RoroblusMumReadsReviews/Rants

 4* You don't have to read the previous books in the series to enjoy this (but I'm off to check the back-series now).  This wasn't quite your standard police procedural, which made it refreshing, and to get a guy who relies on evidence, plus more than meets the eye, plus instinct, paired with a cop who seeks hard evidence, made for, well, a bit of a novel novel, no pun intended. That the latter had to deal with sexism and a dishonest boss grated the tiniest, as right now, there's a feel of 'all cops are bastards to a degree' in a lot of similar novels. I think the UK's police forces are trying to root out rot, so tarring all, yeah, is a bit tiresome.  Anyway, it's a decent tale, though a sad one. Did the dead get what they deserved? Kind of. Did the killer deserve what happened to them in the years since the tragedy? Shades of grey. There was also an unexpected reveal that I couldn't quite see the authorities cooperating with, but I was fine suspendi...

4* Good intro to this series, and I wasn't lost at all. My very first, but not last, read by this author.  I'm not sure that the blurb did the book justice, as once the car was located - no spoilers - I thought the most fraught part of the tale was over. But, that's where it came alive and it became apparent that there were bad guys at the core of the tale, and some parts were really well done, and neither I nor Colter saw something coming that perhaps did have a RED herring about it.  Perhaps because I didn't fully understand the levee concept, I didn't get some of the urgency but the figuring out who was bad, good and shades of grey was pretty well done. It reminded me a little of the Mercy Thompson detective tales, but without quite the same feel of urgency. ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Harper Collins Publishers for my reading pleasure. 

Good but quite melodramatic, especially the description of kneeling at a grave, hand punched into the air, palm open, screaming your dead son's name and promising answers. This isn't my first read by these authors and I'll likely go on to read more by them. This one, unfortunately, wasn't their best, because you do have to suspend disbelief quite a bit, with a dodgy solicitor; a retired FLO who supposedly never left this unremarkable case alone; a child psych who had reservations but didn't speak up; the tale having elements from only 10 years ago, in days of CCTV pretty much everywhere but in the areas where Sam went missing; a child with clear issues, and family dynamics that weren't really believable or explained. It's like the authors tried too hard with their pale-pink, not red, herrings and it didn't work. They didn't go into enough detail, not even in the epilogue where Kane's dad wasn't even mentioned. Sigh. ARC courtesy of NetGalley ...

 3* Slightly disappointing, as it comes across as if the only person who had it hard/suffered a loss, was the side character Reza, who lost his lover, Farid. My mum came from an ethnic background and country where a gay man was publicly stoned to death in the 60s, in front of new- adult her. That was shocking, not so much the contents of this book in which Majid, not his real name, took silly risks and risked his family's safety, although he's used a pseudonym to maybe protect them, if they're still in Iran. Was I surprised at what he and his friends got up to? Yes, because they were exposing themselves publicly, and not many were discreet, or seemed to have a braincell or few. Their antics, their openness, the lack of what felt like actual danger, made this book less than it could've been. I'm not sure how I was meant to see Majid and the LGBTQIA community as oppressed and suppressed in Iran, because that's not how it came across. Despite what we're told ab...

 4* Blurb is perhaps deliberately slightly misleading but that's not a complaint, as what transpired, had me engrossed in the tale. This is perhaps only my 2nd KS book and I'd forgotten how good she is. This tale started with me thinking that wrongs were going to be righted - alluded to by the blurb - and that healing could happen. That wasn't at all the case where a personal relationship lay, but goodness, Emmy-Lou was determined to make up for the past. She's got so much on her plate with her mother who's deteriorating with dementia, with her only son who's joined the police force, with her loser ex who's still around, with her dad/boss/trainer/mentor dying of cancer - at least until events take a more shocking turn - and with her romance seemingly taking a back seat because of all of the former. But, she never stops and she never gives in. And she gets justice, sadly too late to repair some small-town relationships, but hopefully not too late to repair he...

 3* Misses the mark on several fronts, and the requirement to suspend disbelief was just a bit too much, 'nah, can't go there' for me. What's refreshing is that the book is set in the UK and doesn't have any faux gloss. But, the start is really random and you don't get an explanation of the parent-connection thing, not even at the end with what's transpired. Just a little background of Family 1 or Family 2 could've helped make it more interesting. You also don't find out about Mum 2, and why she left her daughter an orphan. You also don't find out about how bad sister could get away with what she did to her psych, and how the cops didn't pursue that incident. With Ring doorbells and CCTV times we live in, the activities of Emma and Ashleigh couldn't have been this under the radar. To have 2 female characters with A-names, especially when one's targeting the other, isn't a clever move, especially with flashbacks to 10 years and at ...

 3.5* Decent intro to this series, despite the main-lead cop who thinks with his little head. Wouldn't read more, though, because book 2 shows he's continued to do so.  OK, so there's a good premise to the tale, with plain, simple, good policing sussing out the killer's motivations, first victim and next. The killer himself did pretty well, despite as he was, to outfox the cops, horrible, horrible man that he was.  But, ugh, the make lead. Weak. Thinking with his little head and his ego. Proposing marriage to his girlfriend very shortly after they met, only to have to kowtow to her whims and sulks. Doubting them lasting, but then in book 2, he's taken the next thinking-with-his-little-head step and married her. Despite fancying his fellow cop and having a ONS with her. Ugh!!!