BAD BLOOD: Book 19 in the Detective Kim Stone crime thriller seriesAngela Marsons
415 pages
Bookouture
published November 15, 2023
About the book
The victim is lying under the trees, arms lifted above his head, unnaturally still. His muscles are slack. His eyes are empty. There are no signs of life. But he is not quite dead…
When Detective Kim Stone races to the crime scene, there is no body waiting for her: the paramedics are desperately trying to save the victim’s life. But there is something very strange about the way the man was found, his arms raised above his head, his legs spread apart. When he dies on the way to the hospital, Kim is certain she’s on the hunt for a killer… but all evidence at the scene has been destroyed.
The dead man, Eric Gould, seems ordinary, until the team dig into his past. As a teenager, he was locked away for attacking his girlfriend, and Kim suspects he was hurting his fiancé now. Was someone trying to stop history repeating?
Then another man is found on the verge of death, his bones broken to force him into an unnatural shape. The team realise the killer is sending a message – the victims’ bodies are spelling out their sins. As boys, they were both part of a group of six who bragged about their terrible crimes. But they were children then, and when she sees the grief on the faces of their loved ones now, Kim swears to find answers.
Is someone finally getting revenge… or do they think these men are still dangerous? The killer is threatening to strike again, and the only way Kim can crack the case is by tracking down the rest of the six first.
But then a revelation about what one of her team is suffering makes Kim understand why people take the law into their own hands. Do these victims deserve what’s coming to them? Or is there even more to fear from their brutal killer?
Unputdownable from start to finish, Bad Blood is a brilliantly gripping crime thriller with a reveal you’ll never see coming. Fans of Karin Slaughter, Robert Dugoni and Val McDermid will love the latest compulsive read from multi-million-copy bestseller Angela Marsons.
My Review
I know I say this every time I review another book in the series, but I think it is worth repeating. This is one of my favorite crime series. I look forward to every new book and I am never disappointed. And in case you are wondering, as I write this review, I am thinking about the next one. Already.
Kim Stone is a flawed and relatable main character. And those flaws show through in this one. But her compassion and ability to lead her team also shines. There are two storylines in this one. There is the stand alone case of someone killing seemingly unrelated men. And there is the continuation of Stacy being stalked by a man from a previous case. I always say the ones that hit close to home from the team are some of my favorites. Those cases up the risk for the team.
While I love the complexity of the case and how I kept figuring it out and then changing my mind on who the killer was, my absolute favorite part of the book is seeing how the team has grown and their lives have changed over the course of the series. While Stacey plays the biggest part in this one, there are moments with the other team members, Penn and Bryant, where you get a window into how their life outside of their career is shaping up. It is these moments that give depth to the characters and make me want to know more. And I loved how this one came full circle from the beginning to the last words.
I had some OMG moments and appreciated how the team unraveled the clues to solve the case. I did not want to put this one down and luckily I had little life to get in my way of reading. While I will always advocate to read the entire series, the author does a great job of providing enough details to let each book stand on its own.
Author Bio
Angela Marsons is the Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of the DI Kim Stone series and her books have sold more than 5 million in 7 years.
She lives in Worcestershire with her partner and their 2 cheeky Golden Retrievers.
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 (The Forgotten Woman and Dear Mother) 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 28 books in the Kim Stone series and her books have been translated into 30 languages.
Many of her books, including Blood Lines, Dead Souls, Broken Bones, Fatal Promise and Dead Memories reached the #1 spot on Amazon on pre-orders alone and the translation of Dead Souls, La Verita Sepolte, recently won the prestigious Primo Bancarella award.
To receive news of upcoming releases and also to get a free short story from Angela, please follow this link https://bookouture.com/
Leave a Reply