Play Dead by Angela Marsons

Bookouture (14 May 2016)

The Blurb . . .

The dead don’t tell secrets… unless you listen.

The girl’s smashed-in face stared unseeing up to the blue sky, soil spilling out of her mouth. A hundred flies hovered above the bloodied mess.

Westerley research facility is not for the faint-hearted. A ‘body farm’ investigating human decomposition, its inhabitants are corpses in various states of decay. But when Detective Kim Stone and her team discover the fresh body of a young woman, it seems a killer has discovered the perfect cover to bury their crime.

Then a second girl is attacked and left for dead, her body drugged and mouth filled with soil. It’s clear to Stone and the team that a serial killer is at work – but just how many bodies will they uncover? And who is next?

As local reporter, Tracy Frost, disappears, the stakes are raised. The past seems to hold the key to the killer’s secrets – but can Kim uncover the truth before a twisted, damaged mind claims another victim …?

My thoughts . . .

Play Dead sees the return of D.I. Kim Stone in this superbly written, fourth instalment of the series, in which Stone and her team are sent to visit the local 'body farm' where they discover the body of a recently murdered young woman. As the investigation continues and the body count grows, Kim must uncover the past to determine the future and stop one of her personal nemesis' becoming a victim.

As always, told in the third person, the chapters are well thought out and detailed enough to make the book work as a stand alone novel, but not overly repetitive with details from previous books that serial readers are bored. In fact, Marsons manages to add something new to the back stories in all her books, building on the depth of the characters and making you fall in love with them a little more with each book you read.

I quite simply adore Marsons writing, she makes me laugh, cry, gasp out loud in surprise and leaves me breathless with her plot twists and turns.

Her books are phenomenal and Play Dead is no exception, it is an utterly awesome read with shockingly brilliant, stomach churning twists and heart-breaking revelations, you are in for an absolute treat with this one.

I could write pages and pages about Angela's books (just look at my other reviews!), I really could, but the fact is, they are brilliant, in every way, shape and form, so just go and buy them, read them and I promise you will not be sorry!

I would like to thank the publishers Bookouture and Net Galley for providing with a copy in exchange for my honest review.

About the author . . .

Angela Marsons is the author of Amazon #1 Bestseller SILENT SCREAM.

She lives in the Black Country with her partner, their bouncy Labrador and a swearing parrot.

She first discovered her love of writing at Junior School when actual lessons came second to watching other people and quietly making up her own stories about them. Her report card invariably read "Angela would do well if she minded her own business as well as she minds other people's".

After years of writing relationship based stories (My Name Is and The Middle Child) Angela turned to Crime, fictionally speaking of course, and developed a character that refused to go away.

She is signed to Bookouture.com for a total of 8 books. The second, third and fourth books in the Kim Stone series, EVIL GAMES, LOST GIRLS and PLAY DEAD are also now available.

Lost Girls by Angela Marsons

Zaffre (22 Jun. 2017)

The Blurb . . .

Two girls go missing. Only one will return.

The couple that offers the highest amount will see their daughter again. The losing couple will not. Make no mistake. One child will die.

When nine-year-old best friends Charlie and Amy disappear, two families are plunged into a living nightmare. A text message confirms the unthinkable; that the girls are the victims of a terrifying kidnapping.

And when a second text message pits the two families against each other for the life of their children, the clock starts ticking for D.I. Kim Stone and the squad.

Seemingly outwitted at every turn, as they uncover a trail of bodies, Stone realises that these ruthless killers might be the most deadly she has ever faced. And that their chances of bringing the girls home alive, are getting smaller by the hour...

Untangling a dark web of secrets from the families' past might hold the key to solving this case. But can Kim stay alive long enough to do so? Or will someone's child pay the ultimate price?

My thoughts . . .

In the third instalment of Marsons D.I Stone series, the team are faced with the agonising task of finding two young girls who have been kidnapped. Stone is requested to lead the investigation by one of the mothers, who, it turns out was in the social care system with Stone when they were younger. The team have to take their investigation to the home of one of the parents due to a media and force blackout. I'm not sure if this procedurally correct in real life however I trust Marsons, and it made for an interesting read in terms of the dynamics between the police and the victims’ parents.

Marsons' really got underneath the skin of the parents. The way she portrayed their anguish and pain was utterly outstanding, the emotions felt at every point of the investigation are written in such a way that you can almost imagine that it is you going through this horrendous event. Marsons really has you questioning yourself, what would you do in this situation? How far would you go for the ones you love? And not just in Lost Girls, she has a real ability with her writing to bring out your deepest fears and face them head on (I typically get to these points when I'm in a public place, ask the people I commute with - tears and gasps of shock on the bus at 7.30 a.m. are quite amusing to my fellow passengers!)

The relationship between Stone and her team is beginning to really develop, The characters are quite stereotypical, the dependable girl, the good looking charmer, the hard-nosed boss and the side-kick who can control her with the team dynamics being clear, Bryant is Stone's one and only friend, Stacey is the dependable one, always there ready to back the team up with any information they need and Kevin is the young womaniser, who so far has been a bit of a liability, not always with his mind on the job and allowing his personal life to interfere with his work. Over the last three books, the team have shone together, really upping the ante as it were in regards to their understanding of each other and, surprisingly Kevin has really come into his own in this one, even changing Stones' opinion of him.

When the investigation starts to heat up, the pace runs at a million miles an hour really getting your blood pumping, heart pounding and tears flowing!

I am glad that we don't have to read all about Stones' past in every book, as a standalone novel you get enough information to know that something terrible happened, but not too much so that people who have read the others get fed up of it.

Once again Marsons has produced an exquisitely captivating story which will leave you breathless, make you dig deep to your inner most fears and wonder in awe at the brilliance Marsons’ continually produces.

I’d like to thank myself again for buying this book!

About the author . . .

Angela Marsons is the author of Amazon #1 Bestseller SILENT SCREAM.

She lives in the Black Country with her partner, their bouncy Labrador and a swearing parrot.

She first discovered her love of writing at Junior School when actual lessons came second to watching other people and quietly making up her own stories about them. Her report card invariably read "Angela would do well if she minded her own business as well as she minds other people's".

After years of writing relationship based stories (My Name Is and The Middle Child) Angela turned to Crime, fictionally speaking of course, and developed a character that refused to go away.

She is signed to Bookouture.com for a total of 8 books. The second, third and fourth books in the Kim Stone series, EVIL GAMES, LOST GIRLS and PLAY DEAD are also now available.

Evil Games by Angela Marsons

Bookouture (29 May 2015)

The Blurb

The greater the Evil, the more deadly the game…

When a rapist is found mutilated in a brutal stabbing, Detective Kim Stone and her team are called in to bring a swift resolution. But as further disturbing events come to light, it soon becomes clear that there is someone even more sinister at work.

With the investigation gathering momentum, whilst also trying to expose the secrets of a sick paedophile ring, Kim finds herself in the sights of a lethal individual undertaking their own twisted experiment.

Pitted against a dangerous sociopath who seems to know her every weakness, for Detective Stone, each move she makes could be deadly. As the body count starts to mount, Kim will have to dig deeper than ever before to stop the killing.

And this time - it’s personal.. . .

My thoughts . . .

Well, what I can say?

After reading Silent Scream in one sitting and being blown away by Marsons' writing, I wasn't sure if this second instalment would live up to the same level of brilliance ... I'm so glad that it did!

In Evil Games, DI Kim Stone and her team are back and working on the case of the Dunn family, who have just been torn apart after an eagle eyed teacher realised that daddy was being more than just a good daddy. Now, the CPS have decided that they may not have enough evidence and may throw the case out, Stone and the team are frantically trying to tie up any potential loose ends to ensure a conviction. Then, following the discovery of a dead body, seemingly an unprovoked attack on an innocent man, we are introduced to Dr Alex Thorne and my gosh, what an absolute bi*ch she is!

The Dunn family are going through hell, their daughters are involved in a paedophile ring, the 2 little girls are taken into care and all this brings back memories for DI Stone, deep buried memories, once again forcing her to look at her past and all those feelings she has boxed away.

To be able to render a reader to feel such hatred towards a fictional character is an amazing skill and Marsons has it in buckets. She clearly researched every inch of the world of psychology and sociopaths and created a character beyond loathsome. Dr Thorne uses her skills as a psychologist to manipulate the vulnerable but how and, more importantly, why?

I found Dr Thorne absolutely fascinating, the insights into the workings of the human mind that Marsons brings to the table are brilliant.

DI Stone is cold and hard and harsh, she doesn't mince her words, she doesn't fake emotions, she doesn't suffer fools but she doesn't share either, and when her past starts to be brought into the present, we start to see more of that softer side, the surprisingly sympathetic elements which we saw glimpses of in Silent Scream. DI Stone is so eloquently written, the layers Marsons has created to build up this broken girl and create a woman with such a fierce determination to ensure that justice is brought to those who deserve it, are so deep and meaningful, she is a delight to read, and it really is a pleasure watching how she is starting to let those defences down, little by little.

Marsons could very easily have used each of these plots in their own books and delved into each story line a lot deeper and for a lot longer, and in all honesty, parts of me wished she had, however thinking about it, that's not real is it? Criminals don't gather together at the start of the month and decide who will commit their crimes and when, they don't create a schedule so that the police have the time to investigate and solve one before moving on to the next, the police force aren't that lucky! And, thinking about it some more now, I'm actually glad that this happened, it's not very often you get a story in which the different plots don't end up twisted together and that was really refreshing!

I want to talk and talk and talk about Dr Thorne for ages but it's too hard to discuss her without giving anything away, so I will leave her for now and let you discover for yourself, just look out for her and be warned ... You will love to hate her and Angela, if you read this, please please please don't let that be the last we see of her! She would be my vote for the Dead Good Readers Dr Lecter Award for Scariest Villain without a shadow of a doubt!

Evil Games made me laugh out loud (the famous larger advert reference), cry (too many parts to mention) and made me hate (Dr Thorne and ... read it and find out!), there are lots of things going on in this book, twists that had me gasping out loud on the bus, turns that made me want to scream and an ending that left me desperate for more.

You will not put this down, you will not sleep and you will love every second of it!

I would like to thank myself for buying this book (Emma you are great!), I was kindly sent Silent Scream (book 1) and Play Dead (book 4) by Net Galley and Bookouture and, as Evil Games is book 2 I didn't want to read them out of sequence. That is totally my preference though, each of these books works brilliantly as a stand alone novel.  

About the author . . .

Angela Marsons is the author of Amazon #1 Bestseller SILENT SCREAM.

She lives in the Black Country with her partner, their bouncy Labrador and a swearing parrot.

She first discovered her love of writing at Junior School when actual lessons came second to watching other people and quietly making up her own stories about them. Her report card invariably read "Angela would do well if she minded her own business as well as she minds other people's".

After years of writing relationship based stories (My Name Is and The Middle Child) Angela turned to Crime, fictionally speaking of course, and developed a character that refused to go away.

She is signed to Bookouture.com for a total of 8 books. The second, third and fourth books in the Kim Stone series, EVIL GAMES, LOST GIRLS and PLAY DEAD are also now available.