My thanks to NetGalley and publisher Joffe Books for the ARC.

I'll first of all say that I did like the overriding story of this book, together with how the narrative is split between two timelines, 6 months apart, and two investigations.

DS Dominic Harrison and his team has, for the last 6 months, been hunting-down a serial killer nicknamed the Sheffield Strangler. The body-count of women aged over forty is inexorably mounting; all buried in shallow graves in woodland; all discovered by chance; all with the same MO, and at each site a red lipstick case is found.
The killer doesn't much like the press releases and writes to Dominic about it.

One evening Dominic reports his wife Ruth as missing. She is also a police officer, working in the undercover unit. She was also assigned to the Strangler case working the lead they had where all the women used the same dating app.
DI Claudia Nunn is pressured into interviewing Dominic as there is some kind of relationship between them. Could he have killed his wife? He maintains that the Strangler has his wife. Her body hasn't been found but there's a pool of blood on the garage floor.

Claudia's interviewing starts back at the beginning of Dominic's investigation 6 months previously, gradually coming up to date, as the hours following Ruth's disappearance move on.

There's lots to be revealed and secrets kept hidden.

However, this is such a very detailed police procedural that at some points I felt I was actually reading a police rule book as it became very "dry". I thought the emotionally-charged atmosphere was rather over-done with Claudia's self-recriminations and hand-wringing angst. And, I thought one particular chapter which exemplified Dominic in a somewhat heroic situation was completely unnecessary and had nothing to do with the plot line.

Nevertheless, if this is the start of a new series I would give another book a go - only to see if any of my negatives have been addressed.

Rebecca Bradley returns with Blood Stained that is the first book in a new series starring DI Claudia Nunn and DS Dominic Harrison.

Nunn and Harrison share a bond that is put under stress when the latter becomes the prime suspect after his wife goes missing.

The author is a retired police officer who uses her knowledge to create a very enjoyable and readable book that flows well and has many twists and turns that keep the pages turning.

This is a book I can definitely recommend and I look forward to further books in the series

Thank you NetGalley and Joffe Books for the eARC.
Unfortunately, I didn't like the book at all: to my mind the story was implausible and way too over the top as far as the protagonist, DI Claudia Nunn, is concerned. As a police officer, her feelings shouldn't be impeding her investigation to the extent they do and as for her interviewing skills, they were questionable at best, I don't think in real life she would even have been given the case. For the rest, the serial killer angle was predictable and stale. Sorry!

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

I had a few issues with this story, the main one being the choice of DI Nunn as the officer to question DS Harrison about the disappearance of his wife. Without being too spoilery, it just wouldn't happen and this novel demonstrates many of the reasons why. I found her questioning petulant and unhelpfully hostile, and prone to violent mood swings. Then towards the end she goes out to meet the Sheffield Strangler (who helpfully phones and writes to her) without back-up, and is rewarded for this at the very end by being given a new special department.

The writing was quite repetitive in places, and the number of victims climbed so steadily that the impact was diluted. Finally, it was pretty obvious to me what had happened to Ruth, although I suppose that if you hadn't guessed, the ending was a bit of a twist.

The best book I have read in ages I loved this it had great twists and turns get this as soon as you can

What a fantastic book I cannot tell you how much I have enjoyed reading it it has loads of twists and turns with a great ending all ican say is get this as soon as possible