Dead Souls – Angela Marsons

Crime Fiction
5*s

I am a huge fan of the DI Kim Stone series set in the Black Country and so it is to my immense shame that it has taken me quite so long to getting around to reading the sixth book in the series. Fortunately this explosive episode will spur me on to reading the next one which is ready and waiting on my kindle for my future enjoyment.

When routine demonstration dig for forensic archaeologists turns into a something far more practical than expected. Bones are found in the examination site and Macedonian forensic archaeologist Dr A. summons our feisty and tenacious DI to the site. Unfortunately given that DI Kim Stone has had a difficult relationship with the neighbouring force’s Detective’s, Tom Travis, for nigh on five years so she is not overly impressed when he turns up claiming that the investigation should be led by his team. Certain that Woody will back her plea for her team to continue Kim Stone is less than impressed when she’s ordered to work alongside Travis as a new model in joint investigations, pooling resources to get results.

What happens next is a tests Kim’s patience and professionalism to the max.

The joy of reading a series is to meet up with old favourite characters as much as it is to ‘solve’ the particular crime being investigated and Angela Marsons doesn’t disappoint. Although Kim is busy working with Travis to unearth (no pun intended) the old bones, her team are forced to work on without her. A suspected suicide, the horrific attack on a Polish immigrant and road traffic accident force see DS Dawson and DS Bryant pair up together for the first time which leaves PC Stacey Banks on her own in the office. I think it was an exceptionally good idea to mix the team up, with Bryant not around to rein Kim in we see another side to both of them allowing a move away from Kim’s personal problems and see Bryant appreciating other skills apart from his boss’s and it was fabulous to have Stacey in the limelight for a change, again allowing us to see her outside her usual unflappable self.

There really wasn’t much of a chance to take a breath as essentially we’re following three strands of storylines – trying to work out why the bones were on an ancient tenant farmer’s land, meeting with a vile racist intent on moving immigrants out of his area and seeing Stacey investigate under her own initiative. What would Kim Stone think?

The plotting is superb with the answers to some of the questions seemingly obvious, but of course only once I had the answers! Angela Marsons isn’t afraid to tackle some difficult subjects in her books and nowhere more so than in this one, and yet although she doesn’t shy away from exposing hate crime she does so with what I felt was some level of understanding of the subject matter so that I didn’t feel that this was a writer using the storyline as some kind of bandwagon to leap upon but something that has been researched and digested before being offered up to her readers.

I started by saying that I have the next book, Broken Bones, ready to read and I can assure you that after this explosive and exciting read and having reminded myself why I have recommended this series to so many others, I won’t be leaving it too long before reading the next in the series.

Dead Souls was my third book of the year for my Mount TBR Challenge 2018, having been bought in April 2017 it is worth another third of a book token which means I now have one book in the bank!! 

Previous Books featuring Kim Stone
Silent Scream
Evil Games
Lost Girls
Play Dead
Blood Lines

First Published UK: 25 April 2017
Publisher: Bookouture
No of Pages: 414
Genre: Crime Fiction Series
Amazon UK
Amazon US

 

New Year Book Tag!

 

I came across this tag on Bibliomaniac UK‘s blog and thought I’d have a go.

I think it originated from Bookables which is a You Tube channel. The questions also echo a few posts I’ve seen from other bloggers about books they’ve not managed to squeeze into 2017 so it seems like a good tag take part in to kick off the new year!

How many books are you planning to read in 2018?

My Goodreads Challenge has been set at 130 for the last few years and I plan to set the same goal in 2018 as this works out at 10 books per month and a bonus 10 for holidays.

This year I have read 150 which is slightly down on 2016’s total of 156 but up on 2015’s of 145.

Name five books you didn’t get to read this year but want to make a priority in 2018?

Only five?? Well here goes!

In no particular order – Dead Souls (and Broken Bones) by Angela Marsons, I love this series featuring Kim Stone and I desperately need to catch up.

Blurb

When a collection of human bones is unearthed during a routine archaeological dig, a Black Country field suddenly becomes a complex crime scene for Detective Kim Stone.

As the bones are sorted, it becomes clear that the grave contains more than one victim. The bodies hint at unimaginable horror, bearing the markings of bullet holes and animal traps.

Forced to work alongside Detective Travis, with whom she shares a troubled past, Kim begins to uncover a dark secretive relationship between the families who own the land in which the bodies were found.

But while Kim is immersed in one of the most complicated investigations she’s ever led, her team are caught up in a spate of sickening hate crimes. Kim is close to revealing the truth behind the murders, yet soon finds one of her own is in jeopardy – and the clock is ticking. Can she solve the case and save them from grave danger – before it’s too late?

The Dry by Jane Harper that has appeared on a number of Great Read lists in addition to all the fab reviews I’ve read over the year.

Blurb

WHO REALLY KILLED THE HADLER FAMILY?

I just can’t understand how someone like him could do something like that.

Amid the worst drought to ravage Australia in a century, it hasn’t rained in small country town Kiewarra for two years. Tensions in the community become unbearable when three members of the Hadler family are brutally murdered. Everyone thinks Luke Hadler, who committed suicide after slaughtering his wife and six-year-old son, is guilty.

Policeman Aaron Falk returns to the town of his youth for the funeral of his childhood best friend, and is unwillingly drawn into the investigation. As questions mount and suspicion spreads through the town, Falk is forced to confront the community that rejected him twenty years earlier. Because Falk and Luke Hadler shared a secret, one which Luke’s death threatens to unearth. And as Falk probes deeper into the killings, secrets from his past and why he left home bubble to the surface as he questions the truth of his friend’s crime. Amazon

The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books by Martin Edwards which I’m a little scared to start as I have a feeling it’s going to make me regret saying I’ll read three books before buying one new one.

Blurb

The main aim of detective stories is to entertain, but the best cast a light on human behaviour, and display both literary ambition and accomplishment. Even unpretentious detective stories, written for unashamedly commercial reasons, can give us clues to the past, and give us insight into a long-vanished world that, for all its imperfections, continues to fascinate.

This book, written by award-winning crime writer and president of the Detection Club, Martin Edwards, serves as a companion to the British Library’s internationally acclaimed series of Crime Classics. Long-forgotten stories republished in the series have won a devoted new readership, with several titles entering the bestseller charts and sales outstripping those of highly acclaimed contemporary thrillers. Amazon

And the Birds Kept on Singing by Simon Bourke, again based on some superb reviews, and I love the cover.

Blurb

Pregnant at seventeen, Sinéad McLoughlin does the only thing she can; she runs away from home. She will go to England and put her child up for adoption. But when she lays eyes on it for the first time, lays eyes on him, she knows she can never let him go.

Just one problem. He’s already been promised to someone else.

A tale of love and loss, remorse and redemption, And the birds kept on singing tells two stories, both about the same boy. In one Sinéad keeps her son and returns home to her parents, to nineteen-eighties Ireland and life as a single mother. In the other she gives him away, to the Philliskirks, Malcolm and Margaret, knowing that they can give him the kind of life she never could.

As her son progresses through childhood and becomes a young man, Sinéad is forced to face the consequences of her decision. Did she do the right thing? Should she have kept him, or given him away? And will she spend the rest of her life regretting the choices she has made? Amazon

A Patient Fury by Sarah Ward the third in the DC Childs series set in Derbyshire and I’ve got a long weekend there later this months so this one already has a bookmarked date for then!

Blurb

When Detective Constable Connie Childs is dragged from her bed to the fire-wrecked property on Cross Farm Lane she knows as she steps from the car that this house contains death.

Three bodies discovered – a family obliterated – their deaths all seem to point to one conclusion: One mother, one murderer.
But D.C. Childs, determined as ever to discover the truth behind the tragedy, realises it is the fourth body – the one they cannot find – that holds the key to the mystery at Cross Farm Lane.

What Connie Childs fails to spot is that her determination to unmask the real murderer might cost her more than her health – this time she could lose the thing she cares about most: her career. Amazon

 

Name a genre you want to read more of?

I adore crime fiction but in 2017 I read more non-fiction as well as some captivating historical fiction. There were  some books however that almost defied genre type, as with most book readers I’m looking for something different to delight me, whatever genre it fits into but I have pledged to read at least 6 classic reads to up my game in this area.

Three non book related goals for 2018?

Only the normal to try to have a healthier lifestyle, work less and get a dog.

What’s a book you’ve had forever that you still need to read?

Having finally read Room by Emma Donoghue the next longstanding book that’s been with me forever is Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old Jewish girl, is arrested by the French police in the middle of the night, along with her mother and father. Desperate to protect her younger brother, she locks him in a cupboard and promises to come back for him as soon as she can.

Paris, May 2002: Julia Jarmond, an American journalist, is asked to write about the 60th anniversary of the Vel’ d’Hiv’–the infamous day in 1942 when French police rounded up thousands of Jewish men, women and children, in order to send them to concentration camps. Sarah’s Key is the poignant story of two families, forever linked and haunted by one of the darkest days in France’s past. In this emotionally intense, page-turning novel, Tatiana de Rosnay reveals the guilt brought on by long-buried secrets and the damage that the truth can inflict when they finally come unravelled. Amazon

One word that you’re hoping 2018 will be?

Better…

2017 was a hard year for us so I’m hoping that 2018 will give us a bit of a break and allow me to spend more time reading and less time worrying.

Tag a friend…..

There’s still time to join in if you haven’t already…

 

Happy New Year – I hope 2018 is full of bookish delights!

 

 

Weekly Wrap Up (April 30)

This Week on the Blog

My first review of the week was for the novella Mother Knows Best by Netta Newbound, part of my Mount TBR 2017 challenge which I’m insanely proud to say is still on track!

My excerpt post was from The Fact of a Body by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, a murder and a memoir of a woman who confronts both her change in attitude to the death penalty and family secrets. Despite this book not being on the schedule to be read for a couple of weeks, I couldn’t put this one aside and my review will be posted shortly.

This Week in Books post included the authors Fiona Harper, Steve Robinson and Imran Mahmood.

On Thursday I was part of the blog tour with my review for Chris Brookmyre’s Want You Gone. This was my introduction to Jack Parlabane and despite the subject matter, cyber crime, being one that would normally make me switch off, I was completley hooked.

My third review of the week for the much anticipated See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt. The writing within this recreation of what might have occurred in the household where Lizzie Borden’s father and step-mother were brutally slain was incredibly evocative.

I have followed Steve Robinson’s creation of the genealogist Jefferson Tayte from the beginning of the series he stars in and yesterday I reviewed his sixth outing Dying Games – the best in the series yet in a book full of genealogical puzzles.

 

This Time Last Year…

I was reading a non-fiction book based on a Victorian true crime – The Wicked Boy by Kate Summerscale. This is the story of a crime by a child in West Ham in 1895. The disquiet in the papers covering the trial wasn’t on how boys of twelve and thirteen were treated in court but on the penny bloods that they avidly read. The fear was that by teaching the poor to read, they would feast upon this bloody fiction and in turn act upon it.

You can read my full review here or click on the book cover.

Blurb

Early in the morning of Monday 8 July 1895, thirteen-year-old Robert Coombes and his twelve-year-old brother Nattie set out from their small, yellow-brick terraced house in East London to watch a cricket match at Lord’s. Their father had gone to sea the previous Friday, the boys told their neighbours, and their mother was visiting her family in Liverpool. Over the next ten days Robert and Nattie spent extravagantly, pawning their parents’ valuables to fund trips to the theatre and the seaside. But as the sun beat down on the Coombes house, a strange smell began to emanate from the building.

When the police were finally called to investigate, the discovery they made sent the press into a frenzy of horror and alarm, and Robert and Nattie were swept up in a criminal trial that echoed the outrageous plots of the ‘penny dreadful’ novels that Robert loved to read.

In The Wicked Boy, Kate Summerscale has uncovered a fascinating true story of murder and morality – it is not just a meticulous examination of a shocking Victorian case, but also a compelling account of its aftermath, and of man’s capacity to overcome the past. Amazon

Stacking the Shelves

Another week where the book post has been on the light side with no review copies delivered, I’m not panicking yet but luxuriating in a steadily decrease in the TBR pile – yeah right!!

I purchased a copy of Saturday Requiem by Nicci French, the sixth in the Freida Klein series which will be for holiday reading – love this series which deliver brilliant psychological thrillers each time.

Blurb

Thirteen years ago eighteen year old Hannah Docherty was arrested for the brutal murder of her family. It was an open and shut case and Hannah’s been incarcerated in a secure hospital ever since.
When psychotherapist Frieda Klein is asked to meet Hannah and give her assessment of her she reluctantly agrees. What she finds horrifies her. Hannah has become a tragic figure, old before her time. And Frieda is haunted by the thought that Hannah might be as much of a victim as her family; that something wasn’t right all those years ago.
And as Hannah’s case takes hold of her, Frieda soon begins to realise that she’s up against someone who’ll go to any lengths to protect themselves . . . Amazon

And my pre-order of Dead Souls the latest, also the sixth in the series, of the Kim Stone series by Angela Marsons was duly delivered to my kindle on 28 April 2017. This series is one of the best of recent years and the early reviews promise great things!

Blurb

When a collection of human bones is unearthed during a routine archaeological dig, a Black Country field suddenly becomes a complex crime scene for Detective Kim Stone.

As the bones are sorted, it becomes clear that the grave contains more than one victim. The bodies hint at unimaginable horror, bearing the markings of bullet holes and animal traps.

Forced to work alongside Detective Travis, with whom she shares a troubled past, Kim begins to uncover a dark secretive relationship between the families who own the land in which the bodies were found.

But while Kim is immersed in one of the most complicated investigations she’s ever led, her team are caught up in a spate of sickening hate crimes. Kim is close to revealing the truth behind the murders, yet soon finds one of her own is in jeopardy – and the clock is ticking. Can she solve the case and save them from grave danger – before it’s too late? Amazon

What have you found to read this week? Do share, I’m always on the lookout for a good book!

Since my last post I’ve read 4 books and gained just 2 which means we now have a sustained decline to 185, Only 1 book more than the first TBR count of 2017!!!
Physical Books – 112
Kindle Books – 59
NetGalley Books – 14

Dead Souls – Elsebeth Egholm

Crime Fiction
4*’s

Dead Souls is the second book in the series that features Peter Boutrup, a convicted criminal, Detective Mark Bille Hansen and diver Kir Røjel who live in Djursland, Denmark. Although this book is readable as a standalone the back-stories to these three characters made me wish I’d read the author’s first book, Three Dog Night, first.

In true Scandinavian-noir fashion, there are multiple strands to the story. Peter is having problems with a biker gang and grieving over the loss of his friend My when he is approached by her mother to track down her eighteen year old son Magnus who has disappeared. Peter is a con with a heart and is moved to help her out. Meanwhile at the convent where he works a young girl is pulled from the moat and Peter was the last person to see her alive. Mark Bille Hansen questions Peter but he has few details to tell the Detective it having been a cold dark wintry Halloween night when he saw her talking to a man dressed in black. Meanwhile Kir Røjel has been on a dive to discharge mines left over from the war when she finds a box full of bones which leads to historical investigation that may be connected with the war.

I often find Scandinavian crime quite brutal, this one is no different and it certainly wouldn’t suit the more squeamish reader but it just about treads the line of the descriptions being relevant to the story. There are a lot of characters to follow with multiple persons of interest to keep track of and ponder on their motives as the investigation widens along as the number of bodies pile up. As each of the protagonists has at least one theory for the link between the old bones and the newly murdered bodies the number of suspects grows and the author maintains the tension by allowing the protagonists to get themselves into some sticky situations.

Comparisons have been drawn by the marketing department between Elsebeth Egholm and Camilla Lackberg and Jussi Adler-Olsen; I haven’t read any of the latter and although the multiple strands particularly using a historical thread is reminiscent of Camilla Lackberg’s books there is far less of the personal lives of the protagonists or anything remotely cosy to give the reader the lighter moments which she uses for relief. As much as I enjoyed this book it was a fairly bleak read with some truly horrendous characters from the bikers to the murderer, from the mother’s of the disappeared to the leader of the investigation who had clearly suffered a sense of humour bypass. Not a book to read if you need cheering up but this has a good plot with some interesting historical detail about what happened in Denmark during the war.

I’d like to thank the publishers Headline who allowed me to read this book via bookbridgr in return for my honest opinion.

WWW Wednesday (December 3)

Hosted by Miz B at Should be Reading

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…
• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

I am currently reading Dead Souls by Elsebeth Egholm which is billed for fans of Jussi Adler-Olsen and Camilla Lackberg.

Blurb

On All Hallows’ Eve, ex-convict Peter Boutrup is visiting his best friend’s grave when her estranged mother appears. Her son, Magnus, has disappeared, and she begs Peter to look for him.
The next day a young nun is pulled out of the moat at the convent in Djursland. She has been garrotted and Peter, who works there as a carpenter, was the last person to see her alive. Meanwhile, diver Kir Røjel finds an old box resting on the seabed. Inside are human bones. They are sixty years old, but the victim had also been garrotted.
While Peter is looking for Magnus, Detective Mark Bille Hansen is assigned to the case. He is determined to link the bones in the box with the girl in the moat – but the hunt for the truth leads both he and Peter down a path so dark, they fear they may never return. Bookbridgr

I recently finished reading The Girl in the Photograph by Kate Riordan a historical novel set in a manor house with one strand at the very end of the nineteenth century and another in the early thirties.

My review will follow shortly

Next I plan to read The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty

Sophie Honeywell always wondered if Thomas Gordon was the one she let get away. He was the perfect boyfriend, but on the day he was to propose, she broke his heart. A year later he married his travel agent, while Sophie has been mortifyingly single ever since. Now Thomas is back in her life because Sophie has unexpectedly inherited his aunt Connie’s house on Scribbly Gum Island — home of the famously unsolved Munro Baby mystery.
Sophie moves onto the island and begins a new life as part of an unconventional family where it seems everyone has a secret. Grace, a beautiful young mother, is feverishly planning a shocking escape from her perfect life. Margie, a frumpy housewife, has made a pact with a stranger, while dreamy Aunt Rose wonders if maybe it’s about time she started making her own decisions.
As Sophie’s life becomes increasingly complicated, she discovers that sometimes you have to stop waiting around — and come up with your own fairy-tale ending. Goodreads

What are you reading this week? Please share in the comments box below.

Teaser Tuesday (December 2)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser this week is from Dead Souls by Elsebeth Egholm

Blurb

On All Hallows’ Eve, ex-convict Peter Boutrup is visiting his best friend’s grave when her estranged mother appears. Her son, Magnus, has disappeared, and she begs Peter to look for him.
The next day a young nun is pulled out of the moat at the convent in Djursland. She has been garrotted and Peter, who works there as a carpenter, was the last person to see her alive. Meanwhile, diver Kir Røjel finds an old box resting on the seabed. Inside are human bones. They are sixty years old, but the victim had also been garrotted.
While Peter is looking for Magnus, Detective Mark Bille Hansen is assigned to the case. He is determined to link the bones in the box with the girl in the moat – but the hunt for the truth leads both he and Peter down a path so dark, they fear they may never return. Bookbridgr

My Teaser

‘No,’ she said, her voice laden with irony. ‘She hasn’t eloped with the gardener, she hasn’t gone clubbing or joined a travelling circus, nor is she offering kisses for ten kroner on the high street because she’s getting married in the morning. She’s gone. Disappeared.’
‘Since last night, did you say, Sister Dolores?’

Do you want to read more?
Please share your teasers in the comments box below.

Friday Finds (November 14)

Hosted by Should be Reading

FRIDAY FINDS showcases the books you ‘found’ and added to your To Be Read (TBR) list… whether you found them online, or in a bookstore, or in the library — wherever! (they aren’t necessarily books you purchased).

So, come on — share with us your FRIDAY FINDS

From Bookbridgr I have a copy of Dead Souls by Elsebeth Egholm

Blurb

On All Hallows’ Eve, ex-convict Peter Boutrup is visiting his best friend’s grave when her estranged mother appears. Her son, Magnus, has disappeared, and she begs Peter to look for him.
The next day a young nun is pulled out of the moat at the convent in Djursland. She has been garrotted and Peter, who works there as a carpenter, was the last person to see her alive. Meanwhile, diver Kir Røjel finds an old box resting on the seabed. Inside are human bones. They are sixty years old, but the victim had also been garrotted.
While Peter is looking for Magnus, Detective Mark Bille Hansen is assigned to the case. He is determined to link the bones in the box with the girl in the moat – but the hunt for the truth leads both he and Peter down a path so dark, they fear they may never return. Bookbridgr

NetGalley is filling my schedule up for 2015 with Green and Pleasant Land by Judith Cutler which is due to be published 1 April 2015.

Blurb

Retired police detective Fran Harman discovers that someone doesn’t like her digging up the past when she re-opens a 20-year-old cold case.
Twenty years ago, a car was found abandoned, with a desperately ill baby in the back. The child’s mother was never seen again. Newly-retired, ex-Chief Superintendent Fran Harman and her partner Mark have volunteered to help reinvestigate, and it soon becomes clear key witnesses aren’t telling them the whole truth…NetGalley

And for the best find of the week who found this book in Waterstones and took a picture of it for me!

Crap CVs by Jenny Crompton

The email that accompanied this picture read as follows:

I was in Waterstones at lunchtime and got ever so excited when I saw a book on the shelf – I thought you had struck a deal with Penguin and gone into print.
Unfortunately upon closer inspection, I realised my error and that the book was in fact written by Jenny Crompton…….and that the cover showed a CV…
Pic attached.
Jonathan

I even had to look twice, it isn’t every day you see your name in print and I’ve had lots of comments that it actually time to update my CV!

Lastly I have one kindle find again prompted by Margot from Confessions of a Mystery Novelist whose spotlight post on Charles Todd persuaded me that I needed a copy of A Duty to the Dead. Margot reeled me in with promises of a World War I setting with family secrets and family history. Her perfectly timed post for 11 November when we are remembering those who gave their lives for us sealed the deal.

Blurb

Dedicated to helping the many wounded during the Great War, Bess Crawford receives a desperate request from a dying lieutenant while serving as a nurse aboard a hospital ship. “Tell my brother Jonathan that I lied,” the young man says. “I did it for Mother’s sake. But it has to be set right.”
Back home in England, Bess receives an unexpected response from the dead soldier’s family, for neither Jonathan Graham‚ his mother‚ nor his younger brother admit to understanding what the message means.
But the Grahams are harboring a grim secret, and Bess must, somehow, get to the bottom of it. It is her sacred duty to the dead, no matter how painful, or dangerous, that obligation might be. Goodreads

To find out more please read Margot’s post In The Spotlight: Charles Todd’s A Duty to the Dead

So what have you found to read this week?