A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. I enjoyed this story very much and felt like I knew each character personally due to the description of them. I enjoyed the storyline. This is not my usual genre but in this instance I am extremely pleased and grateful for opening up my mind to something totally different. Thanks again.

A great book, in my opinion, and introduction to DI Eve Hunter...Eve returns to active duty after a previous incident in which many of her colleagues believe her to have been at fault...given a chance by her boss, Eve must struggle not only to solve a gruesome series of murders, but also to try and keep her team onside. Well built up storyline, with tension gradually escalating throughout...good twists right to the end!

An excellent introduction to DI Eve Taylor, this book has it all. Intrigue, mystery, suspense , an absolute page turner for those who, like me, enjoy a good crime novel. Highly recommended.

read an ARC copy of this book which i received via net galley in exchange for an honest review. Eve Hunter heads a team of serious crime investigators in Aberdeen. Returning from sick leave with a less than spotless record she is catapulted into a series of killings that seem to have no solution. Her reputation precedes her and makes difficulties with both her colleagues and the criminal fraternity.

The author has created a stunning character who has vulnerability as well as nerve, courage and determination. She' s afraid- at times very afraid - but good at putting an outer"face" on. The murders are brutal and suspect less with very little to go on. The whole team are guilty of making 2+ 2 equal 5 at times.

The narrative is so well done, plotting of time lines, twists and turns to satisfy even the most Sherlockian of readers. I had no idea where this was going - I had inklings of who might be involved but not of which character fulfilled that who -if that even makes sense.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one (although enjoyed may not be the word you should be throwing at it) and I certainly want to read more in the series

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the ARC of this book
For a first novel this was great, I convinced myself I knew who the killer was but was proved completely wrong. I would recommend this book and it really kept me gripped. Bring on the next one,

A strong debut with a confident voice and a knack for twists and turns. Its quite gritty and gruesome in places but really well written

A gritty, fast paced and gruesome crime thriller. DI Eve Hunter returns to work months after a horrific attack and is plunged into a brutal murder investigation. An enjoyable read and look forward to reading more in the series.

This is an excellent fast paced book with a twist I didn’t see coming. A new DI with ,I hope, a long series of books to come. Looking forward to the next book already.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC in return for an honest and unbiased opinion.

A serial killer with a fetish for tongues.

It’s DI Eve Hunter’s first day back at work after recovering from a serious leg injury she’d sustained while on a shout with her partner, DS Nicola Sanders. They were beaten so badly Sanders is now confined to a wheelchair while Hunter’s leg might never fully recover.

Hunter has no sooner arrived at the office when she and her team, DS Mark Cooper, DC Scott Ferguson and DC Jo Mearns are called to a murder scene. The victim a young girl has had her tongue cut out.

The team soon realise that they are dealing with a serial killer and although they dedicate every working minute to finding the maniac carrying out the murders, they always seem to be one step behind.

Deborah Masson deserves five-stars for the plot. It is unique and well researched. However, I found the characters not only one dimensional but unfortunately also not original. There are other detective series with similar themes. Lead detective, a woman with severe mental hang-ups, trying to prove that they can do the job. The only thing that kept me reading to the end was to discover who the perpetrator was.

Rony

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review.

I really enjoyed this book so much. It has a really great plot, superb main characters and I read it in one sitting. I would highly recommend this book.

DI Eve Hunter is returning to work after a harrowing previous case that left her with both psychological and actual injuries and whilst we don't know what happened in this case we are drip fed titbits during the course of the book. Not everyone is happy to see Eve though and when she is put in charge of the latest murder tensions run high,a young woman's body is found with a note pinned to her and missing her tongue and Eve is called to directly to the scene. Some of Eve's team resent her returning to work when the last case was so devastating and this changes the dynamics of the team and you can sense the distrust.
This is an exciting debut novel and I for one was firmly hooked from the first few pages, I loved that there was also an insight into the killers mind through his own thoughts interspersed throughout. All in all a very good introduction to DI Hunter and I look forward to more about her and the team.
Thank you to NetGalley for a copy of the book.

I really enjoyed this book. The first in the series of DI Eve. I look forward to more books in this series

Hold Your Tongue is Deborah Masson's debut novel and also the first of a brand new detective series featuring DI Eve Hunter of Scotland Police. Eve returns to duty 6 months after a terrible accident that led to a casualty on scene and her partner ending up paralysed in hospital. This leaves a bad reputation in the police force and the Press has made sure the story follows her wherever she goes. A still reeling Eve, joins her team with the support of DCI Hastings and hopes she'll get on with it. But as soon as the hard homicide case hits the ground, things are not going to be easy for her.

Since this is a police procedural thriller, there is enough introduction giving to everyone on Eve's team, including DS Scott, who is the only friend Eve has on her team. DS Jo Mearns is the substitute to her injured partner DS Sanders, and she manages to hold a grudge against Eve which is hard to break. As you can imagine, there is a lot of tension between the team that Eve has to manage and be authoritative amidst all the media pressure that is steadily building up on the case. The killer makes sure to offer one victim per week, same MO, same victim description.

The first half of the book is full of murders, and lots of questions that Eve's team doesn't have the answers to yet. It seems like the chase has only begun but the killer is far ahead in the game and we are left with no clue and totally in dark. Fast forward a few more chapters for the real investigation to begin and the pace rises up.
If you're a lover of crime scene descriptions, you'll enjoy the gruesome murders and the meticulous details provided by the author on the on-going investigation along with forensics, pathology, and everything amusing!! The pace of the book is a bit slow at the start but speeds up as the story unravels. The last few chapters are brilliant and totally unexpected and does justice to all those first few slow chapters. I was spellbound as I did not guess for a single moment who the killer could be and totally sunk myself into the investigation. I really like the little team of DI Eve Hunter. They aren't the perfect bunch. They're an unfortunate match with many imperfections but I think that will somehow become their strength as they start working on many cases together in future. This book is a perfect serial killer premise to the start of a new thrilling series of books featuring Hunter and her team. Highly recommended to all crime thriller fans who are looking for a new strong female Detective series!

4 Stars from me

I love stumbling across the beginning of a new series and so was delighted to read Hold Your Tongue featuring DI Eve Hunter. Set in Aberdeen, this is a gruesome crime thriller and it very literally made me cringe in a few places. It's so hard not to imagine the awfulness of someone sawing away at your tongue with a breadknife!

DI Hunter was an interesting character with a boot-load of baggage, making her a perfect police lead for this style of book.

Her team were a mix of deeply loyal and deeply suspicious - again perfect for the genre. There is a history behind the suspicion and the resentment from some members of her team and this is revealed throughout the story.

Overall, this is a satisfying crime thriller with nice mix of human interest and gore and enough intrigue to hold your attention while you work out 'whodunnit'.

I look forward to reading more by Deborah Masson and I am hopefully that future books will delve deeper into the Cold Granite of Aberdeen and immerse us in even darker and more uncomfortable crimes.

Synopsis:

A brutal murder.
A young woman’s body is discovered with horrifying injuries, a recent newspaper cutting pinned to her clothing.
A detective with everything to prove.
This is her only chance to redeem herself.
A serial killer with nothing to lose.
He’s waited years, and his reign of terror has only just begun...

Introducing DI Eve Hunter, HOLD YOUR TONGUE is your new obsession.

A big thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK for allowing me to read an eARC copy of this book. All views and opinions discussed here are solely my own.

I have very mixed feelings towards this book so let me try and hash out my main issue with this one.

I think my main issue with this book is that it wasn't anything overly unique to what i've read before from other police procedural drama's. I'm not talking about the serial killer, but the actual cast of characters and those issues. Eve felt like a number of other DI's i've read about; women who are good at their job but struggling with their own personal demons which ultimately impact their job. The male character, Ferguson, who's a bit of a dick but ultimately a "good guy". The two character traits that annoy me the most though are that picked up by Mearns and then Jenkins; in almost every police book i've read where there's a female in charge there is always a female subordinate who has it out for the boss with almost no reasoning behind it and a journalist who is hell bent on destroying that female leads career. It almost just felt like caricatures at times and the character of Mearns really didn't seem to have a mind of her own for half the book and has just listened to Ferguson spew his vile everywhere. Luckily she does grow a spine and have opinions of her own, but it just felt a little too late for me. And then with Jenkins... why are the vile reporters always women who ultimately die in some horrific way?

This is what ultimately made me rate this book 3 stars rather than 4 - if it was for the plot in itself about the serial killer, that could have got a 4* rating because I did find that intriguing and honestly didn't guess the big twist at the end. I had guessed that the murderer was going to be whoever Mearns was seeing because it just seemed to jump out at the same time as the murders started, but I didn't guess who that was going to be. I did enjoy the storyline and think it was quite an intriguing and very dark plot line. I did enjoy the backstory we got of Eve and why she was off the team, but I also found it a bit jarring a times. I almost wish that had been a separate story in itself so we could have seen what she was like before and then know the impact it had on her, but overall I think this was a good start to a series - if the character stereotypes improve I can definitely see that this would be a series I would enjoy.

The flashbacks for the killer were a good addition as it let us into his brain piece by piece and really helped to drive home his narrative and why he was doing what he was doing. It also worked to set up a few red herrings and send us down the wrong path.

I'm hoping this doesn't become like the DI Helen Grace series where they're stalking a serial killer every book because you can only believe there's so many serial killers in one area.

Overall I wouldn't say this was a bad start to the series, but I just wish we'd get some police procedural stories where the characters don't all hate each other and some of the detectives actually have their lives togethe

A reasonably good crime story which was entertaining but not particularly original. The main character Eve had issues as they often seem to in lots of books in this genre.

Set in Aberdeen, Hold Your Tongue is the first book in a solid crime-mystery series featuring DI Eve Hunter, Chief Investigating Officer of the Aberdeen Police's Major Incident Team. Eve has recently returned to her job after six months on sickness absence, following a brutal attack on her and her colleague, DS Nicola Sanders, leaving Eve with a limp and Nicola paralysed. On her first day back, Eve is called upon to hunt down a serial killer in a gruesome and grisly case.

The body of eighteen-year-old Melanie Ross has been discovered with her tongue removed, and tied up with blind cords, along with evidence of puncture wounds that indicate she was drugged before being killed. When more bodies are discovered - all with their tongues removed, Eve and the team chase down all the leads they have...

Hold Your Tongue is told from various points of view, mostly from Eve with contributions from her team. This gets a thumbs up from me as it allows for a wider perspective on events without being distracting in any way. The police perspective is interspersed with chapters from the unnamed killer, alternating between their history and present day behaviour.

DI Eve Hunter makes a very rewarding protagonist. Her background story and personal struggles are as fascinating as the main plot, making the story all the more interesting. I really enjoyed the gradual revelations from Eve’s past, and finding out what happened that caused the loss of respect from her team. Deborah Masson's inspired writing was a treat and I especially liked that the team were often working in disharmony with each other, as this added a touch of reality for me.

With plotting that is intriguing and memorable, there is an abundance of twists that I did not see coming and the end where the killer is caught is a winner. Overall, Hold Your Tongue is a tremendous début that definitely leaves me wanting more from both the author and this remarkable team of characters.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel from Random House Transworld via NetGalley at my request, and this review is my own unbiased opinion.

I read this book in one evening. It was written very well with likeable characters which I quickly grew invested in! Eve the main character had many depths and I enjoyed following her story.

The ending was very tidy and no lose ends were left, which I really liked! Be interested to read a sequel...

The reason this rating is a 4 and not a 5 is that I guessed the twist!!

Regardless, it was a great book that I would recommend!

A dark police procedural set in Scotland with a damaged and guilt stricken protagonist, and the body of a young murder victim with a tongue removed and a mysterious note attached, add up to a thrilling tale of cat and mouse in the hunt for a killer.

Eve,, while well developed, feels a lot like every other detective protagonist we see in these kind of novels. She’s got a troubled past, battling memories and experiences that shape her emotions for the current case she finds herself embroiled in. It doesn’t feel particularly unique unfortunately, and at times I found her personality grating and distracting to the story. She’s just not the easiest character to warm too, and very stereotypical to the genre. I wanted more from her, and to not fall into the obvious tropes. That said, I found her interactions and relationships with her work colleagues both well thought out and realistic. All their personalities both clash and meld well together, and the tension from Eve’s previous history and resultant guilt is very apparent among the group.

The story itself is fine. It’s fast paced and easy to read, but it also feels very formulaic and predictable. There were twists along the way to the killers reveal, but they didn’t feel surprising to me, and as a result lost their impact. I found by the end I just wasn’t invested enough in the story and characters to care enough about who the killer was, and why.

An interesting premise that has some promise to develop further in the future, but a little too predictable to me.

On her first case back from a horrific attack which saw her partner, DS Sanders, severely injured, DI Eve Hunter takes on a serial killer who cuts out the tongues of their victims. Viewed with suspicion by most of her team and hampered by guilt, can Eve pull it together in time?

This was a gritty crime novel, with lots of twists and turns. I did work out the guilty party in advance but it was still an interesting read. On the minus side, I did find that DI Hunter veered perilously close to being a cliche at times with her actions (i.e. not answering the phone to the pesky reporter who had some vital information for her, etc). Overall it is a good start to a new series.

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers, Random House UK /Transworld Publishers / Corgi, for the opportunity to read an ARC.