Book Review - Evil Games by Angela Marsons

Amazon UK

Title: Evil Games

Author: Angela Marsons

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: Bookoutre

Publication Date: 29th May 2015

Rating: 5 Stsar

The greater the Evil, the more deadly the game…

When a rapist is found mutilated in a brutal attack, Detective Kim Stone and her team are called in to bring a swift resolution. But, as more vengeful killings come to light, it soon becomes clear that there is someone far more sinister at work. 

With the investigation quickly gathering momentum, Kim finds herself exposed to great danger and in the sights of a lethal individual undertaking their own twisted experiment. 

Up against a sociopath who seems to know her every weakness, for Detective Stone, each move she makes could be deadly. As the body count starts to mount, Kim will have to dig deeper than ever before to stop the killing. And this time - it’s personal. 

The rising star of the British thriller scene returns with a novel that enthrall fans of Rachel Abbott, Val McDermid and Mark Billingham. 

Evil Games is without a doubt an  amazing book. It is scarily disturbing and at the heart of it all is an evil genius who really is playing some incredibly Evil Games.  

It is impossible to give you much more information than the blurb does, as it really does cover the premise of the book fully. Detective Kim Stone has a couple of cases to work on. One of them deals with a subject that is bound to rile up and disgust anyone that reads it. Thankfully the key bits of information in it are not spelt out in techni-colour. I suspect that everyone that reads this will be wanting, and urging Kim to put catch and put away the perpetrators as quickly  as possible. 

The other case is very clever, and as readers we know the whole time exactly what is going on, as there are chapters from the key person's perspective. In some regards it is very intelligent, and I guess there must have been huge amounts of research into the human psyche to be able to write some of this story. There are many facets to this, and we meet a fair few victims from it and their stories are all harrowing. 

What amazes me is yet again DI Kim Stone is investigating people that somehow bare some relation to her childhood and past, which gives her a fantastic empathy with some aspects, despite that she can't really relate to people herself. DI Kim Stone is a fascinating detective, she clearly cares about her team, and her job, and will do anything it takes to pull off an arrest (even if sometimes it goes against protocol). 

Despite Evil Games being the second in a series, I do believe it can be read as a standalone. All the relevant background you learn in the first book is repeated, in even more detail this time around, and the more of this series I read, the more I am learning about Kim as a person. 

If you haven't already read Silent Scream, then go read that first regardless, as it is also a remarkable book, and then come back and read Evil Games. Evil Games is amazing, disturbing and I didn't want to put it down. I also can't wait for the next DI Kim Stone book in the series, as Angela Marsons is proving time and time again, just what a talented author she is. 

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Bookoutre for my review copy of this book. This was my honest review.