Author: Angela Marsons
Format reviewed: Ebook
Source: Netgalley
Publisher: Bookouture
Publication Date: 11th July 2019
Rating: 5 Stars
Finally we’re playing a game. A game that I have chosen. I give one last push of the roundabout and stand back. 'You really should have played with me,’ I tell her again although I know she can no longer hear.
Late one summer evening, Detective Kim Stone arrives at Haden Hill Park to the scene of a horrific crime: a woman in her sixties tied to a swing with barbed wire and an X carved into the back of her neck.
The victim, Belinda Evans, was a retired college Professor of Child Psychology. As Kim and her team search her home, they find an overnight bag packed and begin to unravel a complex relationship between Belinda and her sister Veronica.
Then two more bodies are found bearing the same distinctive markings, and Kim knows she is on the hunt for a ritualistic serial killer. Linking the victims, Kim discovers they were involved in annual tournaments for gifted children and were on their way to the next event.
With DS Penn immersed in the murder case of a young man, Kim and her team are already stretched and up against one of the most ruthless killer’s they’ve ever encountered. The clues lie in investigating every child who attended the tournaments, dating back decades.
Faced with hundreds of potential leads and a bereaved sister who is refusing to talk, can Kim get inside the mind of a killer and stop another murder before it’s too late?
The addictive new crime thriller from multi-million copy, number one bestseller Angela Marsons explores the dark side of child prodigies and will have you absolutely hooked.
Late one summer evening, Detective Kim Stone arrives at Haden Hill Park to the scene of a horrific crime: a woman in her sixties tied to a swing with barbed wire and an X carved into the back of her neck.
The victim, Belinda Evans, was a retired college Professor of Child Psychology. As Kim and her team search her home, they find an overnight bag packed and begin to unravel a complex relationship between Belinda and her sister Veronica.
Then two more bodies are found bearing the same distinctive markings, and Kim knows she is on the hunt for a ritualistic serial killer. Linking the victims, Kim discovers they were involved in annual tournaments for gifted children and were on their way to the next event.
With DS Penn immersed in the murder case of a young man, Kim and her team are already stretched and up against one of the most ruthless killer’s they’ve ever encountered. The clues lie in investigating every child who attended the tournaments, dating back decades.
Faced with hundreds of potential leads and a bereaved sister who is refusing to talk, can Kim get inside the mind of a killer and stop another murder before it’s too late?
The addictive new crime thriller from multi-million copy, number one bestseller Angela Marsons explores the dark side of child prodigies and will have you absolutely hooked.
Wow, Wow, Wow, Wow Wow!!! How did I not see any of that coming! I mean I know the series is awesome, but how on earth does Angela Marsons keep coming up with such difference crimes and scenarios, and aspects of life to look into.
And just discovering more about the lives of the victims and their families was fascinating.
For a change we only have one insight into the murder's head, in the prologue, so you get perhaps a feel for what may be motivating things... but how it all links into the present day, and just how the murderer took some unravelling.
All the while that Kim, Bryant and Stacy are working on these intriguing cases, we get to know a bit more about Penn, while he is back with his old team for the court case, of a case where he was the SIO, but from the moment he steps into the courtroom he has a rather ominous feeling.
It was good getting to know more about Penn and his integrity. and yet while we are getting chapters focusing on him, we are also introduced to a new perky officer who has been given to Kim, to help with the investigation, and provides a bit of light relief.
This is a story about child geniuses, and what they are like as they grow up into adults, and how the families of such child prodigies are treated and react. It is a subject I don't believe I've read in any other book before, so for me at least, this felt incredibly fresh and original, while completely fascinating.
I could barely put the book down, and had I not had any sense of responsibility towards work, I would have happily been reading it until the early hours of the morning in bed. I was so captivated by the investigation and had absolutely no idea who to guess or why!
Despite being book 11 in the series, it could almost certainly be read as a standalone, as its a whole new case and no big references or links back to previous books, although without reading the amazing series as a whole, you would be missing out on such valuable background and depth of character.
Such a fabulous addition to the series, I just wish I didn't now have to wait for book 12. Angela Marsons really does need to write faster, I really dislike waiting.
Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.
Please do follow along with all these other fabulous bloggers to see their reviews of Child's Play
And just discovering more about the lives of the victims and their families was fascinating.
For a change we only have one insight into the murder's head, in the prologue, so you get perhaps a feel for what may be motivating things... but how it all links into the present day, and just how the murderer took some unravelling.
All the while that Kim, Bryant and Stacy are working on these intriguing cases, we get to know a bit more about Penn, while he is back with his old team for the court case, of a case where he was the SIO, but from the moment he steps into the courtroom he has a rather ominous feeling.
It was good getting to know more about Penn and his integrity. and yet while we are getting chapters focusing on him, we are also introduced to a new perky officer who has been given to Kim, to help with the investigation, and provides a bit of light relief.
This is a story about child geniuses, and what they are like as they grow up into adults, and how the families of such child prodigies are treated and react. It is a subject I don't believe I've read in any other book before, so for me at least, this felt incredibly fresh and original, while completely fascinating.
I could barely put the book down, and had I not had any sense of responsibility towards work, I would have happily been reading it until the early hours of the morning in bed. I was so captivated by the investigation and had absolutely no idea who to guess or why!
Despite being book 11 in the series, it could almost certainly be read as a standalone, as its a whole new case and no big references or links back to previous books, although without reading the amazing series as a whole, you would be missing out on such valuable background and depth of character.
Such a fabulous addition to the series, I just wish I didn't now have to wait for book 12. Angela Marsons really does need to write faster, I really dislike waiting.
Thank you to Netgalley and Bookouture for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.
Please do follow along with all these other fabulous bloggers to see their reviews of Child's Play
Definitely a book I will read this year. Sounds terrific.
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