THE STOLEN DEAD by M J White

3.5* Interesting premise; interesting female lead; but a boring male lead, and a toxic female who hates other females, and gives women a bad name. Could she really exist in 2025 UK without someone whistle-blowing? Hmm. 

This is very readable because of Cora's gift. The way she comes across the body with Boring Minshull is believable. I liked how she didn't feel the need to flex and show her girl bollocks, as her skills had enough others standing up for her. Minshull, in contrast, was slow to act, both professionally and personally, and tbh, I didn't see, read or believe any hint of a romance between them.

I felt that had he had an open mind, and not been prejudiced against a certain side character who'd brought their concerns to him - that turned out to be accurate - some of the murders might not have happened. How that didn't come out in the wssh is beyond me, losing the tale 1*.

The arc with the missing family member who had issues of his own making due to his issues with self-esteem, was unnecessary and inorganic and went nowhere, other than fulfilling that "Really guy, you didn’t see that coming?" aspect of the tale. I sincerely hoped that he'd bog back off to Oz and find himself PNG to both country and abandoned partner. 

The female senior cop, allegedly headhunted for the new position she took up was a caricature of a woman too full of her own self-importance. She bullied, belittled, bragged - all too unbelievably in 2025 UK policing that's had a bad press and that's working hard to be better. She really wasn't necessarily to the tale, and unknowingly aided and abetted the killer with her obstructive ways and oneupmanship. Let's hope she gets her comeuppance in the next tale, if she's still around. 

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Hera books for my reading pleasure.

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