Blog Tour Review, 36 Hours

36 Hours
Angela Marsons

444 pages
Bookouture
published December 10, 2024

Amazon | Apple | Kobo | Google | Goodreads

About the book

Kim clutches the note tightly as her pulse starts to race. You have 36 hours. If you follow the instructions, no one will get hurt…

When Detective Kim Stone is woken before dawn because local journalist Tracy Frost wants to show her a message, she’s not impressed. But her blood turns cold when she reads the note. She has 36 hours to follow a trail set by an anonymous challenger. If she fails, people will die.

Kim’s gut tells her this is no hoax. She summons her team, desperate to prevent what lies ahead. With minutes to spare, they solve the first cryptic clue. It leads to a box hidden deep in the woods, containing a second clue and a tape. As she listens to the recording of a heart-wrenching scream, Kim knows her enemy will go to any lengths to achieve his goals… and that she must draw on all her experience of evil men to understand what is driving him.

Refusing to blindly follow orders, Kim and the team turn the killer’s clues against him, using evidence buried deep in the tapes to find where he’s hiding his victim. But they are too late… And then, as the sun rises on the second day, someone else goes missing. This time, it’s a skilled surgeon, and if they don’t save her, an eight-year-old girl will die.

Exhausted and enraged, with her bosses watching every step she takes, Kim realises the only way to win is to break the rules. But with the clock ticking, can she find the twisted mind behind this murderous game before her time runs out?

From the no.1 bestselling author Angela Marsons, 36 Hours is a pulse-pounding race against time that will not let you stop reading for a second. Perfect for fans of Karin Slaughter, Robert Dugoni and Val McDermid.

Can be read as a standalone.

My Review

This was such a clever concept to change things up a little.  Kim and her team are still investigating a case, but this time the case came to them, hasn’t yet happened and has a countdown.  It made it feel different yet still familiar.

This is one of my most favorite crime series.  The team and their personalities along with how they investigate and what they know fit together so well.  In this one there is Tracy.  The reporter that has caused them so much grief.  It is a great play off each other.  The team’s job is to protect and the person they are working with and charged with protecting is someone they try and have nothing to do with and mistrust.  I loved the give and take in that.  Add that to the puzzles they need to solve by the deadline.  I liked the cat and mouse aspect of Kim and her team, Tracy and the criminal. It was complex but felt so easy as I read.

I was engrossed from the start and while it’s longer than my average read, it went by so quickly.  I was tense reading it because someone always ends up in jeopardy as the case progresses.  I’m always so worried it is time to show how dangerous police work is.  No hints from me on this front.

This is the first time I’ve listened to one of the series.  I liked it. Jan Cramer was a great narrator.  She really nailed bringing Kim to life.  She got the ups and the downs of the case and really kept me rapt and never wanting to stop listening.

If you like a crime novel and haven’t picked up this series, you really need to.  The way the characters grow and develop from book to book is amazing.    You can pick up any book in the series and jump right in and follow what is happening in that book.  You’ll miss the growth of the characters, but there will be nothing lacking in the read.  You really won’t be sorry.

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