I have watched the Vera show for years along with Shetland and the short lived The Long Call. I had read the first book years ago and Vera Stanhope is only in it briefly and the book was long and the writing a little stilted so I didn’t pick up more. Then I thought to listen to them as an audio book and started with the books The Long Call was based on. I still find her writing style a little odd but it’s much better as an audiobook. I listened to the two that were available, put a hold on the third and started to listen to the rest of the Vera series,

I do enjoy the mysteries and The Glass Room is a fun, lighter retro one involving a writing retreat, authors, murder, the titular glass room and mysterious bowls of fruit.

My major issue with the books is the unrelenting fatphobic comments about Vera. Nearly every time she’s mentioned we are told she is fat. We get it! This is book five!

It is really at the point where it seems like sloppy writing and unbelievable. Do grown adults refer out loud to others as “that fat one” or “that fat woman” or the “fat detective”. To other people? To the woman they are talking about’s colleagues during a murder investigation? Nearly every character does this! They are all grown, often very educated adults but they refer to Vera as fat uniformly instead of her name or rank no matter what the situation or how many times they met and talked with her or how pleasant the interaction.

It would unrealistic if it was supposed to be children but it is every adult she encounters and happens in very single book, nearly every chapter. It is not used as short hand to show how mean or unpleasant a character behaves. They are all like this.

Vera also is depicted as being quite fast and nimble and of course we are reminded that this is true “despite her size” or appearance but why does this continue to surprise her colleagues when they have seen her move like this in every book?

It’s so strange and distracts from my enjoyment of what are otherwise entertaining books.

I did feel like the solution here was one that was difficult to guess since we weren’t told much backstory for some of the characters. There were clues (those mean writing critiques had to be at the center of it and were mentioned a few times) but there was no way to know the real details by reading the rest of the book.

Oddly this is one of I think two books in the series that hasn’t been made into an episode. It seems the most like an Agatha Christie-esque story so that may be why but it’s also why I think it would be fun on screen.