WEB NEWS, FEATURES & REVIEWS

According to the Bookseller, Pan Macmillan is to rejacket crime author Ann Cleeves' Inspector Vera Stanhope novels with an "atmospheric" new look.

The publisher has also delayed publication of the titles to tie in with broadcast of the ITV1 adaptation of Cleeves' novel Hidden Depths, which has now been set for September 2010.

Hidden Depths, The Crow Trap and Telling Tales will now be published on 3rd September as £7.99 B-­format paperbacks by Pan, with a new Vera Stanhope novel, as yet untitled, to be published as a £16.99 hardback on the same day by Macmillan.

Of the new look, Pan Mac senior commissioning editor Julie Crisp said: "We wanted to keep them separate from Cleeves' Shetland series but also keep the brand identity of the same typography. I wanted an atmospheric single image, nothing gory, to reflect Ann's style—which is a slow scary build, not a severed head in the fridge."

The two-hour drama, which finished filming last month, will star Brenda Blethyn as Inspector Vera Stanhope. Raven Black, the first title in Cleeves' Shetland series, will also be a BBC Radio 4 "Afternoon Play" in January.