Book 1 in the DI Sasha Dawson series is set on a remote farm in the Thames estuary where six children have been held captive for a number of weeks. It's a bit spooky with good plotting and a steady pace. There was just a bit too much going on, everyone seemed to be having a crisis! it's a good start to a new series, however. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

The Bad Place is M.K. Hill's (or Mark Hill's) third thriller and the first in a promising new police procedural series featuring the interesting DI Sasha Dawson.

Good book to read
Couldn't put it down.
4 star book
Not sure who I'd tell about this book. Didn't take long to read at all.
Not sure if I'd read this again but it's a good book.

DI Sasha Dawson has a real puzzler on her hands when young Sammi goes missing. Is her case connected to a 20 year old disappearance that was never solved? Canny readers of the genre know that it is, but how? This is a nice start to a new series with a great protagonist in Sasha. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC.

This is definately a detective series , but in having said that one which I really enjoyed. I loved the writing style , chapters werent too long very easy to follow. Lots of twists involved it also has a timeline involved with past/present. This book hooked me from the beginning. Highly recommend.

An excellent start to a new series by M.K. Hill. It was a welcome change to meet a female 'middle-aged' protagonist in a police procedural. DI Sasha Dawson is juggling a demanding family life (interfering mother, stroppy teenagers and depressed husband - known as living in the 'sandwich generation') with a hectic career and workload. The plot explores a kidnapping twenty years ago, with questions remaining about what happened to the five teenagers who eventually escaped to safety from 'The Bad Place' - and why the sixth ended up dead. This is linked to the present-day kidnapping of a teenager girl, the author expertly weaving the two stories together while also revealing details of the teenagers (now adults) involved. Looking forward to the next book in the series and seeing how the character of DI Dawson develops.

Thanks to netgalley for the brilliant ARC I had to privilege to read. This is the first book by Mark I've read, and will without a doubt not be my last. The Bad Place is a thrilling way to introduce a new detective, and the reader warms up to her very quickly. I really hope there is some more books to come featuring detective Dawson! Recommended.

Wowser what a book and a half this was!!

Brilliant start to a new series and I can’t wait for the next one in the series, totally thrilling and full of tension, never quite know who you can trust or what will happen next.

Loved it a must read for anyone who likes a seriously good thriller, more please and quick!!!

A really good story line that is very different from any other I have read. How can a tragic event from 25 years ago be responsible for crimes happening today? MK Hill has started this series off with a winning story line and a group of main characters that you talk to as you read. Their interactions in this story definitely set us up for future suspense. This was a fast, enjoyable read for me. I'm looking forward to the next one.

This is the first book in a new series featuring DI Sasha Dawson of the Essex police. Sasha is totally committed to her job but her home life is far from perfect. The family have suffered tragedy in their lives and Sasha, her husband and two teenage children are struggling to cope. Overt twenty five years ago, when Sasha had been in the police force for only a week, she was involved in a case where a minibus had been hijacked and six children taken. The place where they were held captive became known as The Bad Place. Only five children escaped, one young girl was killed and the captor was shot. Every year the five survivors meet up for a meal and to remember their friend who lost her life. But when one of the survivors arrives shaken after she had witnessed a young girl being kidnapped in the street, it reawakens all the nightmares of the past for them all and all the secrets they have kept hidden about what happened when they were held captive. Sasha is leading the investigation into the latest kidnapping and is convinced that the two incidents are linked as more children are kidnapped. This book is a gripping read and had me completely hooked. The story is told in the past and present and we realise what lifelong trauma the children suffered. A highly recommended book, I can’t wait for the second book in the series.
Thanks to Netgalley and Head of Zeus for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

I received a copy of this in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley.

This book was absolutely amazing. The storyline was unique and fabulous. I could NOT put this book down!

26 years ago, 6 teenagers were kidnapped in broad daylight and held against their will, only 5 made it out alive. The kidnapper was shot and killed but now kids are once again going missing and events are eerily mirroring the event of 26 years ago.

Secrets are about to be revealed, secrets that should have stayed buried.

The Bad Place was a dark, suspenseful read that had me intrigued from the very beginning. It moved along at a good pace and had a great build up, filled with lots of twists and turns and shocking revelations, you will NOT see coming.

I found this read rather enjoyable and would recommend it anybody who enjoys tense thrillers.

# The Bad Place # Netgalley
Although a really good storyline and more twist than a bonsai tree roots, I wasn’t totally gripped by the book. The writing was good. However it was one of the books I was not bothered when I had to put it down. At one point I almost gave up on this book.Again my reason was it just did not grip me at all. Although I good storyline. I can not put my finger on why. I can only assume it was a bit on the slow side. I have to say the main character lead was DCI Sasha Dawson. If she intends to become part of a series I will definitely try reading another one with her as main character. It’s surprised me this book. It’s genuinely not up to Mark Hills normal standard

This book was based in the surrounding areas of where I used to live in Essex so seeing familiar place names mentioned was quite surreal – especially as the book was a thriller and an awful crime had taken place!

This is the first book in the Sasha Dawson series and I am really looking forward to more about her. Another goof thriller which kept me guessing and was truly heartbreaking at times. Intertwined with Sasha’s personal life and the struggles she had going on at home made it an all round fab read.

The type of crime may be difficult for some to take on so be wary – it isn’t pleasant but the book is well written and as a thriller does the job by keeping you guessing and wanting to read on to find out what happens.

Over twenty years ago six teenagers were abducted. Only five managed to escape & every year the five survivors meet up at Karin's to remember the one who didn't. This year though Lydia arrives in a terrible state having just seen someone being abducted. She is not the most reliable of witnesses but nevertheless they report it. Sasha was a very young PC when the group were abducted. She is haunted by telling Karin that all would be OK. Now a DI she is in charge of the investigation. As the case goes on it is clear that this case is connected to the previous one and in particular to Karin- especially when one of her pupils is abducted.

Struggling with her home problems with a stroppy teen, a mother who disapproves of how much time Sasha is at work & a husband who is obviously not his usual self she & her team throw everything into getting the children back safely.

This was a great read & a promising start to a new series. I can't wait till the next one. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

Everything started a few years ago when some teenagers were kidnapped, sadly not all of them survived. Since that moment, all the remaining meet once a year to remember those horrible days. But now, 20 years later a young girl has been kidnapped near their meeting point and some of them seem to have a connection with the missing girl. Is this success related to the past? There are so many lies and secrets hidden that you’ll not know who to believe!
Since the beginning you can feel that the 5 teenagers that survived the kidnapping have something to hide and are related to the kidnapping at the present, but as the story unfolds you see that there’s much more than you ever thought in the beginning. But this makes the story more engaging and interesting!
The main detective of the case at the present, D.I Sasha Dawson, was during the arrest of the kidnapper and she has a special connection with the victims. Sasha is really intelligent and brave, she is not scared to discover the truth and knows that the “friends” have something to hide, but knows that pressuring them will not have the answer, she has to wait. At the same time I’ll have to say that there’s something with Sasha that I didn’t like, she is tenacious and hard working at her job, but is negligent with her family. Because apart from the case we will read about Sasha’s family, that is totally a mess, with so many secrets and lies that she should start investigating them aside from the case!
The story is told between the past when the teenagers were kidnapped and the present, were there’s been another kidnapping.
This had been an interesting story, since the beginning you suspect of all the “friends” but you can feel that there’s something more and this makes the read engaging and compelling! I really can’t wait to know a read case with the D.I Sasha Dawson!
Ready to discover The Bad Place?

The Bad Place by M.K. Hill is the first A Sasha Dawson Thriller. Twenty six years ago six children were abducted and held for two weeks on a remote farm. Unfortunately, only five of them survived. Every year the five of them get together and remember Becky who is no longer with them. This year, Lydia stumbles in late. She is shaking and states she saw a teenager get abducted. DI Sasha Dawson was a probationary officer when situation with the kids went down and she has a feeling that the new missing person’s case relates back to that event. Sasha and her team need to work quickly so they can get the teen back alive. Sasha Dawson is a realistic character who is juggling her job and her family. She has a husband and two squabbling teenagers. Then her mother leaves her husband after fifty years of marriage and moves in which causes havoc. While the kidnapping story is being investigated, the past is slowly revealed through flashbacks. Sasha and her team question the family and friends plus they chase down leads. There is action that keeps propelling the story forward and keeps the tension ramped up. I find The Bad Place to be a cross between a cozy mystery, mystery and thriller (elements of all three). There are a lot of characters (each with their own issues) and it can be hard to keep them straight in the beginning. The Bad Place is an intriguing mystery with a concerned detective, a deadly adversary, long held secrets and a victim running out of time.

This had a lot of potential as a dual-timeline story, but ultimately fell flat for me. It has quite a high rating from other readers, so I'm obviously the odd one out. I had to force myself to finish reading it.

The "bad guy" was so obvious that it was almost comical. Though I have the ultimate respect for law enforcement, this story just made them look like bungling dopes. Sasha's character was thoroughly obnoxious. Somehow she held a high authority at work, while she was completely ineffectual with her own children. Constant issues at home kept tearing away her attention from the kidnapping cases. Considering how helpless she was as a mother made it difficult to appreciate her work as a professional.

The mystery of The Bad Place was interesting, and I was glad to find out what happened in the end. Still, if I had to do it over, I would have skipped this one.

There is something particularly joyful that comes with diving into the first book in a promising new series. And The Bad Place is off to a particularly cracking start! We have a long closed case with a trailing public memory and appears to be repeating itself, a tenacious DI with some tumultuous family issues, and a broad cast of supporting characters that drag you into the deep and refuse to let you go.

Told is both dual timeline and dual perspective between DI Sasha Dawson and survivor Karin McCarthy, you're constantly drawn between fact and speculation, past and present, character and action. The pacing of this book is break-neck and so incredibly spot on, there is never a dull moment even when exploring Sasha's family. The investigative team too has a fun dynamic with individual and unique characters. It's clear that there are so many ways in which this narrative can grow and I can't wait to see what comes next. The kidnappings too keep those pages turning. The case is full of unexpected twists, intriguing histories, and is complicated by the grip of trauma and the fallacy of memory.

As each new kidnapping takes place it becomes clear that everyone is holding on to secrets, and that those secrets have incredible costs. Whether it's the five survivors of the original kidnapping, their families, or the original investigating officers there's so much more to this case than originally meets the eye - which constantly leaves you guessing and you all know how much I love that! I loved how the Sammi arc played out as her presence in the story added yet another layer to the drama, and really heightened the mass dysfunction that surrounded the survivors.

I absolutely adored how Karin's story was told in dual timeline, with flashbacks to her time at the Bad Place interspersed throughout the present day. Her raw experience in the cellar, the psychological manipulations of both her captor and the other kids in the cellar, and the aftermath of her role in the kids survival created a story that could have stood on it's own. I ended up completely enraptured by her story for all of it's good, bad, and ugly. She's hard to love and hard to hate, but you simply can't tear your eyes away from her story.

Sasha on the other hand is easy to get behind! She has an infectious passion that draws you in from the get go. Everything from her team management to her hatred of shoes and the love she holds for her family reads as relatable and genuine. And as much as Karin carried the crime story, Sasha's family carried the weight of the personal narrative.  I had nothing but sympathy as she tried to navigate the issues with her husband and the needs of her two teenaged children. And even more sympathy when her mother decided to move in after ending 50 years of marriage - cue the drama! Sure, we spend a lot of time with Sasha's family, more than on her investigation of the case, but this wasn't a bad thing. As the first book in the series I took this as some serious ground work and think that there are great things coming down the line.

There are a lot of characters to keep track of, but if you're willing to juggle multiple narratives, then I am happy to assure you that they all come together in the end. Hill will keep you entranced from first page to last. the darkest moments are offset by tenderness and humour, and complicated subject matter is balanced by an accessible vocabulary and an approachable writing style.

Would I recommend this book? Absolutely! It's thrilling, fast paced, and emotionally dynamic. It's perfect for a little scare in the lead up to halloween, and even better for those that like to indulge in thrillers year round. I'm excited to see where DI Sasha Dawson and the team head next, as I'm sure it will be nothing short of fabulous.

Twenty six years ago six teenagers where taken hostage only 5 got out. The five survivors meet up every year . But this year one of them witnesses a kidnapping.
Many strange and bad things start happening to them all.
Is it linked to the case 26 years ago or is it a coincidence .
D.I Sasha Dawson is brought in to solve the case. She was also a young D.C on the first case.
This is told in two timelines the present and the past.
Thanks NetGalley