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When a 19-year-old boy, Jamie Mills, is found hanging from a tree in a local park, his death is ruled a suicide. Detective Kim Stone’s instincts tell her something isn’t right—but it’s not her investigation, and her temporary replacement is too busy waiting for the next big case to be asking the right questions. It was so refreshing to touch base with Kim’s CID team again: DS Bryant, DS Penn, and DC Stacey Wood. Her team are driven and compassionate in their work. The characters keep getting stronger and stronger. We also touch base with Kim’s boss, DCI Woodward, Alison Lowe, the behaviorist, Keats, the local pathologist, and Mitch, the lead forensic technician and …and who could forget Kim’s faithful dog, Barney. Love that dog! After much urging from her partner she began to enter short story competitions in Writer's News resulting in a win and three short listed entries. So if you know you're sensitive to this trigger or have been on the receiving end of such a thing, I'd say avoid this, it's extremely well written, but not worth experiencing unnecessary additional trauma.
I always feel at home with Kim, Stacey and Bryant. Such wonderful characters that I could read about forever, so please Angela, keep writing about them forever, Well … nearly nothing. One thing that does happen exactly as we expect is the camaraderie and the team spirit between our main characters. Do not get me wrong – Kim Stone is damaged in ways far beyond what the eye can see. The author has brilliantly captured that turmoil, the conflict within Kim that affects her in ways that occasionally upset the rhythm of the team. But what it doesn’t do is change her tenacity and whilst the team, Bryant especially, may have to work extra hard to keep in step with Kim, you know that eventually, physical and mental impairments aside, Kim is going to come good. Anyways, let's move onto the book. This was one – if not THEE – heaviest topic Angela Marsons has taken on. PSA: I am not gay, so I cannot say with 100% certainty that everything was accurate or the trauma wasn't glorified. BUT, I found it to be handled with empathy (esp. miss Kim who is always a bull in a china shop type person) and sensitivity. Especially John. Oh, poor John.Angela Marsons is the Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of the DI Kim Stone series and her books have sold more than 5 million in 7 years. Look, I will only listen to this series, which means I give up the opportunity to read it for review. It’s worth more than the Audible credit I give up to let Jan Cramer tell me the story in her most talented way. She’s so consistent and her voice for Kim lives happily in my head. Trust me, she’s that good. Which is kinda interesting, because I don't mind the murders, psychos, blood and gore. But conversion therapy is another cup of tea. Where to begin? Kim is haunted but resilient, especially when the future of her team is threatened by the incompetence of the DI supposedly holding it all together in her absence.
I finished this in a day because I couldn’t find a good stopping point, needing just one more chapter until I reached the end. There’s a lot going on with the characters (individually and as a team), the cases and the situation with Burns. I thought I had things figured out but it all fell apart at the end because of subtle clues I’d ignored. It’s an outstanding story that far surpassed my lofty expectations. Thanks to the narrator, she delivered it in a way that I missed none of the nuances, those pesky clues notwithstanding. And…we finally get Bryant’s first name!!! I had to rewind for that and I’m taking that moment as a meaningful signal whether intended or not. I want Michael Hunter to fall so deeply in love with me that he can’t bear to be more than fifty feet away,” Cher declares to her best friends over cheesecake and wine. But what if she’s searching for happiness in the wrong place? Similar to #12, there were some intentionally "lalalal I can't hear you" moments where everyone was shooketh that "conversion camps" existed. When I say intentional, I mean it was done so to educate the reader in a more "natural" way through the characters learning about it. Angela Marsons Hidden Scars is book 17 in the Detective Kim Stone series. I love this series and look forward to each addition. They can be read independently. Angela Marsons is on my automatic must-read list. If you enjoy psychological thrillers, give her books a try! Faced with deceit from those she should be able to trust, family members who won’t talk, and local reporter, Tracy Frost, opening a can of worms on the case of a woman murdered by her husband a year ago – Kim is in deep water like never before.
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Kim's character continues to grow in Hidden Scars and the title of the book reflects Kim's circumstances as accurately as several of the other characters who feature. She reveals a certain vulnerability that we have not seen before and which takes a bit of getting used to. Then the body of a young woman is found dead by suffocation and Kim makes two chilling discoveries. The victim spent time at the clinic too, and her death was also staged to look like a suicide. The clues to smashing open this disturbing case lie behind the old Victorian walls of the clinic, run by the Gardner family. They claim that patients come of their own accord and are free to leave at any time. But why are those that attended the clinic so afraid to speak of what happens there? And where did the faded restraint marks identified on Jamie’s wrists come from? This was a fast-paced crime thriller, with relatable characters, and short chapters that kept the suspense level high. Another brilliant read that gripped you from beginning to the end. Another winner! I absolutely LOVED the originality of this plot, something that even though I've only read in passing has always held and intrigue to me. Conversion Therapy, what a sad and strange world we live in to know that some people actually believe that you can, as Kim said, 'un gay' someone.
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