Another fantastic read in the DI Kim Stone series. Book 20 and it’s still as brilliant and gripping as ever. I could never get bored of Kim or her team.

This book tells the story of young girls and beauty pageants and pushy narcissistic mothers. Many decades later someone decides to kill some of the mothers. Throw in another mother relationship between a mum and son who likes to control and abuse his mum, it was definitely worth a read.

I have always loved the dynamics of the team, still not over certain deaths from many books ago, but this lot have years of material left of which I eagerly await them.
Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

Detective Kim Stone and the team are back to investigate the murder of a mother, savagely stabbed to death, with her grown up daughter sitting at the murder scene with the knife. Case closed. However, another mother is murdered and the autopsies reveal trinkets from both daughters childhood pageant days. There is a killer out there with reasoning behind their revenge and the clock is ticking before another victim is found.
As always, this book delivers a great plot and the camaraderie within the team is first class. Kim’s dry humour keeps them in check and closely knit. Any fan of this book should defo treat themselves to reading the entire series. Superb!!

Love it! Love this series so much, Angela is a fantastic writer and I hope there is much more to come.

Another exceptional read from Angela Marsons!! I am running out of words to describe how great this series is. This latest is as good as all the others. An absolutely brilliant series and this latest is a welcome addition, I would say the best yet. Page turner of a book, keeping you hooked from the first page to the last. 5 stars all the way.

Book 20 looks at the not so pleasant side of children’s beauty pageants. Whilst not my favourite of the Kim Stone books, it was marvellous to have Kim and her team back in my life.
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and of course the author for the advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is the 20th instalment in the DI Kim Stone series, 'Guilty Mothers' lives up to the standard set by the previous books in the series. This novel delves into the realm of child beauty pageants, revealing a world far beyond the glittering façade of sequins and smiles. Has a good pace and gripping plot, I read this in one sitting!

Book 20 in the Detective Kim Stone series. I feel I keep repeating myself after reading every book in this brilliant gripping series. . Fortunately the stories do not repeat themselves. Each book is as fresh as the first in the series . The team , Kim, Bryant Stacey and Penn are an important and integral part of the stories. Each has their own role to play in the investigation. Guilty Mothers centres around tge Pageantry circuit of young girls. Yet again I was blindsided as to who the murderer was. Roll on book 21!

Twenty books into this series and Angela Marsons still has fresh ideas for interesting plots! This one takes us into the world of children’s beauty pageants when a young woman is found next to her mother’s body holding a knife and covered in her blood, unable to speak and in no state to be questioned.

In her mother’s house, Kim discovers a bedroom packed with pageant trophies and the clothes she wore to win them as a little girl all those years ago. Her mother was known to be obsessive about her daughter winning, forcing her to participate. As Kim is wondering if this is the reason she murdered her mother, a second woman is stabbed to death, also with connections to the pageant world.

Marsons uses this topic to explore the relationship between mothers and their daughters caught up in beauty pageants (but it could also apply to sport, dancing or music). There are the obsessive mothers trying to live vicariously through their children, as well as those who enjoy the closeness participation brings them and also a mother whose son suffers from her lack of attention to him.

It was good to see Kim being her usual irascible self during the investigation – may she never change! It was also good to see Tiff working on a suspicious death case along with Penn and Kim supporting Tiff’s instincts that not all was well in the relationship between a son and his mother. While I wasn’t totally sold on the motivation for the killings all this time after the pageants, I very much enjoyed the topics raised and as always, look forward to the next in the series.

Book 20 in this amazing series and she has done it again.
I have been a big fan of the series from the start.

Kim and her team investigate the murder of mothers involved in pageants, who is killing these women and why?

I raced through this book as needed to finish it as quickly as possible to find the answers, i can't wait for the next one.
If I am being picky, there didn’t seem to be as much of the usual banter within the team, especially between Bryant and Kim. Or as much background to the locations, which I always enjoy.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the highly anticipated ARC. It is recommended for all fans of Angela Marsons and anyone who enjoys a compelling detective story. Guilty Mothers is due to be published on May 31.

I love Kim Stone. At the top of my favourite Authors and Series. Beauty pageant Moms are the victims of brutal murders. If you want to know who the killer is, then read the book! We also have a missing man who turns up dead. Stacey and Penn solve this puzzle. Thanks to NetGalley, Bookoutre and the Author for allowing me to read and review this book.

I loved this book, another fab story from Angela Marsons. It was good to be back with DI Kim Stone and her team.

Di Stone and her team were called to a brutal murder scene where a woman had been stabbed multiple times and her daughter had found her. The daughter Katie was arrested on suspicion of murdering her mother but it some became evident that she was not fit to be questioned.

While Katie was in custody the team worked hard to establish the facts but their investigation was soon turned upside down as further events added to the pressure of solving the case.

Alongside this James Nixon’s body was pulled out of a fishing lake and his girlfriend Olivia and her son Logan were informed of his death. Things seemed straightforward initially but soon doubt was cast on the manner of his death. At their home Olivia and Logan seemed to be a normal mother and son but nothing was as it seemed.

A real page turner. I can’t wait for the next DI Kim Stone instalment.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow Angela you have done it again! Kim Stone is back in this 20th instalment of the series.

Having read this series from the start i was delighted to receive this arc through net galley and the publishers.

Kim and her team investigate the murder of mothers involved in pageants, who is killing these women and why?

I raced through this book as needed to finish it as quick;ly as possible to find the answers, i can't wait for the next one.

4 stars

Seriously, how did we get to book 20 in the Kim Stone series?? It feels like yesterday when I first found Angela Marsons and here we are 20 books later.! Once again another fab instalment in the Kim Stone detective series which can easily be read as a stand-alone book. Kim and the team are called to investigate a straight forward open and shut case which soon develops into something much more sinister! 2 investigations are playing out in this book with every page being a proper page turner!

I can't believe we are twenty books into this amazing series already. Feels like only yesterday I was sitting down and devouring the first DI Kim Stone book which had me hooked for life!

I adore this series, and Guilty Mothers is another wonderful addition to it.

Not only do we have the main case which is set within the world of childhood beauty pageants, Tink is also back and has asked Kim for help with a situation which was heart breaking. In fact this side storyline held my attention and had me possibly even more invested than the main one. And seeing Tink work with Penn was a fresh dynamic and interesting to see.

Stacy is back to her best after her ordeal in the previous book, which I was very happy to see, and the Kim and Bryant partnership is a enjoyable and brilliant as ever.

It is a far more complex case than it first seemed, but then again it would have been a very short book had the person standing over the dead body, holding the murder weapon, been guilty! So I was sort of glad when the body count rose, as it meant we got to see Kim's team do what they do best!

This was one of those rarer crime books where I did have sympathy for the murderer, but there is no excuse for what they did. I loved hearing about this world which was so unfamiliar to Kim.

I was hooked on this book and couldn't read it fast enough. I didn't remotely guess correctly, and I was over the moon with the way the case that Penn and Tink were working on was resolved and dealt with.

Another wonderful addition to this addictive series.

Thank you to Bookouture and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

Another fantastic story about Kim stone and her team investigating a murder relating to the world of child pageants. Love this series can’t get enough of them!

Before my review, I just wanted to give a bit of a warning. I loved this book. I have read this entire series and it is truly one of my favorites. But I did struggle with this one because of the subject matter which was narcissistic mothers. It did affect me while I was reading it. If you struggle with a relationship with your mother, this might not be the book for you. If you still read it, try to have someone to talk to during and when you’re done.

4⭐️

This is one of my favorite series and I love how we get character development with each book. I love all the characters. I love how they connect with each other, how they support each other and I will forever love the banter between Kim and Bryant. With each book, the characters grow and develop and I love seeing it come together.

I always enjoy that we get two cases with each book; the main one and then a small side one (I’m a gamer. I love side quests lol). This is the first time I have been able to guess what was happening with the side case before the characters did. I was kind of yelling at them for taking so long.

As for the main case and the pageant murders, I did disagree with Kim when she started empathizing with one of the mothers whose daughter wanted her own life, especially after learning how bad pageants were. I don’t think Kim really understood the negative effects that pageants have on children because one daughter said she enjoyed her time. It bothered me that Kim focused on that one experience versus all the other sources that said just how bad and damaging they were.

All of Angela Marson’s books make me feel a lot for the characters, but this one I really connected with because I am the daughter of a narcissistic mother. Because of that, some of those descriptions really hit hard, like being the scapegoat, never being able to do anything right, constantly being blamed for everything, being yelled at for absolutely nothing. This book actually disrupted my sleep while I was reading it because those descriptions were triggering.

I still loved this book though, and I can’t wait until the next one. I have a love/hate relationship with this series. Love because they’re amazing and one of my favorite detective series ever, but hate because I need to sleep and I don’t want to put the book down 😂

Thank you so much to Angela Marsons, Bookouture and NetGalley for the advanced eARC!

Book 20 in the DI Kim Stone series. Another great addition to the series. This book was not one of the better ones in the series as I think the storyline was a little lame, saying that, still a great read.

Firstly I would like to thank netgalley and Bookoutune and the fantastic author Angela marsons for an early copy of her book


This is book 20 in the Kim stone series,another fantastic read.Kim and her team in another murder investigation of a mother murdered and her daughter was at the crime scene was she guilty of killing her mother,more murders followed and they find a connection the daughters have all entered beauty pagents is the murderer have a grudge against pagents? Kim and her team find the answers...another case of a man in a fishing lake was he murdered stacey investigates...another exciting brilliant intense read from one of my favourite authors. Looking forward to reading the next instalment..Angela is writes brilliant crime reads I'm always looking forward to reading the next instalment...five stars review.


This book will be reviewed on goodreads and Amazon uk and waterstone's.

Detective Kim Stone is someone I truly would want fighting on my behalf! This book gets a thumbs up and five stars! Gripping suspense delving into a competitive world of beauty pageants will keep you turning pages into the night to finish the story.

OMG Angela Marsons has done it again. How she maintains the beyond amazing writing skills she has is beyond me. I’ve read every single Kim Stone book and love them. My only complaint is that I now have to wait for the next one to be released