Review ~ Dying Truth (DI Kim Stone #8) by Angela Marsons

Book Description:

How far would you go to protect your darkest secrets?

When teenager Sadie Winter jumps from the roof of her school, her death is ruled as suicide – a final devastating act from a troubled girl. But then the broken body of a young boy is discovered at the same school and it’s clear to Detective Kim Stone that these deaths are not tragic accidents.

As Kim and her team begin to unravel a dark web of secrets, one of the teachers could hold the key to the truth. Yet just as she is about to break her silence, she is found dead. 

With more children’s lives at risk, Kim has to consider the unthinkable - whether a fellow pupil could be responsible for the murders. Investigating the psychology of children that kill brings the detective into contact with her former adversary, Dr Alex Thorne – the sociopath who has made it her life’s work to destroy Kim. 

Desperate to catch the killer, Kim finds a link between the recent murders and an initiation prank that happened at the school decades earlier. But saving these innocent lives comes at a cost – and one of Kim’s own might pay the ultimate price.

The utterly addictive new crime thriller from the Number One bestselling author – you will be gripped until the final shocking twist.

Buy Links:

Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/2OAi5lz

Amazon US: https://amzn.to/2AVEkyX

Audible UK: https://amzn.to/2PhtgVw

Audible US: https://amzn.to/2DwlbFY

Our Review:

Reviewed by Donna ~ 5 stars

Audible Edition

Never before has a crime thriller reduced me to tears, but having listened to five books on the trot of this series, these characters have become my friends and hearing what this team go through in this book, OMG, I was distraught. My heart and head were at war with each other, and my tear ducts had a complete mind of their own, but without a shadow of a doubt, this was by far the best in this series. Angela Marsons outdid herself with Dying Truth.

I love Kim Stone, her ballsy, no-nonsense, take no prisoners attitude often leads her into the most precarious and life-threatening situations yet she is the type of Detective that puts herself in danger first before any of her team. Loyal to a fault and skating the lines of procedural ethics, Kim Stone always gets the job done. Kim has fought hard for her place in the police force, and although she ruffles feathers, she ruffles them for a reason and with a boss that trusts her implicitly, even though he acts as though he doesn’t, Kim and her team are unstoppable and, in this book, it is no different.

Set inside an affluent private school with secrets hidden within the walls and taken to many graves, a secret society still exists and it seems is getting out of control. This school is where the elite and successful are bred, politicians, lawyers, doctors and the like that are interconnected through “the cards,” a relationship that lasts for a lifetime and a connection that can never be severed. Starting with the apparent suicide of a thirteen-year-old girl it is obvious that something is amiss and when another child dies all is definitely not as it seems. With a couple of murders within days, when the team starts digging it seems there are a few hidden deaths in the past that correlate to the present activities, and the houses of cards come tumbling down.

Angela Marsons really brings this bone-chilling story into its own and once again I was blindsided, never guessing the culprit or culprits in this case. On the edge of my seat throughout I was totally immersed in the story and couldn’t listen quick enough. The last few chapters were a rollercoaster, and my heart was in my mouth so many times. With an ending I never saw coming I am sat here, mouth agape, tears streaming and have actually messaged the author for the first time. Kudos to her for the way she delivered this story, certainly unforgettable as are her characters and as I dive into book nine, I’m not sure my heart can truly recover. What a series and I am glad that Bookouture has optioned this as a sixteen-book series, maybe they can increase that count too, at book nine, this series shows no sign of getting old.