This series - with DCI Christine Caplan - is one I am always keen to read. It's so interesting having a female lead who has lived a life with adult children, a partner and friends as well as her job as a detective. In this installment Christine's life is progressing. She's moved from her caravan into a semi-renovated cottage with her husband who is coming out of his depression. One adult child is engaged to a sensible and loving man, while another is dating a 'nepo-baby' journalist who mines her connections with the family to undermine Christine professionally. Indeed the 'nepo-baby' theme is the one on which this novel turns as Christine's case in this novel involves the investigation into the disappearance of a minor celebrity and Chris must deal with her brood of 'nepo-babies'. In the course of the investigation, links to historic crimes emerge. While the police procedural elements of the novel are very satisfying, I most enjoyed Christine's character: her good humour, resilience, courage and smarts. The ending - while avoiding spoilers - is a celebration of female agency.

Looking forward to the next one, Caro Ramsay!

Thank you NetGalley and Severn House for the eARC.
Another great book from Caro Ramsay; tense, thrilling and chilling, I loved it.
Hiding away in an ancient castle in Scotland is a family famous for the stunningly beautiful Koi, famous the world over.
Detective Caplan is tasked with finding out what happened to Koi when her body is found on the rocks below the castle.
What she finds is a mystery: no body found, but a picture of Koi lying still on the rocks below the castle. Interrogating the family is almost impossible; they are almost like a cult, led by the father and his manager. They belong to a company that's making millions selling the family and wares on the Internet. P
Talk about a seriously mentally unstable family ... several members are traumatized and psychologically abused, all to keep the fans obsessed and buying anything related to them. Not that far away from today's reality!
And what a satisfying ending, I loved it!
It's a fantastic, beautifully written mystery, Can't wait for no. 5 in the series. Caro Ramsay is a genius!

This was a fascinating and compelling mystery which I think I half figured out what was going on from the start but was difficult to tell as the family involved is extremely complex. When I read I don’t get images of what’s going on in my head and I think that would have been useful for this in honesty as there’s some amazing descriptions of the castle but I found the geography confusing in honesty, there’s also some great descriptors of the family who are quite a nightmare. It really does a great job of reflecting how fame can impact a family and in this case the manipulation of the children was genuinely disturbing. The case is very challenging for the police and there’s an unexpected arrest for murder too., it’s a very twisty read but it’s the darkness of the characters that makes it so addictive.