I’ve spent a portion of this year reading the first book in a number of well-regarded mystery/police procedural/mystery series. D.I. Kim Stone is a compelling character with a terrible background. We know early that her mother is institutionalized for a mental illness and that her twin brother died when they were six. So, Kim spent most of her life in “care.” This story takes place in “The Black Country” somewhere in England. Kim has not only no social skills but actively poor social skills. She is not without empathy, but you’d better deserve it. She is a very competent Detective Inspector. She loves to restore old motorcycles. She has one good friend, her sidekick at work and sometimes for social time. She respects her team but forgets that not everyone is as driven as she is. She breaks rules, puts herself in very dangerous situations and she will do it again. And that’s just book one.
Someone is killing people who obviously have some connection to one another. And…. Something odd has just turned up on the grounds of an abandoned home for girls in care, a terrible and depressing and terrible place to have landed ten or more years ago. And anything else I tell you would be a spoiler. But along the way, we meet some great characters, learn about the victims and their past, and enjoy how the story unfolds with every clue in place and a little twisty surprise at the end. I see why this book was so successful and now I must excuse myself to look for more Kim Stone books. Brilliant of Net Galley to give me Book 1 and Book 21 on audio to read. Think I want to at least check on Books 2-20. The narrator was good. Definitely recommend this novel.
They Called me Bookworm 