Evie Porter has everything a nice, Southern girl could want: a perfect, doting boyfriend, a house with a white picket fence and a garden, a fancy group of friends. The only catch: Evie Porter doesn’t exist.
The identity comes to Evie Porter. Once she’s given a name and location by her mysterious boss Mr. Smith, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it. Then the target: Ryan Sumner. The last piece of the puzzle is the job.
Evie isn’t privy to Mr. Smith’s real identity, but she knows this job will be different. Ryan has gotten under her skin, and she’s starting to envision a different sort of life for herself. But Evie can’t make any mistakes–especially after what happened last time.
Because the one thing she’s worked her entire life to keep clean, the one identity she could always go back to—her real identity—just walked right into this town. Evie Porter must stay one step ahead of her past while making sure there’s still a future in front of her. The stakes couldn’t be higher–but then, Evie has always liked a challenge…
Review:
It’s been a long time since I’ve read a thriller than I enjoyed as much as this one, damn this was so good. I was hooked instantly and then the really early twist really had me captivated and my attention never wavered the entire time. I didn’t reread the synopsis before I started and I think that amped up my enjoyment even more, something about not knowing at all what to expect was so fun and just kept me super engaged. So the less you know the better here but if you like con stories, lots of well executed twists and turns and a smart mystery that will leave you guessing throughout this was really great!
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 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.
Review:
Somehow this is number 19 in the Kim Stone series and if you’re thinking there is no way that a series could go on for this long and still be just as exciting and well written as the very first book you would be wrong. I have rated every single one of these books five stars and I’m not sure there is another series out there that has been rated as highly by me. That’s really saying something too, because I am the kind of reader who adores a series and I am an devoted reader of so many of them but few can hold a candle to this one, it is definitely one of my very favorites.
One of the things I’ve enjoyed the most about Kim as a character is how very black and white she views the world. She is confident in her beliefs and rarely goes back and forth about situations after she’s made a decision for herself or her team. This book explored the gray areas of life where there isn’t always an easy answer and it was fascinating to see Kim navigate uncharted waters. Vigilante justice plays a role in one of the cases Kim and crew are working and that’s a concept that always gets me thinking. In Marsons skilled hands she leads the reader down a dark and dangerous path alongside the team and the entire ride was suspenseful, entertaining and wholly satisfying. Besides an intricate plot in terms of the team’s caseload, you also have some happenings that have shifted the dynamics between Kim, Bryant, Stacy and Penn. This added an emotional layer to the story and it also added even more depth to the fantastic characterization that I’ve come to expect from the author. If you like very well written crime fiction with incredible characters, fast pacing and complex plotting this one is a must!
ON ASHER LANE, SOME SECRETS ARE WORTH KILLING FOR…
Simone’s mother was murdered when she was thirteen. When her father was convicted, everything changed. Overnight, Simone went from living in a wealthy white neighborhood to scraping by.
Ten years later, Simone has given up on her dreams and lives a quiet life, writing book reviews and getting serious with her boyfriend. But with a true crime documentarian hounding her for a scoop and a surprise encounter with her childhood next-door neighbor, Hunter, the past seems set on haunting her. And after Hunter reveals that his father and her mother had a years-long affair, Simone is determined to find out who really killed her mother.
Simone is convinced that all evidence points to Hunter’s father, a renowned judge who had everything to lose if his affair—and his nascent love child—came to light. Playing the game from all sides, Simone enlists Hunter’s help in her investigation into his family—whether he realizes it or not. But is she so desperate for closure that she’ll risk imploding her carefully rebuilt life?
Review:
This one was a little all over the place for me, I think it needed to pick a lane and stick with it instead of toeing the line. At times it felt like I was reading a romance book with toxic drama and then others it felt like I was reading a good case suspense novel. (Super light on the suspense) The failure to distinguish between what it was trying to do lost me unfortunately, but despite debating putting it down I did finish it. That always makes me think there’s something about the authors writing that kept me captivated so gotta give credit there. The suspense aspect fell flat for me as well as I found the twist to be predictable and easy to see coming. I did like the way the author discussed race in relation to criminal cases and found their observations and commentary to be sharp but overall this just wasn’t for me.
Novelgossip 