Deadly Fate by Angela MarsonsMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Time taken to read - in and out as able over 5 days
Pages - 353
Publisher - Bookouture
Source - Bought
Blurb from Goodreads
The woman’s bright blonde hair floats in the breeze. She almost looks like she could be resting on the soft green grass. But her brown eyes stare unblinking up at the sky, and the final cut across her mouth is dark with blood. Her words silenced forever…
Late one evening, as the final church bell rings out, Sandra Deakin’s cold and lifeless body is found in the overgrown graveyard with multiple stab wounds. When Detective Kim Stone rushes to the scene, the violence of the attack convinces her that this murder was deeply personal. What could have caused such hate?
As the team dig into Sandra’s life, they discover she believed she could communicate with the dead. Was that why she was targeted? The last people to see her alive were a group of women who had a session with her the night before she was killed, and as Kim and her team pay them a visit, they soon learn each of the women is lying about why they wanted Sandra’s help…
Kim realises she must dig deep and open her mind to every avenue if she’s going to stand a chance at solving this case. And when she learns that Sandra was banned from the church grounds and had been receiving death threats too, she’s ever more certain that Sandra’s gifts are at the heart of everything.
But just when she thinks she’s found a lead, the broken body of a nineteen-year-old boy is found outside a call centre – a single slash across his mouth just like Sandra’s. Kim knows they are now racing against time to understand what triggered these attacks, and to stop a twisted killer.
But they might be too late. Just as Kim sits down at a local psychic show she discovers something that makes her blood run cold. Both Sandra and the call centre were named in an article about frauds. And this show stars the next name on the list. She looks around the audience with a feeling of utter dread, certain the killer is among them…
My Review
If you haven't read the previous ooks in the series, seriously where have you been! This is book 18 and whilst yes this can be read as a standalone I would absolutely read the previous ones because they are such a great series and you know the backstory for the characters. Anyways back to the book/review, this one features two main themes guys, psychics and stalking!
The book opens with the murder of a psychic and there kicks off the investigation by Stone's team. As the book goes on we quickly find that someone has a murderous hate for psychics and this is just the beginning. We have a separate "case but not a case" of a dead homeless man whose identity is unknown and if you know Stone you know the minimal Stone likes is for the dead to at least have their name so as a side thread that is going on. Whilst investigating the psychic a stalker comes up in their investigation and Stacey finds some disturbing info, could this be our killer?
I love the banter/camaraderie with the team especially Stone and Bryant, they are so different and compliment each other as does the team to be fair. The research as always is bang on and woven in to go smoothly and seamlessly with the story. Like I am a fan of psychics and one of the characters in the book debunks them and goes into detail on how they manage to do what they do, I find that so fascinating. The stalker stuff, I am shouting RED FLAG RED FLAG, why why why to X character, pulled right into the story as always. Despite being eighteen books deep Marsons manages (in my opinion) to keep you hooked and invested in the characters, even when you get annoyed you are absolutely invested and questioning why X character is doing XYZ behaviour(s).
I think this book is setting up some bits for the next book and as always we are always waiting with bated breath. Also the pathologist guy, whilst he doesn't make huge appearances in the books I do enjoy their character and their *relationship with Stone. Here is to the next one 4/5 for me this time.
