Review: Play Dead by Angela Marsons

Series: D I Kim Stone #4   

Title: Play Dead

Author: Angela Marsons

Publisher: Bookouture

Date of Publication: May 20th, 2016

Rating: 5/5

My Review:

Angela Marsons has done it again – written a powerful, chilling police investigation which had me enthralled from start to finish. This is the fourth superb mystery starring Detective Kim Stone, someone that has problems relating to others at times but is, nevertheless, excellent and tenacious about solving her cases. You don’t have to have read the other books in the series to appreciate this one – but I suspect you’ll want to after reading this one!

This author brings to life the characters, scenarios and events with such skill, making it easy for the reader to feel the fear, stress, trauma, anger or whatever the characters are purporting to feel. Kim Stone is a complex character, not initially likeable but her brashness is the perfect contrast to several members of her team but especially Bryant. Their banter demonstrates his respect for her and her skills, often adding humour to the story. In this story more of Kim Stone’s upbringing is revealed, helping explain some of her behaviour and attitude towards potential relationships.

This story concerns the somewhat ritualistic murder of several young women, with a side investigation into the closed unsolved case of a man found with his fingers removed. The site where the women’s bodies are discovered is on land neighbouring the local ‘body farm’. As Kim and her team strive to discover the significance of the location, the links between the victims and to prevent their being any additional killings childhood events prove significant. The character development for key characters from this and earlier books in the series continues, bringing them to vivid life in the imagination of the reader. This is a powerful, psychological thriller with plenty of unanticipated, dramatic twists and turns making it one you really don’t want to put down till the very end – definitely a five star read I have no hesitation in highly recommending!

Thanks to the publishers for gifting me an ARC of this novel, via NetGalley, in exchange for my honest review.

Synopsis:

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 …?

This book is available from a variety of sources including

amazon.co.uk           amazon.com          barnes and noble