*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for my honest review*

A great thriller - I would recommend it!

Chilling, twisted and disturbing, The Scarecrow Killer is the latest nail-biting thriller featuring Detective Cassie Rowan from award-winning author Margaret Murphy.

After a particularly grueling night shift, Detective Cassie Rowan just wants to get home as quickly as possible. But while driving back to her house, she gets a huge shock when her headlights catch a flash by the side of the road that has her pulling over and calling the emergency services. What Cassie sees stops her short, but little does she realise that her nightmare is only just beginning. A week later, on the same stretch of road, seventeen-year-old Damian Novak is killed in a hit and run accident. Nobody has seen anything and nobody knows what happened, but Cassie cannot shake off this feeling that there might be more to the teenager’s death than meets the eye.

Damian is not the first of his friends to die in strange circumstances and Cassie is positive that he won’t be the last – unless she uncovers what really happened. Determined to do whatever it takes it takes to catch this dangerous killer before another body is found, Cassie vows to move heaven and earth to put this ruthless murderer behind bars – even if it means putting herself in danger. Can Cassie find the Scarecrow Killer in time? Or is she already far too late?

Tense, taut and thrilling, The Scarecrow Killer is a shocking, heart-pounding and terrifying chiller where the pages just turn themselves. Margaret Murphy never fails to deliver a hair raising read that leaves readers up way past their bedtime and checking to make sure they bolted their doors and windows and in The Scarecrow Killer she triumphs once again with a compulsively readable thriller that I struggled to put down.

Fast-paced, nerve-jolting and hugely enjoyable, with The Scarecrow Killer the fabulous Margaret Murphy doesn’t miss a single beat.

Highly recommend this one. Great read ! Easy to read. Very scary and thrilling at the same time. Horror fans would like this.

The second book in the Detective Cassie Roman series
And what a good read it was
Lots of twists and turns
A book that doesn’t disappoint
Thanks NetGalley

I couldn't put it down, it was gripping with twists aplenty which kept me guessing all the way through

Fabulous!! This was a great story which I could not put down. Would recommend this to everyone who loves this genre.

I didn’t realise this was book 2 of a series, but it’s one that reads well as a standalone. I found this book hit and miss. Sometimes I was gripped and desperate to know what happened next, but the rest of the time I was bored and wondering when it would end. I found it hard to connect to the characters, nor did I particularly care what happened to them, which I imagine is why I struggled with the book. Still, it was worth a read, but I can’t say I’d continue on with the series. Thank you to Netgalley, the author and publisher, for a chance to read and review this book.

Kept me gripped from the very first page, it certainly Kept me on the edge of my seat, and guessing throughout. Its the first book I've read by the author and I'm looking forward to reading many more!

Thank you Netgalley. This was just an ok read for me. I am a huge fan of thriller and mystery but this fell flat for me. The characters were not very likeable or relatable. The writing was compelling end kept me hooked until the end of the book. I am hoping the next one in this series grabs me more thsan this one.

I loved this book, right up to the last chapter or two. I feel like the story could have gone multiple different ways, I was waiting for a shock twist that never came, very good read but feel it was rushed too much at the end.

Thankyou to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this ARC.
This is my first title from this author, i really enjoyed and will be reading more from them in the future.
This book is a second book in a series but i was able to follow it along.
This book was a tad scary but i did really enjoy it.
This book was well written and the characters were well written and well developed.
Thankyou
4/5 stars

I didn’t realize that this was a 2nd book but read it anyway. It read fine as a stand alone book. This has some creepy vibes but also a good story about good people trying to take pride in their land and businesses while dealing with the problems and crime that drug dealers and rival gangs bring with them.

To begin with, even though this is book number two in the series, it can be read entirely as a stand-alone with no problem. There are a couple of instances where I believe the prior book is referenced (I have not read it, so I cannot say for sure), but it didn't take away from my enjoyment of this novel or lead to any sort of confusion. I will say that I didn't feel like I really got to know Cassie or see any real character development with her, and I don't know if that stems from the fact that I didn't read the first one, so I don't know if the character matured or changed, but she was a hard one to like sometimes due to her attitude.

However, the bigger problem I had with this one was that while it started off strong, I felt that it quickly lost steam to the point that I had a lot of trouble staying invested in the story and its characters. However, I think the fault here is my own and what I expect from novels, as the author does have a strong writing style and was able to vividly bring the towns and the people in them to life.

Despite the length of the novel and the slowness through which it progresses, I felt that it definitely picked up towards the end. Although maybe it was due to the way the story took so long to get to that point, it seemed that the pace went from slow to breakneck speed, and we had a lot of information thrown at us in those last few chapters. I feel like with better pacing overall, this one would have been more enjoyable for me.

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

The Scarecrow Killer is the second in a series about DS Cassie Rowan, however it can be read as a standalone. DS Rowan is headed home after another grueling night of work when she comes upon a startling scene...a scarecrow hanging from a tree. What is even more alarming is when, a week later, a fatal hit and run occurs on the same stretch of road. Could this be a coincidence??

I very much enjoyed this book. This is the first book I've read by Margaret Murphy and I feel that it won't be my last. I need a book that will grab my attention from the beginning and keep me wanting more and that's exactly what this book did. Cassie has a head-strong personality, that can come across as hard to deal with, but I imagine this would come from years at a very stressful job. I know not everyone loves that, but I find that it is fitting for her profession.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and recommend it to any other thriller/suspense lovers!

Detective Cassie Rowan is driving home exhausted when she sees what she thinks is a body swinging from a tree. Turns out to be an effigy. A week later, a young man dies in a hit and run in that exact spot and her detective senses are tingling when she sees that the victim was wearing the same clothes as the effigy. She starts investigating and turns up two more deaths where the victim's death was preceded by the an effigy. She works to convince her boss that there is something going on. This was a suspenseful read and the effigies lent a spooky, creepy vibe to the killings.

A mix of Scott and Bailey with a Happy Valley background. I absolutely loved the ambiance and the pace of this book. Vacillating between a council estate and the rich adjacent neighbourhood, the look for the scarecrow killer has no limits. The modus operandi is incredibly ingenuous and gives the story a real originality and grittiness. A very hard book to put down.

I have been a fan of Margaret’s work for a while now. By no means have I read everything that she has written but that is something that I hope to rectify fairly soon. I have been (im)patiently waiting for the second book in the series featuring Detective Constable Cassie Rowan. Well ladies and gents the wait is over because the second book in the series is called ‘The Scarecrow Killer’ and it was released on 23 February 2023. It’s another cracker of a story. I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘The Scarecrow Killer’ but more about that in a bit.

The synopsis of ‘The Scarecrow Killer’ was enough to grab my attention and draw me in. It’s fair to say that as soon as I started reading, I realised that I was reading something special and that I would struggle to put the book down. It was as if the book had cast a spell over me and it was a spell that I wasn’t willing to break. I was blown away by the story and the memorable way in which the story began. My Kindle was well travelled that day because it went everywhere with me as I couldn’t bear to miss a single second of the story. I developed my own theories as to what was going to happen and so I had to keep reading to see if I was on the right track or if I had wandered off in the opposite direction. The more of the book that I read, the more I wanted to read and the quicker the pages seemed to turn. All too quickly I reached the end of ‘The Scarecrow Killer’. I found ‘The Scarecrow Killer’ to be a gripping, tense and dramatic read, which certainly kept me guessing and kept me on the edge of my seat throughout.

‘The Scarecrow Killer’ is superbly written but then I have come to expect nothing less from Margaret Murphy. She certainly knows how to grab the reader’s attention and draw them into what proves to be one hell of a read and then some. For me, the story started in a particularly memorable fashion, the story hit the ground running and maintained a fairly fast pace throughout. I love the very vivid and realistic way in which Margaret describes her characters- she makes her characters seem just as real as you and I. Reading this book felt like being on an at times scary and unpredictable rollercoaster ride with several twists and turns along the way. I love the way in which Maragret makes the reader feel as though they are part of the story and at the heart of the action. That’s how I felt anyway.

In short, I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘The Scarecrow Killer’ and I would definitely recommend this book to other readers. I will certainly be reading more of Margaret’s work in the future. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.

This is the first novel that I have read in this series and also by this author. I read a lot of books in this genre so I tend to be able to predict the plot, however for this book it was not to be. The plot was fast paced without needing to be blood thirsty, the characters well developed and also it was nice to have a socio-economic element to the story line. I really enjoyed the book and it certainly stands up with others in the genre. I would recommend to others who enjoy the genre and I would certainly read another novel by the author and also in this series.

Detective Cassie Rowan investigates a case with a body hanging from the trees and a hit a run. Soon a link between the bodies and the effigy foretelling the death builds up. A killer is on the loose and Cassie needs to work out who it is before any more bodies are discovered.
Second in the series, but can be read as a standalone book. Some great characters and look forward to seeing Cassie grow in future instalments.

When DC Cassie Rowan spots a dressed-up dummy on an embankment at the side of the M62, little could she foresee exactly one week later there will be a real body at the same spot. She’s convinced it can’t be a coincidence but the officer in charge is keen to dismiss her ideas and close off the case as an accidental death. The victim, Damian Novak, is a local lad well known to the police for causing a fatal accident and dealing drugs, and he won’t be missed by the residents of the Fernleigh social-housing estate. Undeterred Cassie takes her misgivings to old colleague crime scene investigator Ian Chan and she also hears from Damian’s little brother about another similar effigy of a man who killed himself a few months previously, the gang leader who Damian had worked for. She finally persuades DCI Warman to let a small team of herself, Chan, Finch (the detective she worked with in book one) and the estate’s PCSO Jackie Dawson look into the two deaths. It’s not long before they find a third supposed suicide linked to another dummy dressed as the victim, all three deaths occurring within the past year. Her investigation takes her to the village of Birkenshore, an affluent place where their annual Scarecrow Festival produces some scary looking figures and a link to the masks used in her three cases. So could all three deaths be murders disguised to look like something else? Do they have a vigilante cleaning up the estate of criminals? And what do the effigies signify? Threats, warnings or omens of deaths to follow? And will there be more to come if she doesn’t crack the case soon?
Caring for her younger brother and coping with her own tragic history, Cassie makes a very likeable lead character, joined by great colleagues in the form of Ian, Fitch and Jackie. There are loads of twists in this plot which sees a truly baffling case for the detectives with plenty of good suspects for the reader to puzzle over. Highly recommended! 5*