I've had this book for years, I still haven't, unfortunately, got to it, so this is a placeholder review to reduce my shelf for my own sanity, but will read this book

A really good thriller. The events that transpire in this book are interesting and yet sometimes hard to swallow,

There wasn't much character development in the detectives, the main characters. which was unfortunate. That would have made the story more rich. But overall, it was interesting.

I will say that this book left me with all kinds of feels. Happiness regarding Caroline's closure, sadness and sorrow for Ethan. Oh my goodness. So many feels.

This was book 2 but read great as a stand alone. I would be interested in picking up the next installment.
Thank you to #NetGalley for making #Merciless available for reviewing.

Absolutely enjoyed from start to finish, u didn't want the book to end. Highly recommended, if you like books that keep you guessing and on the edge of your seat.

This is only the second book featuring DI Fletcher, but believe you me, I can see a series coming that I don't want to miss! Kate has to investigate the death of a woman found in the canal, as well as the possible murder of a man already dying of cancer. Are they related? This was a well-written book, and I really enjoyed each and every page. Can't wait for some more!

We start off with Detective Sam Cooper jogging along the canal, when she finds the body of a woman. It soon becomes apparent that this is a murder inquiry.

Caroline Lambert goes to the police station and confesses to killing her Father who has been diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. Is this a mercy killing?

The story alternate’s between the police investigation and Caroline. My favourite chapters were of Caroline and her story of visiting her terminally ill father in hospital and caring for him at home. We know what she has done but we don’t find out why until later on in the book.

The 2 sides of the story keeps you engrossed with you wanting to find out more as this is a very intriguing story.

Will definitely go and find the first book in this series and any others to follow.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy in exchange for a review.

Thankyou to NetGalley, Bloodhound Books and Heleyne Hammersley for the opportunity to read Merciless in exchange for an honest review.
I was gripped from the start. There is plenty of suspense to satisfy crime thriller fans. The storyline was well thought out and fast paced with a few twists thrown in for good measure. I also thought the main characters were engaging and relatable.

Sehr durchdachte Handlung mit komplexen Charakteren und einem sehr gefälligen Sprachstil. Wirkt alles sehr realistisch.

I quite enjoyed this book. It’s an easy read and moves along at a pace.
The plot is ok but I didn’t feel there was much different about it. There were no surprises so I felt it was quite predictable.
That said, it has enough to keep you reading.
My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for this copy.

Book 2 of the DI Fletcher series picks up after some time from Book 1 (Closer to Home), and as Kate, and the team are settling in. Kate has returned from 20 years away in 'the big city' and as she settles in post divorce, she finds herself reminded of her childhood at every turn. As Kate works to discover if the death is a mercy killing or not, she uncovers coincidence after coincidence making her think 2 seemingly separate deaths might just be related. But are there more? How deep goes the web of deceit? How long will we hold grudges and bring them to fruit? This is a fast read (I read it in 1 sitting), and perfect for vacation reading!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. After reading Closer to Home, the first to feature DI Kate Fletcher, I was thrilled to read Merciless as an ARC. This is a real page-turner of a book., with a clever, excellently written plot packed full of suspense. This series really is fantastic, I am hoping there will be more about DI Fletcher and her team - soon!
I would like to thank the author Heleyne Hammersley, Bloodhound books and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book - I loved it.

I loved this book so much. I love mystery/thrillers. It’s a nice break from YA. It starts out with a woman found murdered. Then another woman confesses to killing her father who has cancer. Now, we learn that her sister was killed in the same manor but it wasn’t considered murder. Are they all connected somehow? This keeps you on your toes with all of the cases not sure what’s going to happen next. I don’t quite know how to review this without giving too much away but, I’m telling you. You have to read this if you love mysteries.

What a page turner this book was. Every character was well drawn and believable. Plenty of red herrings to keep you guessing. But for me, the best part was the fact it was a well written story with excellent prose and realistic language. Two seemingly random murders are solved by thorough police work and the application of intellect. Nobody is trying to stab their colleague in the back and then clamber over their dead body in a misguided attempt to get to the top of the pile. A genuinely unputdownable page turner, which I highly recommend.

Having enjoyed the first book in the series l had high hopes for this book and Kate Fletcher delivered for me, yes l guessed the killer but that’s nothing new, storyline very plausible and characters evoked empathy, hope there will be more in the series

I really enjoyed the first book in the series so I was delighted to see that the follow up had been released, now I have read it, whilst yes, this is the second book in the series, I think that this one would be fine to read as a stand alone!

I thoroughly enjoyed this story - I thought that the plot was great and was immediately thrown in to the plot. I loved the characters and the writing style was superb - spot on for this genre and I was completely hooked. I thought that Kate was a great character and I have really enjoyed seeing her develop and I love her interaction with the rest of her team.

Four stars from me - a really enjoyable story!!

. It's written with my apologies and thanks to Bloodhound Books and Sarah Hardy for inviting me to read the book, and providing my copy of it through Netgalley.
When a body is found by a police officer jogging by the canal, Detective Inspector (DI) Kate Fletcher is called to investigate. Whilst at the scene, she receives news that a woman has also confessed to killing her father. Whilst the two cases seem very different, the investigation leads Kate to believe that there could be a link between them. Can Kate and her team discover what really happened?
Although Merciless is the second novel featuring DI Kate Fletcher, it can be read as a standalone novel. This is because it focuses more on the victims and perpetrators than on the officers themselves. I enjoyed this approach, as it meant that I was able to look beyond the surface of the crimes and understand what made the characters tick, which I found fascinating. Having said this, the characters of the police officers are also well constructed, and there is definitely more to come from them, so I look forward to the next instalment.
Hammersley is great at creating tension that kept me engrossed in Merciless from beginning to end. It is structured so that the novel is written partly in the past and partly in the present day. This means that we are able to learn about the events leading up to the victims' deaths, sometimes before the police have discovered what happened. Gradually, the past and present become closer together, and I enjoyed examining the different pieces of the puzzle to see how they would fit. There are a few twists towards the end, which kept me guessing and led to a gripping conclusion that I did not expect.

Merciless follows the story of Caroline who has returned home to care for her dad who is dying from liver cancer. She walks into a police station one day and says that her father has killed himself, she has helped him and she would like to talk to DI Kate Fletcher about the murder. Kate is already dealing with a case as the body of a woman was found in a canal that morning but a phone call from her boss has her hot footing it back to the police station. Are the two cases connected and if so, how?

Told via a combination of the investigation into the case in and flashing back to the recent past beginning with Caroline’s reappearance in her father’s life Heleyne Hammerstein builds a compelling tale of murder, family loyalty and desperation. I really like a book with a clever narrative structure and in the case of Merciless it worked perfectly as we know what has happened we just need to know why.

Kate is brilliant protagonist, she is quick-witted, astute, kind, brave and compassionate and I really, really liked her. I loved that this was a book about a female DI who did her job and did it well, she is thorough and competent and leads the investigations with assurity and calmness. It was also incredibly refreshing to read about a woman in this role without having every part of her private life interspersed within the story and affecting her job. She is well-respected and succesful as a DI and I really enjoyed getting to know this strong, succesful and admirable woman.

Merciless is the second in the Kate Fletcher series of books but can be read as a standalone. This was the first book I had read in the series and I really enjoyed it. It has some difficult and upsetting subject matter at times and goes to some uncomfortable places but it is very sensitively handled. I thought Caroline’s sections and the slow unfurling of tension as the pieces of the jigsaw came together was wonderfully written. Caroline is a complicated woman and I really wanted to know as much as possible about her – she is so interesting and her life and motivations are compelling.

This is a real page-turner of a book. The plot is clever, the writing is excellent and I thought the characterisation was spot on – Heleyne Hammersely writes wonderfully complex women and doesn’t shy away from the darkness within. Excellent.

This is the second book in the Kate Fletcher series but my first, it stands very well on its own so don’t worry about jumping in. I was really taken with how this book was set out. The first death was that of a young woman found in the local canal lock. This soon moved from a simple drowning to that of murder and then there was the confession of a middle-aged woman stating that she had killed her terminally ill father by aiding his suicide. This of course should have been an open and shut case but it just doesn’t sit right with Fletcher after meeting the ever so cool Caroline, the daughter of the cancer victim. A few questions and a little digging soon give cause for concern and a double work load!
You have a head start on the investigating team pretty early on in the story as you soon know who has done what, the thing you don’t know is why. The chapters switch between Fletcher and her team in the investigations and of course Caroline. Caroline has many sides to her as you will find out when the story dips into the past, both recent and much further back. Other people’s re-call of the family makes for shocking reading.
I really loved how the information was fed to me about Caroline’s past and care that she administered to her father as both became more shocking as the story progresses. This in turn played with my own moral compass. A super story line, plausible, intriguing and very much a need to know what had happened in the past. A lot I did guess but it is the horror of reading it that makes your worst nightmares real!
I am left wanting to know more about what makes Fletcher tick. Hope to find out a little more as the series builds.

A cracking one sitting read, Merciless is a book that moves along swiftly, with a deft skill and style ensuring you won't want to put down.

Merciless is the second book to feature Hammersley's protagonist DI Kate Fletcher, but don't let that bother you, you can read it as a standalone with ease, I haven't read the first book (although I will be downloading it now) and I didn't have any issues at all with picking this book up.

It's written in switching narratives between Fletcher and Caroline, the woman who confessed to assisting her father's suicide, in slightly different time frames.  Fletcher in the present day, as she investigates both Caroline and the body in the canal, Caroline in the months leading up to the death of her father.

Fletcher is a compassionate character keenly attuned to her team members and eager to discover the truth behind the mysteries before her.  Caroline is awful, devious and manipulative.  She is a character you will automatically dislike, yet at the same time you won't be able to help yourself from empathising with her situation, even though you won't want too.

If you want an intriguing read, that will add a dash of thrilling suspense to your lazy Sunday afternoon, this is the book for you.

Merciless is the first book by Heleyne Hammersley which I have read and it is a corker. Although I haven’t read the previous book in the DI Kate Fletcher series, I felt that Merciless worked very well as a standalone, so don’t worry if you haven’t read the previous book, although like me, I’m sure you’ll want to once you’ve finished. Heleyne takes us on a tense ride as she explores two, seemingly unrelated crimes and the way in which she pulled them both together is what made this novel a really exciting read.

DI Kate Fletcher is called to a scene where the body of a woman has been pulled from a canal. As the investigation into the young woman’s death gets underway, Kate is called back to the station where another young woman has just confessed to the murder of her father. The two cases are both very different. As both investigations progress, Heleyne takes us back in time as we explore what went on in her character’s lives, which ultimately leads to the events which take place in the present day.

The tension in this book never lets up. It is a very quick read and it took me only a day to finish it. As we get to know the background of the story, I really wanted to know how and if the two cases were going to collide. There are some really well developed characters in this book and I liked that Heleyne gave them a real psychological depth; I had this feeling particularly with Caroline. There are definitely some characters that will get under your skin and I also thought it was interesting how Heleyne played with the feelings of the reader towards them. There were times when my opinions of the characters at the centre of the novel kept changing and this is what made the book a really engrossing read.

DI Kate Fletcher is certainly an exciting addition to the crime fiction world and I’m looking forward to finding out more about her. This was a really enjoyable novel from Helen Hammersley. Thank you to Sarah Hardy at Bloodhound Books for inviting me to take part in the tour and for providing me with a copy of the book to read via Netgalley.

DI Kate Fletcher is baaacccckkkkk! And boy did she make an entrance! It didn't take me long at all to devour the second instalment in the 'Kate Fletcher' series, what with the incredibly intense plot and the high energy situations which Kate Fletcher and her team came across.

With a murder confession on their hands which was intent on raising several eyebrows, it doesn't take too long for Kate Fletcher and her team to find themselves tangled in a spider's web, when they realise that there is a lot more to that 'confession' than they first thought.

'Merciless' is a story that switches between past events and the 'now'. Even though us readers have more insight to the truth than Kate Fletcher does, Heleyne Hammersley has ensured that her readers are still kept in the dark regarding the pieces of information that will really allow faeces to hit the fan.

I have to say that, even though I had roughly worked out what I had thought had happened, it didn't stop me from enjoying the storyline as, whilst I had become aware of the minor details, the true grit and shocking moments were kept under lock and key until the very last knocking. 

'Merciless' kept my attention from start to finish, raising my heart rate with every turn of the page. I thought that the tension in the book was fantastically written, and the addition of the author drip feeding her readers shocking information was very, very clever.

I cannot fault this book at all! I know I have been vague with my review, but 'Merciless' is the type of book which the less you know about beforehand, the more blunt your reactions will be. 

A cracking, fast paced read which kept me on the edge of my seat the entire way through.