Characters The Raging Storm: a Detective Matthew Venn Novel Ann Cleeves

Matthew Venn: The Detective Who Carried His Past into the Storm

Overview

Detective Inspector Matthew Venn is the protagonist of Ann Cleeves’ third novel in the series, The Raging Storm. A senior officer with the North Devon police, Venn was raised in the strict, closed Barum Brethren community and broke away from it—a rupture that cost him his faith and his family. In this book, he leads the investigation into the murder of celebrity adventurer Jem Rosco in the isolated coastal village of Greystone, a place that holds unexpectedly fond memories from his Brethren childhood. Venn’s personal history becomes a lens through which he interprets the case, and the case, in turn, forces him to confront the person he used to be.

Plot Role

Venn is the lead detective from the moment the body is discovered. He travels to Greystone with Sergeant Jen Rafferty and later DC Ross May, taking charge of the inquiry as the storm strands the team in the village. Venn’s instinct for procedure and his ability to read people are tested by a community where everyone knows everyone else—and where outsiders are met with suspicion. His role extends beyond gathering evidence: he must navigate the village’s resentments, uncover decades‑old secrets, and untangle a knot of obsession and betrayal. Twice during the investigation he misreads the situation—first when he suspects Bartholomew Lawson of murdering Rosco, and later when he believes Eleanor Lawson is complicit. His eventual recognition of his own errors forms a key part of the story’s resolution.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Venn is driven by a quiet, almost stubborn commitment to justice. He is methodical and observant: he notes the missing shower curtain, the timing of a taxi, the unexpected neatness of a crime scene. Yet he is also introverted and uncomfortable with emotional display. In Chapter Nine, after interviewing truck driver Billy Brennan, Venn retreats to his cold room rather than stay in the pub with his team, and he decides not to phone his husband, Jonathan. The text suggests this is not indifference but a habit of isolation learned in childhood. He feels “as if he were drowning in the heat and the noise” of the pub—a reaction that reveals his deep unease with social intimacy. His internal compass for landscape and geography is sharp, but his inner life is guarded. When he discovers that his husband is coming to stay, he feels both lightened and unsettled, because he prefers “boundaries. Work and the personal completely separate.”(Chapter Ten)

Chronological Arc

Venn’s arc in The Raging Storm begins with a homecoming he did not expect. Driving into Greystone, he remembers the boy he was: a Brethren child who “basked in the admiration of the older members” and who felt a rare happiness in this remote place (Chapter Three). As the investigation unfolds, his past re‑intrudes: he interviews Dr Peter Smale, a former Brethren friend; he visits his mother Dorothy, who shows him a childhood photograph; he meets Matilda Gregory’s parents, who know his mother and recall his disfellowship. Each encounter scrapes at the scar of his exile. Mid‑investigation, Venn becomes fascinated by Eleanor Lawson, the woman at the centre of Rosco’s lifelong obsession. He imagines what it might be like “to be part of all that, that house, that family”(Chapter Fifty‑Two). This fascination clouds his judgment. By the end, after Eleanor’s role in the murders is revealed—she killed Rosco and Lawson to preserve her fantasy—Venn returns home to Jonathan, subdued and reflective. He admits he was “duped” and that the memory of a happy childhood swing in Eleanor’s garden had “coloured my sense of the place and of her.” The arc is one of learning, not triumph: Venn emerges wiser about his own vulnerability to nostalgia.

Relationships

Jonathan (husband): Their marriage provides Venn’s only true emotional anchor. Jonathan is warm and persistent; he pushes Venn to accept help and company. When Jonathan joins him in Greystone, Venn is awkward but eventually grateful. The final scene, with the two of them sitting by the fire, shows a tentative rapprochement with domesticity.

Jen Rafferty (sergeant): Jen is Venn’s trusted second, pragmatic and compassionate. She manages her own personal struggles—a longing for another baby, guilt about her children—but always keeps her focus on the case. Venn depends on her judgement, particularly when she interviews Imogen Holt and David Fanshaw.

Ross May (DC): Ross chafes at Venn’s oversight and occasionally resents being given clerical work. Their professional relationship is functional but not warm. Ross brings energy and local knowledge (he is a native of the area), but Venn remains the senior strategist.

Peter Smale (former Brethren peer): The GP’s return to North Devon and the Brethren reminds Venn of the path he himself did not take. Smale seems unhappy, and Venn feels a sense of relief that he escaped.

Eleanor Lawson: She is simultaneously a suspect and an object of Venn’s quiet fascination. He sees in her the life he might have had if he had stayed within the Brethren. His misjudgment of her is the novel’s most striking demonstration of his vulnerability.

Dorothy Venn (mother): Only glimpsed briefly in Chapter Forty, she remains a figure of cold disapproval. The visit yields a photograph but no warmth.

Key Decisions and Consequences

  1. Deciding to stay at the Maiden’s Prayer rather than commuting. This choice traps Venn in the claustrophobic village, deepening his immersion in the case and his personal discomfort. It forces him to rely on the very community he left.

  2. Allowing Jonathan to stay. Venn initially feels uneasy mixing work and personal life, but the decision ultimately gives him a sounding board—and leads to Jonathan finding Bartholomew Lawson’s body at Scully Cove.

  3. Walking the footpath from the Gregory farm to the coast. Venn’s methodical exploration confirms a potential escape route, but also reveals that no body was dragged there. The walk deepens his understanding of the landscape and his suspicion of Davy Gregory.

  4. Trusting Eleanor Lawson. Venn accepts her version of her marriage and her relationship with Rosco. When she later vanishes with blood in her bathtub, he is forced to abandon his theory that she was an innocent victim and admits he was “duped.”

  5. Returning home to Jonathan at the end. Instead of staying in Greystone to see the case through, Venn lets himself be drawn back to Barnstaple. This decision signals a subtle shift toward prioritising his personal life over his professional instinct.

Theme/Symbol Connections

  • Community and Isolation: Greystone is both a haven for locals and a prison for outsiders. Venn occupies an ambiguous space: he once revelled in the village’s Brethren warmth but now stands outside it. His role as detective mirrors his social exile.

  • Deception and Hidden Identities: Virtually every character hides something—Rosco’s double life, Eleanor’s long-standing fantasy, Mary Ford’s letters, Davy Gregory’s bitterness. Venn’s own identity as a lapsed Brethren is itself a form of hidden identity that the locals gradually uncover.

  • Obsession and Unrequited Love: The novel’s engine is Rosco’s lifelong obsession with Eleanor, and Eleanor’s reciprocal obsession with the idea of escape. Venn’s fascination with Eleanor is a milder echo of the same pattern.

  • Power and Manipulation: Eleanor Lawson manipulates everyone around her, including Venn. She uses her house, her charm, and her feigned helplessness to control the narrative. Venn learns that even he is not immune to such manipulation.

  • Class and Resentment: The Gregory family’s loss of their land to Harry Carter’s scam, and the brewing resentment of the quarry owner’s family, fuel the community’s tensions. Venn, who grew up in a Brethren household of modest means, understands that resentment intimately.

Book‑Specific Questions and Answers

1. Why does Venn feel uneasy in Greystone despite his happy childhood memories?
Venn’s unease stems from the gap between the boy he was—proud, admired, devout—and the man he is now: estranged from the Brethren, married to a man, and an outsider. The village’s closed‑community dynamics remind him of the world he chose to leave, and he feels that his presence is silently judged.

2. How does his Brethren past affect his investigation?
It grants him insight into the community’s codes and silences, but it also makes him suspect. Locals like Gwen Gregory and the Bartons treat him with wariness because they know his history. Venn uses his knowledge of Brethren hierarchies and gossip networks to interpret clues, but he also struggles with the emotional pull of familiar faces.

3. What does his relationship with Jonathan reveal about him in this book?
Venn is still learning to let his guard down. He initially resists Jonathan’s offer to stay, but later admits that having him there “made him feel lighter.” The final scene, where they sit by the fire and Jonathan shares his plan to find his birth mother, shows Venn tentatively embracing emotional intimacy.

4. Why does Venn misjudge Eleanor Lawson?
He is seduced by the memory of her house and her family’s status when he was a child. Eleanor represents a kind of belonging he has never fully achieved. Her charm and her story of sacrificing love for duty appeal to his own sense of duty. He projects onto her the role of tragic heroine, missing the reality of a woman who killed to preserve her fantasy.

5. What does his final conversation with Jonathan signify about his character growth?
Venn admits he was “duped” and that his childhood nostalgia “coloured my sense of the place and of her.” This self‑awareness marks a rare moment of vulnerability. He also supports Jonathan’s plan to find his birth mother, even though it makes him anxious. The scene suggests that Venn is beginning to trust his personal life as much as his professional instincts.