The Last Lullaby is this the second book in the DI Natalie Ward series which I think is absolutely freaking amazing. Having read The Birthday I couldn't wait to get stuck into this. Not only is it bloody epic but take a look at that cover….how lush is that?!

Once again Carol has pulled out all the punches and brings us yet another nail biting read which grabbed me from the very first chapter I simply couldn't put it down. This story has plenty of OMG moments and you keep you guessing until the end. I have to say...Boy I wasn't expecting that.

Natalie is a character that you cannot help but like she is easy to relate to being a working mom of two teenagers...I know that feeling all to well myself.

I loved the use of alternate chapters which I can’t say to much about,without giving to much away. You will know what I mean when you read it yourself ,It totally adds more mystery into the story and gets you thinking even more.

The author takes us on a rollercoaster ride that will keep you up all night. I flipping love everything about it. And I love the fact that I have found myself a new series to read.

I cannot recommend it enough giving it all the stars.

Adam Brannon, semi-pro boxer, is the number one suspect in the murder of his wife, Charlotte. His story is that he found her brutally murdered in their bedroom while his six-month old son, Alfie, was screaming in his nursery. They had arrived home after celebrating her parents’ anniversary. His story is that sometime after they arrived home and after he dropped their babysitter off he discovered her body.

DI Natalie Ward is on a few days leave for much-needed time with her family. Her marriage may be in trouble so she really needs this time. However, she is called to the gruesome murder scene along with her team. When they arrive, many observations were made. First and foremost, blessedly, the baby was unharmed. Also, there was no evidence of a break-in and between pictures on the bedroom wall was one word: ‘why?’.

As always in murder investigations, those closest to the victim are under immediate suspicion. Aside from Adam, Natalie speaks to others in Charlotte’s life including the babysitter, as she apparently was the last to see her alive. Also, two men were seen fleeing from the scene and the detectives work very hard to identify them. Within a short period of time, quite a few facts are revealed about Charlotte’s and Adam's marriage and their lives.

There was quite a bit of intrigue in this engaging story and I was caught up in the investigation. This was especially so when two further things were mentioned in the book. One, there was a mysterious individual in the story, but I will leave it at that. Second, there was another mother murdered, with very similar circumstances.

Last Lullaby was ripe full of excellent character development, lots of twists and turns and a shocking conclusion. It is the second book in the Natalie Ward series. The first book was The Birthday, which was a fabulous read. I daresay that this story is just as good, if not better. Although it does well as a stand-alone, I encourage readers to grab both of these stories, and everything else that Carol Wyer has penned. She is extremely talented and writes compelling stories. I very much look forward to continuing this series.

Reviewer’s note: This book is definitely worth five stars as it is extremely well-written and has a very strong plot, but I did want to mention that there is a prevalence of strong language.

Many thanks to Carol Wyer and Bookouture for this ARC for review in exchange for an honest opinion.

Oooohhh. This book is good. I really enjoyed The Birthday, the first book in the series which takes readers on a notably darker path than we are perhaps used to from Carol. With Last Lullaby we are again faced with a very dark and complex case, one which grasps your attention from the very start and, if you are at all like me, will have you racing through it in a matter of hours, unable to put the book down until you are finished.

At the very start of the novel we are introduced to Charlotte Brannon, a young mother who has just spent a rather tense evening with her husband, Adam, helping her parents to celebrate their anniversary. Well, this is certainly one anniversary they won't forget. Within hours of arriving home, Charlotte is dead, the victim of a very brutal attack. Adam is the number one suspect, his alibi just not quite ringing true to Natalie Ward and her team. When another woman is murdered who has links to Adam and his boxing club, the finger of suspicion jabs once more in his direction. Can Natalie break the alibi, and if she does will she prove Adam guilty or innocent?

What I loved about this book is that from the very beginning you can feel the tension, and the frustration levels, rising. Carol Wyer has done a brilliant job of keeping the reader on the hook, the opening scene between Charlotte and Adam, showing us a marriage which is far from harmonious but showing us what caring and loving mother Charlotte is. The love for her son, Alfie, radiates from the page and you know she would do anything for him. It is noise from his baby monitor which wakes her, sounds which shouldn't be there and which will be some of the last ones she will hear. Right up to the end of the chapter you can feel the edginess, the fear starting to set in, the scene cutting out at the very moment that the reader's heart will be pounding ...

And there are so many more moments like that littered throughout the novel. Carol Wyer has a real skill in creating that tension and the mystery that a novel such as this one requires. In truth, although suspicious of Adam, there are no end of suspects in Charlotte's murder and very quickly we learn not to take everything at face value. How much of what we are shown is a red herring, how much jealousy and how much down right lies, you will need to read to find out, but hidden deep down, amongst everything you will read, is the truth. The very soul of a dangerous and disturbed individual bleeding out from the page, just like the blood they let flow from their victims.

I love the character of Natalie Ward. She is a wife and mother, her home life not entirely stable, and yet she remains equally as dedicated to her family as she is to her job. She has a focused and a no nonsense approach which I enjoy to read and it is nice to see a character who can just be left to investigate and not get bogged down by an over eager journalist or a boss who hates her. And why would they? She is really easy to like; by no means perfect, but a good leader and one for whom her team has a great respect. And what a team they are too. Whilst Murray Anderson and Ian Jarvis do play a key role in the book, Ian especially towards the end of the story, I think it is really Lucy Carmichael who sits front and centre alongside Natalie on this case.

Lucy has really taken the case to heart, determined to break the alibi of Adam and his best friend Lee, and you can feel her determination pushing through and her frustration as her attempts to crack the case are thwarted. She is driven by a kind of personal anxiety, certain elements of the case striking a chord with her. She is concerned about becoming a mother, her partner Bethany pregnant with their first child. Carol Wyer has done a brilliant job of capturing the way in which Lucy is facing all of her fears - that she won't bond with the child, that she will be a terrible parent - and feeding them into the story seemlessly. Despite her fears, you know Lucy will make a brilliant, if potentially strict, parent and her relationship with Bethany is a joy to read. They really work well together, one of the few actually harmonious relationships in the whole book to be fair.

This book really has a little bit of everything. Great characters that you can get behind or rally against. Misdirection in almost every scene that will have you suspecting one person, only to have you second guessing yourself after a few page turns and thinking it is someone else entirely. There are heart stopping scenes (literally for the victims) which will have you on the edge of your seat and quiet moments of reflection in which the simpler, and yet still complicated, family lives of our detecting team are brought into focus. There are also scenes which may seem a little cryptic at first, but as you read on you come to realise who is speaking and the meaning becomes oh so clear, the menace oozing from the narrative, making the skin crawl. It really is a perfect mix.

Tense, fast paced and totally engrossing, this is a book that will exasperate you, thrill you, chill you and truly test your detecting skills as you strive to pinpoint whodunnit. I loved Last Lullaby. I have to say that this series is shaping up to be one heck of a killer read and I am relieved to hear that book three is well on its way as I cannot wait to read more.

The second book in the Detective Inspector Natalie Ward series. It can be read as a standalone book, although for continuity it is advisable to read the books in series order!

This book takes us back to Natalie and her team, who are investigating the brutal murder of young mother Charlotte Brannon. Charlotte’s body was discovered by her husband Adam in their bedroom with a chilling message written in blood left on the bedroom wall. As Natalie and the team begin to investigate, they find that Adam and Charlotte’s relationship wasn’t all it appeared and with Adam’s history they begin to wonder whether he was capable of murdering his wife. When another murder of a young mother is discovered, Natalie finds the case being hampered by dead ends and false leads. She also has to deal with issues in her personal life and finds it difficult to stay focussed on finding the killer. Can Natalie and her team solve one of their toughest cases yet?

Wow wow wow!!! What a book! I’ve loved all the books by this author, particularly the Robyn Carter series, and when I reviewed the first Natalie Ward book, The Birthday I wondered whether it would match up to the superb Robyn Carter! Thankfully it did, and I’m so happy that this book also did….in fact, if anything this one was even better!

I got pulled into the story right from page one. The story of Charlotte Brannon being brutally murdered whilst her baby son was in the next room was particularly chilling and started the story off with a bang! I was literally on the edge of my seat by the end of the first few chapters and found myself transfixed at the pace that it moved at. In a strange way, I loved how the team went from one dead end to another, giving me so much more time to enjoy how all the different characters worked. The story’s tension and suspense didn’t let up for a minute and I found I became completely oblivious to what was going on around me as I was that engrossed!

I have to admit there was only one thing in this story that I didn’t like….Natalie’s husband David!! I didn’t like him in the first book and liked him even less in this one. I can’t believe he is so unsupportive of his wife and her job!! I just wanted to rip out every page that he was on!! Actually I didn’t really as his and Natalie’s relationship is such an important part of this series but it just feels that he's going to cause Natalie so many more problems!! I really want to see how things pan out between the two of them in future books as I have an inkling it’s going to get messy!! I did really feel for Natalie though in her home life. It must be so tough for her to juggle her job and her family along with all the problems that her family seem to be giving her at the moment. Whilst she looks and acts like the tough cop, I’m wondering whether we going to see more of the vulnerable side of her in the future!

The story was cleverly written with no hint (for me anyway!) of who the killer was until nearing the end. I systematically went through each character and suspected each and every one of them as it could have literally been anybody! It was a fast paced book with so many twists and turns it made me dizzy! I honestly found myself holding my breath at the end of every chapter! The ending was superb and I really don’t think I will be able to contain myself until Book 3!!

Absolutely bloody brilliant……that is all I can say! More please!!!