Evil Games (D I Kim Stone) by Angela Marsons
| Evil Games (D I Kim Stone) by Angela Marsons | |
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| Category: Crime | |
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Reviewer: Sue Magee
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| Summary: Top class crime writing of the calibre which keeps you reading into the early hours of the morning - and then you immediately go and buy the next book in the series. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 448/8h43m | Date: January 2017 |
| Publisher: Zaffre | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1785762147 | |
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When Ruth saw the man who had raped her coming out of a local pub she was traumatised. He'd served his time (albeit it was rather short) and now he was free - and she was frightened. The rapist was murdered and DI Kim Stone and her team were called upon to solve the killing - and quickly. There was a little bit of a feeling that the man had got what was coming to him and didn't deserve a lot of sympathy, but professionalism won the day. Then more revenge killings came to light and it was obvious to Stone that there was something sinister behind what was happening.
Evil Games is more thriller than police procedural in that we might see how the police go about closing the cases, but essentially we know who is behind the revenge attacks and why from early on in the book. I usually like to work out 'whodunnit' myself, but in Evil Games it really didn't matter at all. I came to this book in a rather strange way. Bookbag already had a review of the first book in the series and it was one of our Top Ten Crime Novels 2016, so it was obviously pretty good. Then Evil Games landed on my desk, but I was reluctant to come into the series at book two. As luck would have it a £10 Audible voucher arrived at the same time as the Audible sale and an audio download of Silent Scream was mine. I was completely hooked: I loved the rather acerbic character of Kim Stone (a delight on the page but probably a nightmare in real life) and her team just knitted together so well. I finished that far too quickly and was straight on to Evil Games.
The quality is the same and there's the wonderful combination of the CID team who all come off the page fully clothed. They work together - this isn't a story of a maverick cop who solves cases all on his/her own despite the best efforts of a boss promoted beyond his competence - and there's 'friendship' within the team (or as close as the psychologically-damaged Stone gets to friendship) but no suggestion of a love interest - such a relief!
Knowing who is behind the revenge attacks could have made the read a bit dull, but it didn't: Marsons is a top-class crime writer and she knows exactly how to keep the reader turning the pages. Not only is Kim Stone investigating (although her superiors would have it otherwise) what's happening - she eventually becomes a target. She's up against a sociopath who knows her every weakness, despite the lengths to which Stone has gone to hide them. It's top-class, twisty stuff.
There are no spoilers. You might get the occasional reference to an earlier case, but it doesn't tell you anything you wouldn't want to know. You could read the books as standalones, but why not give yourself the pleasure of reading them in chronological order? I'm certainly going to!
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending a copy of the book to the Bookbag. As well as reading the book I listened to an audio download (which I bought myself) narrated by Jan Cramer. She has the black country voices to perfection and I was impressed by the range of voices. Her female voices are slightly more convincing than the male voices, but that's me being very picky and it didn't spoil my enjoyment at all.
If this book appeals then you might also enjoy Val McDermid's DCI Karen Pirie novels.
Angela Marsons' D I Kim Stone Novels in Chronological Order
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