Well written with realistic dialogue makes this another hit in the Kim Stone series. It was a great read with lots of action and suspense. The teams interaction with one another gives another level to the story and you can feel the emotions throughout. I was surprised at the ending and that’s what makes the best mystery. Loved it!

I’ve read all of this series and cannot believe that we are now at book 19 in the Detective Kim Stone Series. Kim has a great team and as usual there are two plot lines running. One that is a crossover from the last book and there is a new and shocking case where a man is discovered with his body posed, he is pronounced dead but then a very weak pulse is found. Meanwhile, it is clear to Kim that Stacey is troubled about something but whatever it is she is keeping it to herself.

Briefly, the man dies and investigations show that he was found guilty of attacking his girlfriend and it appears that he has abused his current partner. When a second victim is found similarly posed investigations find that he was a sexual predator and that both men were in a young offender’s facility at the same time and were part of a gang of six teens who preyed on other inmates and staff.

I found Stacey’s story to be very disturbing and emotional. The way she kept everything to herself seemed unimaginable to me but then I’ve never been in her position. The main storyline was shocking and there were quite a few potential suspects so you are kept on your toes trying to avoid the red herrings. A very enjoyable police procedural.
4.5⭐️ rounded up

The nineteenth book in the series and still as gripping as the first, actually much more so, as catching up with the characters is like catching up with old friends. The subplot picks up from where we left one of the characters at the end of the last book, and despite reading in excess of 100 books a year I immediately knew what was going on as it instantly came flooding back. So powerfully written, the character’s fear is so tangible, it jumps off the page and raises your heart rate.
An absolute brilliant main plot which to quote one of the characters “has got more twists and turns than Alton Towers”. A brilliant tale of revenge and a bunch of victims that maybe the world is better off without, but does that mean they don’t deserve justice?
Loyalty and family and what you will and won’t do for those you care about are the main themes here and it’s an absolute joy to watch them unfold in this the oddest ‘family’ there is.
An epic read that I genuinely could not put down and finished in less than 24 hours.

I didn't love the plot, but I loved the themes.

Bad Blood, the 19th installment of the series, picks up a few months after the conclusion of book 18. This installment focuses on murder, family, vigilante justice, and the blurred lines of policing.

A murderer is drugging their victims, using their bodies to send a message. It is up to DI Kim Stone and her team to solve this one-- not the most compelling of cases, but it is filled with twists and turns.

This procedural series is built on the relationships between the characters, with DI Kim Stone at the center. They are the reason I love this series, and while I didn’t love the plot in this one (and I am in the minority with my feelings about it), I loved the message of this installment: the families you make and the gray areas of policing. These themes elevated the mystery and the dynamics between some of the characters.

I look forward to seeing how the characters develop in book 20!

I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley and Bookouture.

I can quite believe this is book 19 in the Kim stone series! It’s my absolute favourite series and I was delighted to see the latest book on netgalley. I love hearing DI Kim stone and her teams latest antics. The best characters and another brilliant story line as always. Angela Marsons can do no wrong for me. If you haven’t read this series, do it but can also be read as stand alone books.

Detective Kim Stone book 19.

When Detective Kim Stone races to the crime scene, there is no body waiting for her: the paramedics are desperately trying to save the victim’s life. But there is something very strange about the way the man was found, his arms raised above his head, his legs spread apart. When he dies on the way to the hospital, Kim is certain she’s on the hunt for a killer… but all evidence at the scene has been destroyed.

As usual with this series it starts with a bang and doesn't let up. I was hooked from start to finish. I love the characters in these books and the relationship between them. A cracking thriller that will keep you reading late into the night. Brilliant.

Nineteen books into this series and it’s still going strong with Marsons bring us intriguing, fresh mysteries, blended with the personal lives of DI Kim Stone and her team. It’s the perfect combination that always makes me eagerly await the next new book.

In this episode, Kim is called out to what looks like the body of a man, without sign of injury and posed in a particular way. However, he still has the thread of a pulse, but despite paramedics working on him later dies without regaining consciousness. A second body, this time past saving, staged in a similar way, rings alarm bells for Kim, as do the social media posts of someone called the Sentinel saying he/she has killed two out of six ‘bad men’. Kim theorises that either a local vigilante group or someone carrying out revenge killings for some crime in the past is at work. Now she and her team must work fast to find the link between the men and identify the other intended victims and the killer before it’s too late.

Meanwhile, Stacey, a member of Kim’s team is being stalked by a man known for his prior history as a stalking. Rather than tell Kim or her wife, Devon, she’s being trying to deal with him unsuccessfully on her own and her work is clearly suffering. Kim is understandably angry when she finds out about Stacey’s stalker, but does all she can to support her in her own feisty way. A well plotted, gripping mystery, with perfect pacing, increasing suspense and some excellent twists.

19 books in and still each and every one blows me away. Absolutely fantastic series. Would definitely recommend!

Let me begin by stating I have followed this series since the beginning and love Kim Stone and the crew as the characters.
In the 19th installment, Kim is unaware of the stalker that Stacey has picked up since their last investigation, but he soon comes to light when he is found dead as the victim of a hit and run "accident". Part of the subplot is Stacey recovering from being stalked as well as the fall out from not informing her boss, her friends and her wife of the whole two month ordeal. While I found this interesting, it was less of the story than I had anticipated.
The majority of the story was tracking down the Psycho Six and their killer, a group of "friends" that wrecked havoc on a former reform school, and seem to be becoming murder victims with alarming regularity.
The team's efforts on tracking down the killer, at first are hampered by a cyber villain encouraging the public at large to throw bogus clues to deter the detectives from seeing that each victim is posed as a letter of the alphabet relating to a crime they are guilty of having committed.

Without giving the ending and too many details away, I truly enjoyed the chase and had a hard time determining the killer, which is a definite plus for me in the mystery category. While the plot line of revisiting justice on criminals from a bad childhood is formulaic, Angela's writing is anything but. I am so excited that I received the opportunity to read this prior to its release in the states and am so looking forward to the continuing adventures of Stone and her team.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to review this book.

Yikes! Bad Blood was certainly intriguing and gripping!
Kim and her team are called out to investigate a body found under a tree that is posed in a very unusual configuration. Then, another body is found in a similar configuration.
As the investigations continues so much doesn’t make any sense.
There is are personal issues going on with the team that Kim has to address and figure out what is going on.
Bad Blood is a intense, fast paced police procedural thriller.
Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture and the author for the opportunity to read this book for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

I'm not fully up to date with the Kim Stone saga but I knew I had to read this new one as it's such a great series. I'm pleased to say that this one is no different, it's just as brilliant. Most of the stories have two plotlines running through them and this one did as well, one from a previous book but it didn't matter too much that I hadn't read that one. The main story had lots of crossover and connections throughout the book so you have to pay attention. Marsons' is such a great storyteller and they just keep getting better and better.

A vigilante serial killer on the loose and team discord abound in the nineteenth instalment of Angela Marson's DI Kim Stone series.

As the team tackle another intriguing case. The bodies of men are found lying in a specific position but they aren't quite dead. Meanwhile repercussions for Stacy impact directly on Kim (who can't bring herself to speak to Stacy) and the unflappable Bryant. Frost makes her usual cameo as Kim's foil and Leanne the protection officer also returns (and is there a spark going on there between her and Kim?)

I have to say I wasn't as invested in this book as much as I thought I would. Normally I breeze through these books but I stopped and started reading this book over a few weeks. I think it just must be me because overall this book is solid and reliable crime writing with all the banter, so I still recommend it as always.

Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for the ARC.

Still my favourite Detective series, even after 19 books you still get wrapped up in the investigation.
Kim is very loyal to her team, and visa versa. So when one of her team members has had a really hard time with a stalker and does not tell Kim, she doesn’t quite respond the way she should. Instead of being there for her colleague mentally and emotionally ( not that Kim shows emotion to much) she is angry and won’t speak.
It is seriously very hard to pick the culprits in these novels, which adds so much more thinking and suspense. I loved it.
Thanks to Netgalley and publishers for this free advanced review.
I’ve pre ordered.

For me, the most important part of a good book is not always the actual case the team is working on, but all the little subplots. There were a lot of them in this book and I really enjoyed them all. Kim was great, I loved how she handled all the situations around her and her team can really rely on her. I always appreciate her sarcasm and unfiltered straightforwardness and that's what makes this series so unique. Stacey certainly didn't have it easy in this book, but I liked how it progressed. The case itself was exciting with lots of twists and turns and I didn't see the ending coming.

It was one of those books that you simultaneously didn’t want to finish and yet couldn't put down, because you just have to find out who the killer is. I'm really looking forward to the next book!

I would like to thank NetGalley, Bookouture and the author Angela Marsons for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

So good - as usual! I read this overnight and was hooked. I so enjoy the team and the relationships between them.

Three staged deaths - all previously part of a group of 6 young men who had been together at a young offenders institution. All killed before they could offend again. Kim and her team need to find out who is behind these killings before they kill again.

The situation is made more difficult by the death of Stacey’s stalker and the uncertainty about whether anyone connected to her was responsible.

There is an interesting discussion about vigilantes and the rule of law.

As usual a gripping read with a great twist at the end.

It is utterly unfathomable to think that "Bad Blood" is the 19th instalment in the Kim Stone series and yet, here we are. I ran out of words to review this fabulous series a long time ago, and this is definitely one of those times where I wish I could just get away with telling you to go out there and buy/read/love these books. Before anyone asks, yes, you should read these from the very beginning. Sure, reading 19 books sounds daunting but I promise you it's not and furthermore, you will not regret it for a second! Trust me.

Kim Stone may think she has probably seen it all, but arriving at a crime scene without a body might just be a first. Dear Keats is all conflustered. There was a dead body, then there wasn't, but then the victim died on the way to the hospital. So now there is a dead body, but the crime scene has been trampled over by too many boots to count, the body has been moved, there are no witnesses, there is zero evidence. Where are Kim and the team even supposed to start?

You would absolutely be forgiven for thinking Angela Marsons is surely running out of material by now, but she's not. In fact, even after all this time, it seems as if she keeps upping the ante with each book. There is quite a bit going on, and a lot of it is very thought-provoking. From Stacey dealing with the events from the previous book to the motives of the killer the team is chasing, there is plenty of food for thought. It's not all doom and gloom, though. There's even room for a dash of romance, a fan favourite or two, and a little splash of humour.

The hunt for the killer is a race against the clock. They've made it quite clear this first body will not be the last. I had an inkling as to a suspect rather quickly but the evilness that is Angela Marsons' brain and a bunch of red herrings made me lose my way pretty quickly. Only to realise at the end, I had been right all along. Even if I wasn't able to figure out the why.

So, yes, another fast-paced, well-plotted and utterly brilliant addition to the series. It often seemed like there was no time to breathe for the team. Or the reader, for that matter. "Bad Blood" is as addictive as its predecessors. A thrilling and entertaining page-turner, and that happened to be just what I needed. It's difficult to comprehend, but after all this time, Marsons still manages to keep this series feeling as fresh as ever, to leave readers wanting/begging for more and I have no doubt many of us will be using our elbows when book 20 drops to be right there in the front row.

On a final note. I don't often mention endings but I couldn't not this time around. It's just so beautiful and powerful in its simplicity, and it perfectly encapsulates the theme running through this story. Which you will obviously have to discover for yourselves.

In short : bring on the next one!

How has it been 19 books already and I still crave the next book as soon as I've finished one?
Kim and her team really are something incredibly special, I think Bad Blood somehow focused on that and highlighted how close the team are even more than previous books.

**slight spoilers**


After the events of book 18, it was really good to stick with Stacey more and really have her at the centre of things this time. Getting those extra little glimpses into her home life and how she separates her work and home life was great, I did almost worry for her after the last case, stalking is no joke.

Marsons is an expert at making you feel at home amongst this familiar roster of characters, then pulling the rug out from under you in one fell swoop, leaving you questioning everything and everyone!

I can't say enough wonderful things about this book and the series in general. I would even say you could definitely enjoy this book without having read the others (which is a stunning achievement in itself), but you'll love it that much more if you read from the beginning.

I’ve never read this author at all but this book is her 19th book in her series. With that being said I absolutely LOVED this book. I guess it does work as a stand alone. Now I will have to read the whole series. A lot of mysteries and dead bodies in weird ways. Very good and I would definitely recommend this book who loves mysteries.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Author for allowing me to read this gem! I was not pain to do this review. This is my honest review.

Wow another rollercoaster read! Fast paced and action packed from start to finish, the team are trying to stop a killer who seems constantly one step ahead. Stacey's stalker from the last book is another side story when she faces up to her feelings . Kim is her usual self but I love her character with Bryant keeping her in check
Gutted when it was over!

Thank you so much to both Netgalley and Bookouture for allowing me to access Angela Marsons' new book ahead of the release date.

I have been a huge fan of DI Kim Stone since the first instalment and am usually waiting impatiently for the latest book. I love the characters and the, quite often, gruesome storylines. Marsons always writes such fast-paced books, they are devoured within hours of release and then I'm back to impatiently waiting the next, and so the cycle goes on!

Book 19, Bad Blood, was no different!

As readers, we are thrust straight into the action of a new crime scene. This time, however, things are a little different and the victim is, unusually, still alive. Stone and her team are facing a new kind of killer now.

Alongside the main story, we are also reminded of young Stacey's precarious position from the last book, still in the grips of a notorious stalker, and suffering hugely as a result of this. I was somewhat frustrated with Stacey not sharing this with her colleagues but, then, I've been lucky to have never been the victim of a stalker, so can only imagine what it must be like for a person caught up in this. It was interesting to see how Marsons presented both Kim's and Dionne's response to Stacey's predicament and while I might have hoped for greater compassion in the short term (hence my 4 star rather than 5 rating), I fully trust Angie!

I ploughed my way through this book at a rate of knots again and am now, once again, left waiting impatiently for the next. Angela Marsons is and will remain one of my favourite crime and thriller writers. Thank you again for a marvellous book!

I've tried not to focus on the plot too much for fear of giving too much away. For readers old and new, trust me, this is an excellent book. You do not need to have read the rest of the series to enjoy this but I thoroughly hope this inspires you to go away and give them a try!