks, whose performance perfectly captures Ramsay’s no-nonsense investigative style and adds an extra layer of enjoyment to these stories.
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Author: Ann Cleeves
Series: Inspector Ramsay, #4
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Genre: Mystery & Thrillers
Format: Audio ALC
Narrator: Simon Mattacks
No. of Pages: 218
Date of Publication: January 6, 2025
My Rating: 4 Stars
DESCRIPTION:
Gabriella Preston is found in the boot of a car, lying curled on her side like a child asleep. She is dead. The car belongs to Gus Lynch. Gus Lynch is the director of Hallowgate's Youth Theatre, Gabriella his female lead.
Inspector Ramsay and Sergeant Hunter are called in to assist the local police who have their hands full with an outbreak of joy-riding. Another death and an escalation of violence among the joy-riders threaten mayhem. Against a background of spiralling disorder Ramsay realises what could have provoked someone to kill - and to kill again.
First published June 25, 1993.
MY THOUGHTS:
Inspector Stephen Ramsay and Sergeant Hunter have their latest case. The body of a teenage girl, Gabriella Preston, is discovered in the trunk of a car. The first person Ramsay speaks to is Gus Lynch, the car’s owner. The town of Hallowgate is preparing for a theatrical production, and Lynch is the director of the upcoming play. Gabriella was set to play the lead.
Ramsay is tasked with solving the case—determining whether the play had anything to do with Gabriella’s murder and why her body was found in Lynch’s trunk. It is not an easy case, but Ramsay and Hunter begin a series of interviews as the investigation unfolds. The town is full of secrets, and Ramsay is determined to uncover them.
This fourth book in the Inspector Ramsay series is another solid police procedural murder mystery. As I progressively read each book in turn, I found that I was completely disenchanted with Sergeant Hunter. In my opinion, he is both misogynistic and sexist. This may well have been by design on Ann Cleeves’s part. Disliking Hunter only made Ramsay stand out more as the series progressed.
I have been listening to the entire six-book series and have enjoyed the narration by Simon Mattacks. His matter-of-fact delivery works well for the story and subtly reinforces Ramsay’s moral character.
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Author: Ann Cleeves
Series: Inspector Ramsay, #5
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Genre: Mystery & Thrillers
Narrator: Simon Mattacks
No. of Pages: 208
Date of Publication: January 6, 2025
My Rating: 4 Stars
DESCRIPTION:
News of the murder came to Inspector Stephen Ramsay early on Monday morning: isolated farmer Ernie Bowles was found lying on his kitchen floor, gruesomely strangled.f
Ramsey fears this case will not be simple. In his experience, most murders are straightforward: an explosion of family pressure, the loss of control in a fight. But Bowles seems to have kept himself to himself and had lived alone since his mother’s death. A seemingly unconnected women is then found strangled too—surely two such killings in the same locality are more than just chilling coincidence?
When Ramsay hears of a third suspicious death, a very tenuous link between the victims takes on a new importance, for all were connected in some way to the Alternative Therapy Center in Mittingford. Could one of the healers be a killer?
First published January 1, 1995.
MY THOUGHTS:
Are they healing, or are they harming? Inspector Ramsay and Sergeant Hunter are called away to another station when a sudden spate of murders appears to be tied to a healing clinic.
The setting is immediately intriguing—a clinic devoted to “healing” that may be anything but. Listening to the audiobook, I found myself smiling once or twice at how the fervor behind natural healing really comes through. Paired with the murders, it creates an unsettling but effective balance.
I loved this fifth book in the Inspector Ramsay series. Ramsay is an excellent investigator, and his kindness and patience with those he questions truly stand out. However, as I mentioned in my review of book four, Killjoy, I am still not a fan of Hunter. That said, Ann Cleeves wrote this series decades ago, and I’ve loved every book so far.
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Author: Ann Cleeves
Series: Inspector Ramsay, #6
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Genre: Mystery & Thrillers
Format: Audio ALC
Narrator: Simon Mattacks
No. of Pages:
Date of Publication: January 6, 2025
My Rating:
DESCRIPTION
Marilyn Howe 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. And in the Howes’ dark and cluttered kitchen they find Kathleen safe and apparently well, though acting strange.
Six months later, Ramsay has more or less forgotten the incident, busy as he is on the trail of a local child abductor. Until he receives news that Mrs. Howe has disappeared once more. And for the second time he is drawn into the strange relationships of the families living on the lonely Headland . . . when a woman’s body washes up on the beach.
MY THOUGHTS:
Inspector Ramsay doesn’t quite know what to do when a teen named Marilyn Howe shows up at his door, trembling in fear. She is worried about her mother Kathleen. Perhaps the teen’s worries were fortuitous, and in a different district from where he lives and works, Ramsay begins looking for answers.
But things do not stop there for Ramsay. There is a series of abductions of young boys, yet each child is returned unharmed. Ramsay proves determined to figure out what is going on.
As I listened to this sixth and last book in the Inspector Ramsay series I felt sadness as I will miss Ramsay. Even Hunter. He redeemed himself enough by the end of this series.
I have been wanting to read the Shetland and Vera Stanhope series by Ann Cleeves, so when I saw this audiobook series of the six titles in this Inspector Ramsay series, I jumped at the opportunity. Now I realize that I must make time to read both series.
Many thanks to Macmillan Audio and to NetGalley for these ARCs for review. This is my honest opinion.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Ann Cleeves is the author behind ITV’s Vera and BBC One’s Shetland. She has written over thirty novels, and is the creator of detectives Vera Stanhope and Jimmy Perez – characters loved both on screen and in print. Her books have now sold millions of copies worldwide. In 2012 she was inducted into the CWA Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame and is the 2017 recipient of the CWA Diamond Dagger, the highest honour in British crime writing. Ann lives in North Tyneside.
