This is the thirteenth book in the bestselling series featuring Hilary Greene. Aside from the first book in the series, I have read, reviewed and loved every book in the series and Hilary Greene has to be one of my favourite female detectives. I was excited to get a review copy of ‘Murder Of A Lover’ and I was not to be disappointed as I absolutely loved it but more about that in a bit
Hilary Greene is a really interesting female lead character. The first eleven books in the series sees Hilary in her role as a Detective Inspector in charge of a small team. The twelfth (‘Murder Never Retires’) and ‘Murder Of A Lover’ see Hilary return to work but she is no longer a police officer but she is a civilian employee, who works for the ‘Cold Case’ squad. Hilary is one feisty and determined lady but then she has had to be. Hilary was married to a bent police officer, Ronnie Greene. Fortunately she divorced him and she has been happy on her own, keeping her options open. It takes a little while for Hilary to get used to the fact that she is no longer in charge of the team but in a sense she is pleased to have the responsibility of being a manager taken off her shoulders. When Hilary investigates a case, you can bet your bottom dollar that she will investigate the case thoroughly and she will exhaust all lines of inquiry. She has a great gut instinct and if something doesn’t seem right to her then it usually isn’t. She also has a great internal radar system and knows when she is being lied to or if somebody is not being very forthcoming with vital information. Hilary has recently lost weight and she becomes aware that she is attracting male attention. Some of which she likes, some of which she doesn’t like. ‘Murder Of A Lover’ sees Hilary attract the attentions of a stalker. I am not going to tell you anymore about who it is as I don’t want to give too much away. What I will say is that the stalker set off massive alarm bells for me and I was ready to jump inside the pages of this book to stick up for Hilary.
This is another of those books that became an instant hit with me. As soon as I started reading ‘Murder Of A Lover’, I just knew that I would become seriously addicted to this book. The story hit the ground running and maintained the pace throughout. The author’s writing style is such that you can’t fail to be drawn into the story. So it was with me. The more I read, the more I got into the story and the quicker the pages turned. The pages were turning that quickly that it was almost as if they were turning themselves and before I knew it I had finished the book. I was concentrating so hard on the story, the characters and the investigation that I genuinely hadn’t realised how quickly I was reading the book. I had mixed feelings about finishing ‘Murder Of A Lover’. Don’t get me wrong I was pleased to finish because I knew how this story and investigation concluded but I was disappointed to finish because I was loving the writing style, the plot, the characters and the story so much that I just wanted the book to continue. Reading ‘Murder Of A Lover’ was much like being on an unpredictable and rather scary rollercoaster ride. There were lots of twists and turns and moments where I almost had to read through my hands because I genuinely feared what was going to happen next and I feared what was going to happen to Hilary.
I have to say that Faith Martin has another winner on her hands with ‘Murder Of A Lover’. The series featuring Hilary Greene just gets better and better. I can’t wait to read the next instalment of the series. I wholeheartedly recommend this author and this series to other readers. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a well deserved 5* out of 5*.

Well this has it all, Police procedure,a romance, a stalker and of course a Murder. Hillary Green is a member of the Case Review Team, investigating cold cases and as an experienced ex -DI helps uncover the murderer, which is a great unexpected reveal. I loved the twists and turns and the intermixing of storylines. Faith Martin has brought Hillary Green to life and clearly knows a lot about the police procedures, a great read.

This is book number thirteen in the series (previously published as "A Narrow Margin Of Error") and once more the author does not disappoint, giving us murder and mystery set in and around Oxford. Here we have another excellent Hillary Greene novel where the former DI is now working as a civilian on cold cases. Once again she is trying to solve a murder and she still has her stalker who is getting more brazen. In my opinion the reader would benefit from reading the books in order, or at least start at book twelve in order to get to know the new team involved. I am now eagerly awaiting the next book, especially in view of the gripping cliff hanger which we are left with!

Oh, come on, has Hillary lost her mojo since doing that early retirement stint, what lazy kind of policing is this, now you have a stalker going at you and all you can do is get like a lame duck, shocks man, you killing me here. Although the storyline is a great one, taking two books to catch this stalker isn’t cutting it with me. Don’t get me wrong Hillary is still a strong character, just a bit lame right now, I guess she is still in limbo about her choices. Now as much as the characters are great, it seems like the stalker is in charge of this book. It feels like this book is missing a few more vibrant characters, to give it that old excitement that grips you, hey, don’t mind my ranting, I’m still a fan and look forward to the next and please no more cliffhangers argh, they just kill my appetite.

Another excellent Hillary Greene novel (can't call her D.I. now she's retired). She's back a civilian helper in the cold case bureau. Her boss was determined to get her back. Again she's dealing with a murder and again she keeps her record to 100%, with a little help from her friends.

Never had a bad Faith Martin book yet. Well worth reading the series through.

Former DI Hillary Greene still has her stalker. He is getting braver as time goes by too. She was very successful with her first cold case but this one may be much harder to solve. Here was a young man who was happy go lucky and would try anything once. He was in college and renting a room from a widow as did four other students. They all seemed to be happy with him in spite of his attitude. Hillary is working on her love life too. Many things going on and working at teaching her young helpers about investigations.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Joffe Books for an advance copy of Murder of a Lover, the thirteenth novel to feature ex DI turned cold case civilian investigator, Hillary Greene of Thames Valley police.

After successfully solving her first case with the Crime Review Team Hillary is asked to look into the 10 year old murder of Rowan Thompson, an 18 year old student found stabbed to death by a pair of scissors in his room. More troublingly her recently acquired stalker is upping the ante and the solution of faking a relationship with her new boss, Superintendent Stephen Coyle, isn't making her feel any better.

I enjoyed Murder of a Lover which is a thoroughly pleasant read with a good mystery and some tension attached. The actual murder investigation is fairly perfunctory with Hillary and the team conducting a few interviews before a brainwave leads her to the perpetrator but, to be fair, this is not the main focus of the novel as it is mostly pre-occupied with the stalker plot line. Ms Martin handles it well with a slow build up, started in the previous novel, and uses this novel to cover his escalation, some of it funny to the reader on the outside, but mostly sinister in its intent. Hillary's uneasiness is apparent and she has some uncharacteristic moments of weakness, but who wouldn't in the same situation? The reader gets the stalker's point of view as well as Hillary's in this plot line so his identity and motivation are no secret but I'm not so sure it works. Yes, he is a fantasist and has some warped thinking but it's not detailed or deep enough to be really convincing or frightening, more a cosy view of stalker 101. It does, however, set up the next novel nicely.

Murder of a Lover is a good read which I have no hesitation in recommending.

5 stars

Former DI Hillary Greene’s stalker from the last book is getting more brazen. Her boss Superintendent Stephen Crayle and Hillary believe that he works at the station, either as a civilian worker or as a police officer.

Meanwhile, Hillary and her small team take on the case of Rowan Thompson. He was a young college student who quite fancied himself as a ladies’ man and was very successful at it. He was found stabbed to death with a scissors in his room which he shared with four other college students and the home’s owner.

Early on in the book, the identity of Hillary’s stalker is given. He is truly a twisted individual. Stephen and Hillary’s plan to bring her stalker into sight is working beautifully. The stalker goes into a rage after hearing office gossip about Steven and Hillary being an item. As the book goes on, the reader discovers some horrifying things about him.

Hillary and her team of Jimmy Jessop, a retired sergeant, Vivienne Tyrell who has a major crush on the boss Stephen Crayle and Sam Pickels start investigating the murder of Rowan Thompson. They are checking backgrounds and interviewing witnesses. Vivienne turns down Hillary’s offer to go along to an interview because she wants to hang around the office to keep an eye on Stephen.

The interviews with the roommates, family and friends of Rowan’s give little additional information beyond the initial interviews of ten years earlier. But some new interesting little factoids do come to light. The team keeps plugging away at the facts of the case. Meanwhile, Hillary’s stalker has upped the ante. Hillary and Steven’s search for him steps up as do the stalker’s threats. Jimmy is let into the plan and he arranges for some other retired coppers to surveil Hillary’s narrow boat and car. One of them manages to see the stalker do something inside her car, but he gets away before the retired copper can get a look at his face.

Hillary has one of her epiphanies and they arrest the main suspect in Rowan’s murder. The identity of the killer came as a total surprise to me.

This book is well written and plotted, as are all of Faith Martin’s novels. It is full of twists and turns and keeps the reader on the edge of their proverbial seats. It was very well done. Ms. Martin keeps getting better and better. Jimmy has turned out to be a solid sidekick for Hillary. Sam is trying hard and learning very fast. He is intelligent and tries very hard. Vivienne is a waste of space. Other than Vivienne, the team gets along well together and respects one another. I like this about Ms. Martin’s novels.

I want to thank NetGalley and Joffe Books for forwarding to me a copy of this absolutely great book to read, enjoy and review.

** I could not attach any links to my other reviews, as the book is not yet on the market.

PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A REVISED EDITION OF A BOOK FIRST PUBLISHED AS “A NARROW MARGIN OF ERROR.”

Hilary Green is back at work, investigating cold murder cases. Today she's been handed the file of a college student who was stabbed with a pair of scissors 10 years ago.

There are plenty of suspects as the student was well known to be a 'player'. He really liked the ladies .. married or single ... young or old ... male or female. He was always up for a new experience. Seems his life was full .. just someone cut it short.

Was it one of his sexual conquests? A boyfriend or girlfriend of one of his conquests? A parent looking at for his daughter? Greene has her hands full trying to sort this one out.

Meanwhile, she still has a stalker problem .. only he's becoming more insistent that she play his game. Along with letter and notes and filling her care with flowers, he's now sending her crosses with iniitals burned onto them. Who do these initials belong to? And what does that mean for Greene's safety?

This is a really good series ... I enjoy the character of Hilary Greene. She's more mature, settled into her life, more or less, and she's dedicated to finding closure for families and loved one of the victims. This time around, she has a new team ... the older retired policeman is in awe of Hilary. He knows class when he sees it. The younger guy is a trainee and is so appreciative of learning the ropes under Hilary's tutelage. The lone young female trainee has a thing for Hilary's boss ... but the boss seems to prefer the maturity of Hilary.

The stalker remains at large despite the efforts of Hilary and her boss to catch him in the act...leading to a cliff hangar. Hopefully this will be finalized in the next book of this series. I always look forward to seeing what happens next in Hilary's exciting life.

Many thanks to the author / Joffe Books / Netgalley / Books n All Publicity for the advanced digital copy of this crime thriller. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Hilary Greene at her best! Thought that being in the cold case team wouldn’t be exciting, but the first two stories have been brilliant. Faith Martin weaves a story that leads you waiting for the next in anticipation.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

3.5* rounded down.

This instalment is made up of three strands: Hillary solves a 10 year old murder; Hillary's stalker pursues her; and Hillary and her boss Steven fake a relationship to draw out the stalker. The cold case was a little dull and the solution came out of nowhere and wasn't particularly satisfying. Hillary's stalker was revealed to be even more disturbed than we thought, but (for me) took up a disproportionate amount of the book. Hillary and Steven were adorable - we all know where fake relationships lead...

I'm deducting half a mark for the ending, which was abrupt and merely intended to make the reader buy the next instalment.