Remi Kone has produced an excellent debut novel which starts off with such an exciting and interesting beginning like no novel that has captured my attention before. A woman presents at a London police station drenched in blood a carrying a baseball bat. We are then introduced to Detectives DI Leah Hutch and DS Ben Randle are completely taken aback and are very uncertain as to what has happened. This is also since the woman is not speaking providing them with very little clues other than that something major has gone down.

Journalist Odie Reid is walking a very fine line regarding maintaining her employment and is looking for the next big story to save her career. What makes this even worse for Odie is her boss is many years younger and a journalist that she helped to build his career. Soon she is receiving tips regarding this case, but she has no idea who is sending them, all she does know is that she needs to grab this opportunity and run with it.

Leah and Odie are already aware of each other and their relationship is quite contentious. Odie has made enemies from previous stories she has presented to the world, ostracising and vilifying people and Leah is not her number one fan.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and was instantly taken in by its strong plot and multilayered characters. As the story progresses, we are drip fed more clues, but you are never sure where this is going which adds to the suspense and soon the action ramps up and we have a great story on our hands. I hope that we continue to see more of these two detectives in future books to come. The author now has a great base to work off and I look forward to hearing more from them.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy, all opinions expressed are my own.

This was a complex and complicated plot featuring two cops , DI Leah Hutch and DS Benjamin Randle and a supposedly over the hill journalist with the morals of an alley cat in Odie Reid. All have massive baggage and links between them as they are faced with an apparently motiveless and unsolvable murder.

It required a lot of concentration to keep up with what was happening but the effort was worthwhile and I think we have a new set of characters withe he potential for an enjoyable if challenging series.

I would like to thank the author, the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of this book, I really enjoyed it.
This was a great debut and I look forward to reading more from this author.

This was a really impressive debut novel and the first in what I am sure will be a long series involving DI Leah Hutch and DS Benjamin Randle. I think my only concern is that this is definitely a crowded market at the moment (or whatever the literary equivalent of a market is) and I am not sure if it has anything that will make it stand out from the number of well-established series which are out there.

In Innocent Guilt, the story starts off with a bang - a woman walks into a police station covered in blood with a baseball bat but with no sense of what she has done or whose blood she is covered in.....and it doesn't get any less confusing.

Investigating the crime are DI Leah Hutch and DS Benjamin Randle, alongside journalist Odie who smells a story and also has a history with DI Hutch. The story moves along well, building tension and becomes very complicated but the book does tie up well with a great conclusion.

A really good debut novel and one I hope to see develop.

Thanks to Netgalley and Quercus Books | Quercus for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow wow wow!!!! I read this book in less than 24 hours! It was so gripping, it had me hooked and unable to put it down until I finished the last shocking page!!

Just when you think you think you know what will happen, bam, a new twist is introduced. I found myself shouting, ""What?!!"" so many times when reading this book.

If I could rate it more than 5 stars I would!
I really didn’t want this one to end!

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ stars from me!

A brilliant debut novel - tells the story of Leah, a brilliant inspector recently transferred and investigating a strange murder that appears to be an open shut case, but all is not as it seems. I really enjoyed this story and in particular the other characters of Randle and Odie who provide insights into our main characters personality and background. Definitely worth a read and thanks to the author & publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Sometimes I wonder, do we really need more main characters with enough baggage to sink a big ship? Do we?
Turns out in this case, yes we do!!
I could not read enough of these two complicated women, and their relationships, and their hang ups. I'd have happily taken more baggage.
That's all before we got to the actual crime.... the crime itself kept me guessing almost to the end, but once we knew the why, the who was easy to guess.
I really enjoyed this one, and can only hope there's much more to come.
I feel there's more secrets to be revealed...