Member Reviews

I didn't realise when I started this book that it was part of a series. I don't think it mattered as I think it works just as well as a standalone title. The story fairly raced along and was an enjoyable read. Great story with plenty of twits along the way to keep me guessing. Quite sad in places too - and that ending. Robert has done it again with this great book.

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Outstanding crime fiction!

"Devil's Way" is the fourth installment in the Kate Marshall series and it delivers an intense, engaging and thrilling crime story. I read the first three novels in this series and listened to the audio for "Devil's Way". Regardless of format if you like a good crime novel then this is a series not to be missed.

This can be read as a stand alone but I suggest that the series be read in order. It really impacts on the development of the characters and their relationships and adds to the depth in "Devils Way". Especially as Kate takes a back seat while trying to cope with her near death experience and needs to rely on Tristan, her partner in the agency, to get working on the case. As always, Robert Brynzda creates an underlying sense of unease throughout which, heightens the tension and keeps you wanting to listen to the end.

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This is an amazing thriller, which I loved. I have read quite a few of Robert's books now, and I have loved them all.

The story is about Kate and her assistant Tristan who set out to find a little boy called Charlie, who went missing near Devil's Way. His gran Jean shared a hospital room with Kate after Kate had a sea accident, and she asked her for help finding him.

This whole book reeled me in, and kept me reading. It was just so fantastic and I highly recommend this book, and all of the other books in the series! They are all terrific.

The audiobook narrator for this book was awesome, and I loved her voice.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book.

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Devil's Way is the 4th book in the Kate Marshall series. Although I have only read the first in the series, I easily enjoyed this one and had no problems following the story. The premise behind the case Kate is working on is a parent's nightmare, a young child disappearing on a family camping trip. Kate has a swimming mishap and is in the hospital, sharing a room with Jean, a grandmother whose three-year-old grandson disappeared eleven years ago on a family camping trip. Jean was supposed to be watching him. His body was never found. Jean hires Kate and Tristan to find out what happened to Charlie. They take the case, although they aren't sure what they will find so many years later.

Kate is a Private Investigator, a job she took on after her last, case as a police detective that was horrendous and almost cost her life. Being an ex-detective, she has excellent skills of deduction, observation, listening, interviewing/questioning, researching and putting all those pieces together. Tristan is a great partner, keeping her reined in, prodding her to put the pieces together and is a great sounding board. I love how well they work together. Because she is not at 100%, Tristan does a lot of the leg work in this one and it was nice to see his skills as well. This was an interesting mystery, with lots of clues along the way. It was more of a suspenseful mystery than a thriller that I was expecting, but it was still a great story. I had my ideas along the way and boy was I wrong, every time. Cold cases are always interesting to me, especially as they were able to find evidence from that long ago. The secondary characters were a bit shady with alcoholism, murder and plagiarism in the past, but how Kate and Tristan used that information to solve the case was so intriguing. This was a well written story that I recommend. Jan Cramer, one of my favourite narrators, does a great job with this story. Her voice for Kate and the narration of the story has just the right amount of seriousness and suspense. I will definitely be listening to more in this series.

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I haven’t read Robert Bryndza’s other books about Kate Marshall, and this got me really intrigued about it.

Kate is a private detective who was a former member of the police, currently working with Tristan. After talking to Jean at the hospital when she was there for treatment resulting from her drowning incident, Jean hired her to find about what happened to her grandson, Charlie, who was lost 11 years ago.

The investigation opened a can of worms, not directly related to Charlie’s disappearance. This was beautifully written, and I loved listening to it, the way each chapter ended was masterful in my opinion.

Often when I read or listen to mystery stories, I form a suspect in my head and I wait if I’m right or wrong. The way this story turned out surprised me. Loved it!

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#TheDevilsWay by @RobertBryndza is the 4th installment of the #KateMarshall Series. This can be read as a standalone. In this story, the historic disappearance of a young boy sends Kate into a spiral making this yet another riveting read/listen. Thanks to #Netgalley for gifting me a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

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Enjoyed the narration. Immersive and intriguing storytelling which kept me hooked throughout. Bittersweet ending. Thanks for the opportunity to listen.

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This os the second audiobook I listen from this author and although I’ve enjoyed the previous one, this book exceeded my expectations. The story is intriguing and fast paced from the first chapter to the last. The narrator was also really good and helped keep the pacing of the story. I would definitely recommend this book.

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The fourth book in the Kate Marshall series. I love how the main characters grow through this series. You can tell that Private Eye Kate Marshall and her partner Tristan Harper are still figuring out their work boundaries but Kate has a brush with death and is uncertain.
This edition leaves Kate investigating a missing child from 11 years prior. Can Kate bring peace to the family of the missing boy?

I love this series and really enjoyed this book!

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Devil's Way by Robert Bryndza and Narrated by: Jan Cramer is the fourth book in the brilliant Kate Marshall series and I have loved every page of this series. Robert is an author that never disappoints. Every book I have read or listened to, by him has been a 5 star book.
Jan Cramer the narrator was brilliant and she bought the book to life Another 5 star book

I highly recommend all of his books especially Kate Marshall series.

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Devil's Way: The chilling and addictive new Kate Marshall crime thriller by Robert Bryndza
Narration: Jan Cramer
Publisher: Raven Street Publishing
Genre: General Fiction (Adult), Mystery & Thrillers
Published: January 12, 2023

Devil's Way is the fourth book in the Kate Marshall series by Robert Bryndza. This is the first book I've read by the author and I really enjoyed it. Thanks to Kindle Unlimited, I'll be able to read all of the other books in the series! Even though I had not read the previous books, I did find this easy to read as a standalone mystery.

Let me start by saying that I found the characters fascinating! This was a fast read the kept me engaged. I loved seeing how the detectives were able to unravel this mystery! It was fascinating!

The narration by Jam Cramer was great. She really brought the story to life.

I definitely recommend reading this book! I will definitely be diving back into this series, as well as checking out other books by the author!

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

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I always adore Robert’s writing! This is the second book of his that I have picked up (once again in the middle of a very popular series - which didn’t temper my experience one bit). His writing shines so brightly when performed for an audiobook such as this and I never know how the story will end but I’m also never in a huge rush to get there. I just soak up the characters, the locations and all the little nuisances he’s sure to breathe into the work. Congratulations on another wonderful release!

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I read the synopsis of this audiobook and decided to request it through NetGalley, unbeknownst to me this is actually the fourth installment in the Kate Marshall
series. Nevertheless, it is great as a stand-alone I didn’t feel as if I was missing anything.
Devil's Way is written by Robert Bryndza and its narrated by Jan Cramer .
Audiobook: The narration of this book did not do it any justice which it’s a shame because the book is actually very intriguing in itself. But unfortunately listening the the narration was liking hearing someone scratch a chalk board with their nails.

The Story: Bryndza writes in a manner that is gripping and suspenseful all the while keeping characters as relatable as possible. He succeeds in incorporating such a brilliant setting that transports the reader into the story.

📢Narration Rating 2.0⭐️ (Being Generous)
📖 Book/Story 4.0 ⭐️


Thank you to Netgalley and Raven Street
Publishing for a free audio copy of the The
Devil's Way for an honest and unbiased review.

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This is the fourth instalment in the Kate Marshall series, as usual I picked this up on NetGalley not knowing that, but rather based on its riveting synopsis. I can’t comment on how it fits in the series, but as a standalone it was fantastic!

Private Investigator Kate Marshal wakes up in hospital after a near tragic swimming accident. There she meets and befriends Jean, a patient on the same ward. Jean tells her the harrowing story, of how her then three-year-old grandson Charlie, went missing from their campsite eleven years earlier. Kate agrees to investigate and help try to solve his disappearance.

As in his previous books, Bryndza writes with high tension and suspense, while keeping characters relatable and incorporating a brilliant sense of atmospheric setting. I’m not one to read series, but I think this is one that I’m excited to read more of. I loved PI Kate and her partner Tristan - their relationship is written with warmth, familiarity and complexities.

It’s gripping, highly entertaining, edge of your seat stuff!
Solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Many thanks to @netgalley Raven Street Publishing @robertbrynza for an advanced listening copy 🎧

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From my blog: Always With a Book

This is the fourth book in Robert Bryndza’s Kate Marshall series and I just love this series. I have been a fan of this author ever since discovering his other crime fiction series, The Erika Foster series, which I also really like, and I have to say, as much I love Erika Foster, I might just love Kate Marshall even more!

As I typically say when reviewing books in a series, this latest book of course can be read without reading the earlier books, but I HIGHLY recommending reading the series in order. Yes, the author does give some bare-bones highlights of what has come before, but of course I always think it is best to have read the earlier books in order to have a richer reading experience. But do know that each book is a self-contained case, so if you do pick this one up and enjoy it, perhaps it will entice you to go back and start the series from the beginning.

This book deals with a trope that can sometimes be a little tiresome, but in Robert Bryndza’s hands it was anything but – that of a missing child. It was a cold case and the more Kate and Tristan looked into it, the more questions the seemed to come up with. This case is not quite as straightforward as they thought it would be.

I loved all the twists and turns this book took. It was an engaging, heart-racing plot that kept me gripped to the storyline from start to finish. It was also quite emotional at times, which I was not expecting. I kept thinking I had things worked out, but the red herrings fooled me time and again, which I loved!

I’ve enjoyed all the books in this series, but this just might be my new favorite…that is until we get to the next one! And hopefully there will be another one? I guess time will tell.

Audio thoughts: I decided to listen to this one and was pleasantly surprised to see that Jane Cramer was narrating the book. She has narrated all of the books in Robert Bryndza’s Erika Foster series and I just love her narration in those books. She really does a great job bringing the story to life, giving the characters their own voices. Her pacing and intonation are spot on and she infuses just the right amount of tension and suspense into her voice as needed.

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I have been trying to add more audiobooks to my TBR and I was thrilled to be approved for a copy of this one on NetGalley. I have read one of the author’s books before and was looking forward to this one.
While I am no expert when it comes to audio, I need to say that this one was not great. I battled with this audio and found myself speeding it up. It’s only my opinion but I found the audio a little whiney which often made me turn it off.
However, the story was brilliant and despite not being crazy about the audio, I loved this intriguing search for a lost child.
This is only my second book by Robert Bryndza and I loved this twisty tale. The characters are brilliant and he manages to keep you hooked from start to end. Even when you are pretty sure you know what is coming, you are not able to drag yourself away from this one.
While lying in a hospital bed, Kate Marshall starts speaking to the woman lying next to her, which unexpectedly lands her a new case. Eleven years ago, three-year-old Charlie went missing from a remote camping site.
As Kate and her partner start digging into the past, they find themselves on a twisty road leading to a spooky tree, a remote farm and a social worker who was murdered just after Charlie disappeared. Is Charlie dead? Will Kate manage to put the pieces together and provide Jean with the closure she needs?
Stories involving children always pull at my heartstrings – even when I know it’s fiction. This story is full of twists and turns that keep you curious as the various characters are introduced and are left wondering what role they play in the little boy’s disappearance.
Kate Marshall is a curious woman. The story starts with her being rushed to the hospital after being caught in a riptide while swimming in the ocean. As a strong swimmer who swims in the ocean every day, she is left embarrassed by this. The result of salt water on her lungs leaves her battling with her health throughout the story while she is also dealing with the temptation to have a drink. As a recovering alcoholic, this woman has a lot to deal with.
I found myself engrossed by the twists and turns in this story. I have not read the other books in the series, yet I did not feel as if I was missing anything. I have added the previous books to my wish list and I look forward to finding time to read them soon
If you enjoy a well-written, twisty crime thriller that will keep you intrigued right to the final page, then you will not go wrong with this book.

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Devil's Way by Robert Bryndza

This is book four in the Kate Marshall Series. 11 years ago, a 3-year-old boy went missing from a campsite. While in the hospital recovering from an accident, PI Kate Marshall is commissioned to solve the crime. With her partner Tristan in tow, the two begin digging up the past, leading to a startling revelation about little Charlie’s disappearance.

Kate has 13 years of sobriety under her belt, is missing her son, Jake, now at university in California, runs her private detective agency with her partner, Tristan Harper, who takes a much bigger role in the complex 2018 case. She lives on the beautiful Thurlow Bay, and part of her everyday routine is waking up in the morning and going for a swim in the sea that sets her up for the day, only this time she fails to notice a deadly riptide. She almost pays with her life for this error, waking up in hospital, learning she had been rescued by 2 surfers, finding herself struggling to process the terror of what happened and its impact on her health, mentally and physically.

I really enjoyed how the characters came alive even though they where facing there own disadvantage from recovering from a recent injury. I liked the character of Kate the most. She is not the perfect crime solver but she moves forward to solve cases. I was surprised near the end how it was solved.

Narrated by Jan Cramer she did a really good job bringing the characters to life. It made for a real easy listen to this intriguing story. This was a solid four star read and I really cannot wait to read more from this author. I recommend this if you like a little mystery in your thrillers.

Thank you to Netgalley and Raven Street Publishing for a free audio copy of the The Devil's Way for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

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EXCERPT: 'Mum, is Charlie with you?' she said.

'He's not in the tent?' said Jean, feeling panic return.

'No.'

Jean pushed past her and looked inside. Both sleeping bags were empty and she felt her stomach drop.

'He must be with Joel,' she said, coming back and seeing Becky's worried face.

'No, Mum, he's not. I thought I heard him outside our tent. That's why I came out to look for him. Why aren't you with him?'

'I went for a cigarette. Just for a minute,' said Jean. The lie dropping out of her mouth without any preparation needed.

'What if he went down to the river? I don't know if it's rained, can you hear how loud the water is?' said Becky. Her voice had a tinge of hysteria.

'Let's look. Charlie can't have wandered far,' said Jean, trying to keep calm. The fact that Becky was more scared than angry frightened her.

Becky woke Joel and they all found torches and started to search, taking in the river, the rocks on the Tor, and the surrounding fields. The arcs of light from their torches swept across the dark landscape, searching. The river was higher than it had been the day before, and as Jean swung her torch over the dark, raging torrent, and called out Charlie's name, her voice seemed to get swallowed up by the darkness. She felt sick as the minutes passed, turning to an hour, then two. Charlie was nowhere to be found. Around 4am, the sky started to turn light, and this was when they called the police.

As the sun rose over the moors, a police car arrived, then two more.

The search began in earnest, but they never found Charlie.

ABOUT 'DEVIL'S WAY': When Private Investigator Kate Marshall is rushed to hospital after being pulled into a riptide current in the sea, the near-death experience leaves her shaken. During her recovery, she befriends Jean, an elderly lady on the same ward. Jean tells the harrowing story of how her three-year-old grandson, Charlie, went missing eleven years ago during a camping trip on Dartmoor.

By the time Kate is well enough to go home, she's agreed to take on the case, but when Kate and her trusty sidekick Tristan start to look at the events of that fateful night, they discover that Jean has a dark past that could have put Charlie in jeopardy.

Was Charlie abducted? Or did he fall into Devil's Way? A rushing river that vanishes into a gorge close to where they were camping.

When Kate and Tristan discover that a social worker who flagged concerns about Jean and her daughter was found brutally murdered shortly after Charlie vanished, it makes them question everything they thought they knew about the family...

MY THOUGHTS: I think this is the best of the series yet! I was riveted throughout even though I figured out what had happened to Charlie well before the reveal.

Kate and Tristan make a great team, although their relationship takes a bit of a knock in this book. And other than an admonishing phone call, Kate's son Jake is absent. I kind of missed him.

This is a multilayered mystery; it seems the more Kate and Tristan dig into Charlie's disappearance, the more mysteries and unanswered questions they uncover. Cold cases always fascinate me, and Charlie's disappearance is no exception. Things become even more interesting when Charlie's case is linked to the unsolved murder of a social worker who had more than a passing interest in Charlie.

If you are looking for a good twisty mystery, this is it.

Devil's Way can be read as a stand-alone but, believe me, you will get so much more out of it if you read this series from the beginning.

I read/listened to Devil's Way - probably listened more than read - but both formats are great. Devil's Way is brilliantly narrated by Jan Cramer.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

#DevilsWay #NetGalley

I: @robertbryndza #ravenstreetpublishing

T: @RobertBryndza #RavenStreetPublishing

#contemporaryfiction #crime #murdermystery #mystery #privateinvestigator

THE AUTHOR: Robert Bryndza was born in the UK and lived in America and Canada before settling in Slovakia with his Slovak husband Ján.

When he's not writing Rob is learning Slovak, trying to train two crazy dogs, or watching Grand Designs all in the hope that he'll be able to understand his mother-in-law, build his dream house, and get the dogs to listen.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Raven Street Publishing via Netgalley for providing both a digital and audio ARC of Devil's Way by Robert Bryndza for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review is also published on Twitter, Amazon,Instagram and my webpage

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After an accident Private Detective Kate Marshall meets Jean in hospital, where she learns of the mysterious disappearance of her grandson 11 years earlier. Jean soon decides to ask Kate to take on the case and help to find her grandson’s whereabouts and why he disappeared.



An interesting crime thriller, it started slowly but soon picked up pace with various twists and turns. This book would be good for someone who likes murder mysteries like Midsomer Murders. Unfortunately there were a lot of old fashioned cliches and stereotypical characters, which really grated on me. Ade was definitely my favourite character by far. The book was fine, but just not particularly to my taste, I prefer a more up to date style of mystery.


This is part of book series, but works perfectly fine as a stand alone.


The narrator was fine, the characters and accents were good, but I couldn’t really get on with her general narrative style.

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I've reviewed the book already, so this is a review of the audio, and I thought the narrator was excellent!

She had the tone of the book, and the series, completely nailed from the get go.

I thought Kate sounded quite whiney and pathetic in this book, and thought maybe it was to do with the narrator - but having thought about it and read some of the book digitally, it is definitely the writing not the narrator.

Congrats on a fab choice of audiobook narrator, this review is based purely on that.

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