Delighted to join the blog tour for Child’s Play by Angela Marsons today! Huge thanks to Kim Nash at Bookouture for the invitation to join and for the review copy!
Author : Angela Marsons
Title : Child’s Play
Series : DI Kim Stone #11
Pages : 359
Publisher : Bookouture
Publication date : July 11, 2019
| ABOUT THE BOOK |
Late one summer evening, Detective Kim Stone arrives at Haden Hill Park to the scene of a horrific crime: a woman in her sixties tied to a swing with barbed wire and an X carved into the back of her neck.
The victim, Belinda Evans, was a retired college Professor of Child Psychology. As Kim and her team search her home, they find an overnight bag packed and begin to unravel a complex relationship between Belinda and her sister Veronica.
With DS Penn immersed in the murder case of a young man, Kim and her team are already stretched and up against one of the most ruthless killer’s they’ve ever encountered.
Faced with hundreds of potential leads and a bereaved sister who is refusing to talk, can Kim get inside the mind of a killer and stop another murder before it’s too late?
| MY THOUGHTS |
And Angela Marsons strikes again! What a belter of a book!
Somewhere near the top of the “some things Eva gets really excited about” list, you’ll find this series. Whenever a new Kim Stone book arrives, I get immensely giddy because I know I’m in for a treat and I know that Angela Marsons will just knock it out of the park once again. Isn’t it a wondrous feeling to know you’re safe in an author’s hands?
Kim and Bryant are called out to a murder scene in one of the most innocent places you can think of : a children’s playground in a park. The identity of the victim is quickly discovered but that’s also where things become immensely intriguing. The victim’s appearance seems at odds with her lifestyle and the team struggle to find the truth amidst all this mystery. The victim’s sister is of little help, cold and distant, and refusing to talk.
Meanwhile Penn is forced to spend time with his former West Mercia colleagues when a case he worked on gets its day in court. But things do not exactly go to plan. Did Penn make a mistake? The only way to find out is to go through the entire investigation again with a fine tooth comb.
It’s absolutely remarkable when you realise this is the eleventh book in a series. But what is even more remarkable is how Angela Marsons is able to keep this eleventh book seem as fresh as the very first one. This plot is as compelling as ever but there are also other things that keep me, as a reader, utterly hooked. One of those things is splitting up the team. Having Kim, Bryant and Stacey work on one investigation and Penn on something else feels realistic and when both of those investigations grab your attention, well, you just can’t flip the pages fast enough. There’s also the introduction of new characters, for instance. Now I won’t say anything about the character the team is forced to work with but their arrival and the reaction of the team genuinely made me laugh.
Above all else though, are the topics Angela Marsons tackle. In Child’s Play, we find ourselves in the world of child prodigies. This quickly turned into quite the thought-provoking issue for me as Angela Marsons somehow made it easy to see the points of view from various sides. The parents, often ruthless and competitive, do they have their child’s best interests at heart or not? The child prodigy, often isolated, forced to study for hours on end, what sort of impact does this have on them? And what about siblings who aren’t as smart? And all the while, you’re left to wonder how the utterly brutal prologue fits into it all. I had no idea. Both investigations left me guessing until the very end.
This is what Angela Marsons does best. She always manages to come up with a hard-hitting topic that makes me think, that makes me feel rather emotional sometimes, that isn’t always easy to read. And throughout, there is Kim and her team, guiding the reader safely through an intense and intriguing investigation. Of course, there are light-hearted moments too. Thank goodness! The relationship between Kim and Bryant is one of my favourite things ever and there’s a lot of muttering going on that made me chuckle. And let’s not forget the absolutely delightfully snarky Keats!
Child’s Play is another utterly brilliant addition to this series. It’s gripping, compelling, super tense and extremely addictive. The kind of book you pick up and don’t put down again until you’ve finished it, no matter what time of night it is. I so can’t wait for the next one!
Child’s Play is available to buy!
| ABOUT THE AUTHOR |
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 3 million in 3 years.
She lives in the Black Country with her partner, their cheeky Golden Retriever and a swearing parrot.
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 16 books in the Kim Stone series and her books have been translated into more than 27 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.
Novel Deelights 
Isn’t this one just as perfect as the others?? 😀 xxx
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