Book Review - Quieter Than Killing by Sarah Hilary

Amazon UK

Title: Quieter Than Killing

Author: Sarah Hilary

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Headline

Publication Date: 9th March 2017

Rating: 4 Stars

It's winter, the nights are dark and freezing, and a series of seemingly random assaults is pulling DI Marnie Rome and DS Noah Jake out onto streets of London. When Marnie's family home is ransacked, there are signs that the burglary can have only been committed by someone who knows her. Then a child goes missing, yet no-one has reported it. Suddenly, events seem connected, and it's personal.

Someone out there is playing games. It is time for both Marnie and Noah to face the truth about the creeping, chilling reaches of a troubled upbringing. Keeping quiet can be a means of survival, but the effects can be as terrible as killing.

Long awaited fourth installment in the DI Marnie Rome series, and this time the crimes are a lot starting to look a bit more personal. Both Marnie and partner DS Noah Jake, are forced to confront home truths and make decisions that they aren't entirely comfortable with, as well as having to reveal more about their private lives than ever before. 

As a fan of the series, I loved learning more about both Marnie and Jake, and seeing how their stories develop. That being said there is plenty of back story for those of you who are new to the series, so it could be read as a standalone. 

And of course the crimes and criminals in this book are brand new characters, so anyone can enjoy it. It's a set of assaults that are being investigated, the police are sure they are connected, but joining the dots and working out the whys and wherefores are slightly beyond them. 

I loved seeing into the minds of the police as they worked to solve this and anything else the case threw up at them. There are plenty of plausible suspects, and I was intrigued to see just how it would be resolved. 

I found Quieter Than Killing to be another good addition to this series, and I am already incredibly curious as to what DI Marnie Rome will have to deal with in the next book. 

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

Book Review - Tastes Like Fear by Sarah Hilary

Amazon UK

Title: Tastes Like Fear (DI Marnie Rome Book 3)

Author: Sarah Hilary

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Headline

Publication Date: 7th April 2016

Rating: 5 Stars

You'll never be out of Harm's way

The young girl who causes the fatal car crash disappears from the scene.

A runaway who doesn't want to be found, she only wants to go home.

To the one man who understands her.

Gives her shelter.

Just as he gives shelter to the other lost girls who live in his house.

He's the head of her new family.

He's Harm.

D.I. Marnie Rome has faced many dangerous criminals but she has never come up against a man like Harm. She thinks that she knows families, their secrets and their fault lines. But as she begins investigating the girl's disappearance nothing can prepare her for what she's about to face.

Because when Harm's family is threatened, everything tastes like fear...

Another very cleverly plotted thriller by Sarah Hilary, in the brilliant DI Marnie Rome series. Normally in a thriller I would be a bit scared or have adrenaline flowing in the race against time to find the killer, but in this book I was just intrigued. The killer has a different way of looking at things, and for those that don't like huge amounts of gore, you are fairly safe with this book. 

The main issue in this story are runaways, teenage girls to be precise, who are taken in by someone offering a safe place to stay. In amongst the chapters from DI Marnie Rome's point of view, we occasionally see the insights from some of the girls that are living in the safe place. 

For followers of the series, we get a bit more about Marnie's relationship with her half brother, and her growing feelings toward him. I can't help but feel that the series is leading up to something big between the two of them that will be terrifying. 

If you are new to Sarah Hilary and the DI Marnie Rome series then be reassured that this book will work as a standalone, and there are references to the key facts learnt from the first two books. 

What really impressed me was how once some of the information had been pieced together, how much the pace increased, and the sheer amount of revelations, from characters that I had been introduced to and thought to be irrelevant to the overall story. There are shocks all over the place, as Marnie attempts to locate her missing people, and before the killer strikes again. 

Tastes Life Fear felt different to the others in the series, but it was still an excellent thriller and one that I really enjoyed experiencing. 

Thank you to Netgalley and Headline for this review copy. This was my honest opinion. 

Book Review - No Other Darkness by Sarah Hilary - Winning Reads #4

Winning Reads #4
Welcome back to my new feature, Winning Reads. This is the fourth week of this feature, and this time I went for No Other Darkness, reading it straight after Someone Else's Skin which you the majority of you picked for me to read a few weeks ago on Rachel Reads Randomly. Thank you again, for making me read this a lot sooner than I may have otherwise. 

  As I enter a large amount of competitions for books, and have a reasonable degree of luck, over the past year or two, my paperback mountain has grown out of control mainly due to being a bit lucky, and then not remembering to pick the books up and read them. 

Now I have a blog, I find it harder to not just stick the the brand new shiny releases the whole time, but I do want to read all these other books, so while I have a stash of them, here is Winning Reads, my new weekly feature for Sundays.

Amazon UK

Title:  No Other Darkness (DI Marnie Rome Book 2)

Author: Sarah Hilary

Format reviewed: Paperback

Source: Competition Win

Publisher: Headline

Publication Date: 23rd April 2015

Rating: 5 Stars

Two young boys.
Trapped underground in a bunker.
Unable to understand why they are there.
Desperate for someone to find them.
Slowly realising that no-one will...

Five years later, the boys' bodies are found and the most difficult case of DI Marnie Rome's career begins.

Her only focus is the boys. She has to find out who they are and what happened to them.

For Marnie, there is no other darkness than this...

I can't believe it has taken me so long to discover the brilliance of Sarah Hilary and her DI Marnie Rome series. I was worried that book one may have been a fluke, but it wasn't, there is definitely a consistency in the quality of her writing, and getting inside the minds of various characters, both detective and criminal. 

This was all about a very chilling crime. Someone had left 2 young children in an underground bunker, with some supplies, and they were only found five years later. Without any ID and without them being instantly recognisable as missing people, it is a very tricky case for DI Marnie Rome. 

We get to know Marnie a lot more in this second book, as well as her partner Nathan (and his personal life), and there is also a new person on Marnie's team, but I haven't really decided how much I like her. 

Although this is a sequel it can definitely be read as a standalone book. There are a few references to the previous case, but it doesn't have any direct relevance to this one. I am not sure though that I would call these books thrillers. I think they are fabulous crime, and police procedurals, with a good some perspective as well from the villain's point of view. 

I love getting into the mindset of the bad guy, as it shows just how frightening other people's mindsets can be. 

Part 2 was definitely better than Part 1 which a pattern I'm noticing, having read the two books in this series in two days. that part 1 sets up the book, and keeps you intrigued and then the whole of part 2 is unputdownable and climaxes to a fabulous conclusion. 

No Other Darkness is a chilling tale, deals with mental illness, and takes you on a thrilling journey of London's underground secrets. 

Book Review - Someone Else's Skin by Sarah Hilary - Rachel Reads Randomly Book #11

Amazon UK

Title: Someone Else's Skin (DI Marnie Rome Book 1)

Author: Sarah Hilary

Format reviewed: Paperback

Source: Competition Win

Publisher: Headline

Publication Date: 27th February 2014

Rating: 5 Stars

 Introducing DI Marnie Rome, this powerful novel that will enthral fans of Val McDermid and Mo Hayder.

Called to a woman's refuge to take a routine witness statement, DI Marnie Rome instead walks in on an attempted murder.

Trying to uncover the truth from layers of secrets, Marnie finds herself confronting her own demons. 
Because she, of all people, knows that it can be those closest to us we should fear the most . . .

I've recently heard a lot of very good things about Sarah Hilary and the DI Marnie Rome series, and as a result when I started this book I was slightly apprehensive due to the hype I had been hearing. What if I didn't think the book was any good? However I definite;y need not have worried as it is as amazing as everyone else has said. 

I found Part 1 to be a bit slow at times, as I was trying to work out who was who, but then some information came to light and I could barely put part 2 down at all. It became this incredibly gripping and fascinating thriller, and a race against time, to make sure no one else got hurt. 

I would have perhaps liked to know more about DI Marnie Rome, but I'm sure as the series progresses, that will happen, but the bits of her background, lead me to feel she is quite troubled herself, and she is definitely battling her own demons. 

The outcome of the crime, was not the most expected, and at times, we had short chapters from someone who added a lot to the early tension in the book, and I spent ages trying to guess just who's voice we were hearing from at that point. 

The scene of the initial crime, may be a bit tough for some readers to deal with, and the overall outcome was surprising, after the tension had been ramped all the way up to the top.

I found Someone Else's Skin an addictive book to read, and I am very much looking forward to reading No Other Darkness very soon. 

Thank you to everyone that voted for this book, this week. You made an informed and excellent choice, and I'm so glad that I have no read this, and that it won't end up sitting in my piles for many more months. 

New Rachel Reads Randomly next week, as my work life is far too hectic this week to fit in a book that will need to be reviewed.