Very dark, intriguing #CrimeThriller – Twisted Lies by Angela Marsons

Title:  Twisted Lies

Series: Detective Kim Stone #14

Author:  Angela Marsons

Publisher: Bookouture

Pub Date: May 13th, 2021 

Pages: 414

Rating:   5*

My Review:

If you enjoy crime thrillers or police procedurals, make sure you don’t miss this fascinating book and series. Even though this is the fourteenth book featuring Kim Stone, I eagerly await any sequels that are still to come! One thing that always stands out for me with these books is that, once you’ve read the Prologue, you’re immediately taken straight into the action and reconnecting with Kim Stone and her team seems to somehow just happen, no effort required. Having said that, each book builds on the previous one in terms of character development but I believe each one will still work well as a standalone – though I warn you that reading one will probably tempt you to read the others, too!

A really different aspect to Kim’s arch nemesis, investigative reporter Tracy Frost, is developed in this book as she shows a new side to her character as she endeavours to ensure a victim of domestic abuse has the perpetrator brought to justice. Meanwhile, Kim and her team work to discover the connections between a series of horrendous murders in which the victims are subjected to different forms of torture. With other police officers keeping secrets, families disappearing and others unwilling to talk, this is a very dark and twisted tale. It is a story which kept me guessing and there’s even an added, major surprise in the ending – I can’t wait to read more about that in future books!

The team work, relationships between them and the way they work to their strengths are all key to the detective work in this story. It has a variety of differently tortured victims and is definitely not for the squeamish but it is an intriguing crime thriller, written in the author’s superb inimitable manner, sharing information without glorifying the macabre nature of the crime scenes. It is a brilliant addition to the series, another page turner that I didn’t want to put down and one that left me eager to read more in the series in future. I can’t recommend it highly enough!

Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for my copy of this book which I have voluntarily read and honestly reviewed.

Synopsis:

Her stomach lurches as she sits in the windowless room. He throws her phone to the ground, grinds it against the floor with the heel of his shoe and brings his face closer to hers. There was no turning back now, her life as she knew it was gone.

When the lifeless body of a man is found on an industrial estate, Detective Kim Stone arrives on the scene and discovers he’s been tortured in the worst way imaginable.

But as she breaks the devastating news to the victim’s wife, Diane Phipps, Kim can’t help feeling that something isn’t quite right about the woman’s reaction.

Twenty-four hours later, the victim’s family disappears into thin air.

Then a second body is found staked to the ground in a local nature reserve.

Desperate to crack the case open quickly, Kim and her team unravel a vital clue – a fiercely guarded secret that links both victims and could cost even more lives.

A secret that some police officers are also protecting.

Faced with deceit from those she should be able to trust, family members who won’t talk, and local reporter, Tracy Frost, opening a can of worms on the case of a woman murdered by her husband a year ago – Kim is in deep water like never before.

Kim must find the motive if she is to find the killer who is systematically targeting and torturing his victims. But can she unlock the shocking truth and stop him before he strikes again?

An absolutely jaw-dropping crime thriller from the number one, multi-million-copy bestselling author of the incredibly addictive Detective Kim Stone series.