Gina Harte has a tough one on her hands in this twisty novel of a woman with a secret that goes back to childhood. Susan's mother Mary insists that she would never abandon her children- but the fact is that she didn't show up to pick them up after school. She's separated from her husband Rory, who isn't a nice person. Her sister Clare thinks Susan is a drama queen who has pulled stunts like this in the past. Then things change when bad stuff happens (no spoilers). Told primarily from Gina's point of view, this also gives voice to someone else (no spoilers). I'd not read this series before so Gina was new to me but she's a great character who is dealing with her own issues. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. I didn't see some of this coming- it's a good read.

This book was really good. It gripped me from page 1 and didn't let me go until I finished the book in the wee hours of the morning. HDH is part of a series but it also read just fine as a stand-alone. I thought the characters were well fleshed out; I could picture them all in my head as I read. The end took me completely by surprise; I had no idea who the "bad guys" were and why they did what they did. I was slightly disappointed by their punishment though. All in all 4 stars and I will definitely read more by Kovach!

would like to thank netgalley and the pubisher for letting me read this book

book 5 in the series with our favourite detective gina harte...

susan wheeler is missing, she is the mother of 3 children but she is also in the middle of a bitter divorce

her soon to be ex isnt to worried saying she takes off and she will be back in a few days
her sister says she makes a habit of running away and will be back

her mother is the only one that is taking it seriously but can she persuade the police to carry on looking

then a dead body turns up...

our detective has her hands full as this case reminds her of her time during her own domestic situations, can our team find susan before its to late

not a bad story with plenty of edge of the seat stuff and more background information on gina harte the person in charge of investigating this case...

She’s done it again. This is another winning installment in the Detective Gina Harte series. Gripping, tense, thrilling and unputdownable, I flew through it in under a day.

Susan Wheeler is a devoted mum to her three children. She’s going through an acrimonious divorce but it is out of character when she not only doesn’t turn up to collect her youngest child, two-year-old Rory from pre-school, but also doesn’t come home that night or the next day. Her mother Mary is worried but her sister, Clare, and ex-husband, Ryan, think it’s a bid for attention. Finally, Mary calls the police and Gina and her team are assigned to the case.

There are few clues but Susan’s diary leads them to a man who was possibly the last person to see her before she disappeared. But he’s found dead, having been brutally beaten and tortured before he was strangled to death. Is Susan a victim or did she have some part in this man’s death? The team keep digging but the missing pieces of the puzzle seem to elude them and Gina gets the sense there’s things the family aren’t telling her. It’s a race against the clock to put the pieces together, get to the truth and find Susan before she or someone else turns up dead.

Her Dark Heart is the fifth book in this series and it lives up to the high bar that’s been set in the others. While knowledge from the other book does help with things like Gina’s backstory and character relationships it is still possible to read this as a standalone. The author is skilled in writing twisty crime fiction full of relatable characters and bad guys that make your skin crawl.

Some of my favourite parts were from the chapters narrated by our mystery perpetrator. He was sinister, repulsive, delusional, and is determined to inflict his wrath and revenge for what happened all those years ago; though we don’t yet know what occurred. These chapters revved up the tension and had me on the edge of my seat as I tried to figure things out. There were a plethora of suspects but I couldn’t predict who he was or exactly why he was doing this. I did manage to guess part of it correctly but I was still blindsided by the revelations that came as we reached the jaw-dropping finale.

As with the author’s other books there are deeper themes running through this book than what appears on the surface. This time it’s secrets. Susan and her family are all harbouring various secrets and Gina is facing the emotional consequences of secrets she has kept for decades. While the Collins family's secrets have led to Susan’s abduction and threaten to tear their family apart, Gina is missing her mother and feeling she has no right to grieve for not being there when she died because of the invisible chains her abusive late husband kept her in and how keeping the abuse secret led to their estrangement. It shows us how secrets can snowball, with devastating and catastrophic results.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys crime fiction and police procedurals. If you haven’t read the previous books in the series then check those out too.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for my copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I can't believe this is book five in the Gina Hart series and it just keeps getting better and better. A gripping police procedural which kept me glued to my seat and tapping my kindle faster and faster. A DARK read which gave me goosebumps and in places holding my breath. I love the main characters and I feel like they are old friends. Unsavoury issues and another heart pounding page turner. I loved it. An easy five stars and so Highly Recommended.
I would like to thank the author, publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.

Thank you NetGalley and Carla Kovach for the chance to read this book before it goes bookshelves later this month. It took me a little bit to get in to but once i did I couldn't put it down. I didn't care for Ryan or her mother or even Clare but once things started tho this together I began to see Clare and her mother's side of the story. I couldn't believe how it ended, with the truth finally coming out.

Another amazing instalment in the DI Gina Harte series, Gina is called in to a missing person’s case when a devoted mother of three fails to turn up to the crèche to collect her youngest child. Gina knows the family know more than they are letting on, secrets they are hiding which could ultimately lead her to finding Susan alive and well. Her sister, however, thinks she is up to her old tricks as she was a bit of a tearaway when she was younger and its not the first time she has run off, but leave her children??

When the body of the last person to see Susan is found, things have taken a turn for the worst, is Susan a suspect or a victim?

Another very careful and well threaded plot, this one will having you reading through the night, of course I naturally suspected Susan’s abusive ex-husband as a means to an end to get custody of their children but would someone go to such lengths?

Full of twists and turns to keep you guessing, another great police procedural book and we also got more insight into Gina’s demons and finally her coming to terms with her past, just maybe? Would love to see something happening with her and Briggs, so much chemistry…. Lets watch this space, fingers crossed!

Susan Wheeler is the perfect mother, always there for her children, she works from home so she can do the school run and make sure her two daughters and baby son are happy and well cared for especially as her husband is abusive and she's filed for divorce. One afternoon though her little boy waits patiently at his nursery school but his mother never arrives.

Detective Gina Harte is feeling vulnerable. She misses her own mother and harbours secrets which the disappearance of Susan Wheeler bring rushing to the surface. When the body of the last person thought to have seen the missing woman is discovered in the local park Gina knows they must find her as soon as possible. She is certain Susan's family aren't telling the police everything they know however and as things escalate those secrets prove dangerous to everyone involved.

This is the second Gina Harte book I have read and the fifth in the series. This is a very good murder mystery and the characters are as well formed as I would expect at this stage in a story arc. Gina is a great lead detective and I am looking forward to reading more about her soon.

I was able to read an advanced copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an unbiased review and would recommend it to anyone who has enjoyed this series so far or wants a good British crime story, this book delivers on both fronts.

Her Dark Heart by Carla Kovach is an excellent page turning police procedural that will keep you hooked from the beginning to the end.

This is book 5 in the Gina Harte series and the author has created some clearly defined main characters who help propel the story along.

This is a book I would recommend

Wow! as always Carla has done it again!
A devoted mother doesn't return one day for her kids .Her sister is furious because she knows her sister is flaky she has done it before, but their mum, Mary is really worried and starts to read her daughters diary. This leads to discovering secrets from the past and a man who ends up dead in a park.... but is her daughter staying away because she's scared, or because of something else?

Love Carla Kovach's writing and every book she has released gets better and better! Nothing less than 5 stars from me!

I would give it 2.5 stars. This was my least favorite book in the series. I loved all the previous books, but I just couldn't get into this book. It seemed different. I still loved Detective Gina Harte. I didn't care for the story or the characters. It was Susan Wheeler, her family, husband and everyone surrounding her disappearance. None of them were very likable. I had no idea where the story was heading and would never have guessed what it was going to be about. I found the reason behind Susan's disappearance to be a little crazy and slightly unbelievable. We got to read what everyone thought about Susan, but never got to know the real Susan. I have a lot of unanswered questions. Many twists and turns and so many secrets. At times I was confused and of course blamed Susan's husband. The husband is always the first suspect. Ryan was shady and a terrible husband.

I recommend giving the book a try, especially if you read the previous books is the series. I love reading about DI Harte and the rest of the police force. I really wanted to love the book. I can't wait to read the next one. Hopefully Hannah will have finally forgiven her mom and realized how much Gina sacrificed for her. I really want Harte and Briggs to end up with each other!!! I loved the cover of the book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Bookouture through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Bookouture for an advance copy of Her Dark Heart, the fifth novel to feature Midlands based DI Gina Harte.

When Susan Wheeler fails to pick up her son Rory from nursery her mum, Mary, gets worried and files a missing person report. Gina and the team are assigned the case but don’t get very far because Mary is keeping secrets and so, it seems, was Susan. Then a body is found.

I enjoyed Her Dark Heart which is a twisty procedural with a childhood secret at its heart. It is mostly told from Gina’s point of view but chapters from the unnamed perpetrator point the reader in a different direction to the police. Susan, it turns out, had a history of running away as a teenager and her sister, Clare, thinks it’s just a stunt but Mary insists she would never leave her children and what role does Ryan, her separated, allegedly abusive, husband play? The novel is quite compelling in these dilemmas. The novel really catches fire, however, in the last chapters when secrets are revealed and the police make their breakthrough. It’s quite dramatic and spellbinding.

It is a novel about characterisation as much as crime with strong women to the forefront. Mary has do some critical self analysis of her parenting skills as she deals with her daughters. Clare is a broken woman and elicits some sympathy and Gina drags the reader through another dreary, self-pity fest (her past is an ongoing thread in the series). I, for one, am past ready for her to move on and concentrate on her strength, investigation.

Her Dark Heart is a good read that I have no hesitation in recommending.

Another fantastic read by Carla. Engossed from the first page. Detective Gina Harte is called in to find a missing Mum of two who's family seem to be hiding lots of secrets. I genuinely did not guess what had happened to Susan, the missing Mum or why she had disappeared. Very clever plot which had my attention through out..I read it in a day! All of Carlas books are fantastic and this will be another best seller to add to her list. Excellent read.

Her Dark Heart by Carla Kovach is book 5 in the Detective Gina Harte and what a series this is turning out to be.
After the breakdown of her marriage, Susan a devoted mother has gone missing, when she has failed to pick her son Rory from nursery. The only one that cares that she has gone missing is her mother Mary. Her sister Clare is annoyed that her sister is getting all the attention again. She has been since there were kids when Susan used to run away and then turns up days later. Susan was a wild child as a teenager and gone on benders and even now her husband Ryan thinks that what has happened again to Susan.
When Gina goes to interview Susan’s mother Mary, she recognises similarities to her own mother and the feelings of her past and the guilt resurface for Gina and the knowledge of the death of her husband Terry. She struggles with it. But she must brush it aside and concentrate on finding Susan. But when a body turns up of the person that last saw Susan, they know they have a killer on their hands.
This is another brilliant episode in this series which can be read as a standalone. Another gripping in the life of Gina Harte, this one a more personal tale which I enjoyed very much. Towards the end of the book Gina developed a deeper friendship with Briggs I would like to see how it develops in the next episode. Fingers crossed.

What an exciting thriller! The book was an intense police procedural, with intriguing characters, and plenty of plot twists. This series is one of my favorites. The relationships between the characters is enjoyable, and the storyline flows, so easy to lose yourself into the novel. Definitely one of my favorite books of 2019!
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy of the book.
#netgalley #herdarkheart

I came into this series part way through at book 3 and have been hooked ever since. I love the way we are presented with a new case in Gina Harte's police career as the focus of each book yet have the back story of Gina and her ongoing battle with the demons from her past - plus her personal/professional relationships with colleagues and the overlap therein.
This book sees little Rory at nursery where mum Susan has left him for his regular day care session. The other children are all collected and closing time draws near then passes, leaving the staff no option but to ring the emergency contact number for Rory's grandmother in order to arrange for her to pick him up. Hours pass and there is still no sign of Susan - but not all of her family members seem concerned that she seems to have vanished.
As readers we have an insight to what has happened to Susan - only snippets along the way, but enough to know that Mary's instinct is right - as the author drops in an occasional chapter portraying events from an anonymous yet dangerous voice from Susan's past. The remainder of the book is told from Gina's point of view. She knows the family is holding back on disclosing some vital piece of information but cannot seem to find the key to unlock the case. There are a few possible villains set in the frame, including Susan's abusive soon-to-be-ex husband however I was rocked by the events leading up to the end of the book, which set off at a much faster pace once Gina and her team eventually made their breakthrough. Nothing prepared me for the whodunnit in this book though.
Some people may not like the way Gina continues to refer to her emotional past throughout this book, but having read the earlier books I felt it good to know that she is finally facing the ghosts of that past and dealing with them in a much more positive way than before. The feelings of the various different characters are explored well in this book both in the present day and in years gone by. Longstanding differences and misunderstandings between the family members involved in the case are brought to light in the hope that the whole family will come together as a much stronger unit in the end.
Overall I found this to be a very emotional book as the flip side to the police procedural side of the missing person case at its core. I do feel that, although this can be read as a standalone book, it is better to have a knowledge of what has gone before in order to understand why Gina acts the way she does.
A great series to get immersed in.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read a complimentary copy of this book in return for a review based upon my honest opinion.

The latest installment in the Detective Gina Harte series, as always a fantastic book. Although part of a series, this could easily be read as a stand alone book. This is a great series, I have enjoyed every book. Gina Harte is a great character with lots of depth; she has a tragic past, with an explosive secret that she has kept to herself and we see with every book how it tears her apart and has shaped the person she is, both good and bad. She keeps herself separated from others and avoids getting close but has a great working relationship with her crew.

In this book, Susan, a wife and devoted mother fails to pick her ;little boy Rory, up from daycare, she has gone missing. Her mother, Mary seems to be the only one who takes it seriously, Susan has a history of being a wild-child while a teen, so everyone else, including her overbearing husband, Ryan, who she is divorcing just thinks she's gone off irresponsibly. Mary does not think so and Gina, gets a feeling that there is more to the story. The investigation starts to pick up its pace when the last person Susan is known to have been with is found brutally murdered, now they aren't sure if they are looking for a victim or a suspect.. They follow the clues to unearth a bit of a surprise ending. Gina has a lot of revelations about herself and her life in this book. I cannot wait to see where the next chapter leaves her and her co-workers.

Why oh why did it have to end! I love Gina, I love her team, I love all of the books in this series, but this is my favourite!
When Susan doesn’t pick up her son from daycare , most people think she is just off somewhere , but we know someone has taken her, but we don’t know why or who!!
Twists and turns galore that kept me on the edge of my seat and I often found myself running through my list of suspects wondering who it could be!!
Absolutely amazing read, and Carla Kovach certainly doesn’t disappoint!!

This is the first book I read by Carla Kovach and she sure did not disappoint. She really nailed this one. This book is part of a series but can be read as a stand alone which I love. Sometimes it’s just so hard to try and start from the beginning.

This book is about a mother and detective that refuse to give up finding a missing woman. Susan has a past of running away from her problems but did she do it again or is there something more sinister going on here? Would Susan just leave her 3 children and never come back or is the past coming back to haunt her? You find these answers and more.

I want to start off by saying that I loved Detective Gina Harte. I loved her both as a detective and who she was as a person. The author did such a great job with making her so relatable that you just couldn’t help but love her. I also loved the ending of this book. It literally blew my mind. It had so many twists and turns you didn’t know what was going to come next. It was like a roller coaster ride that you never wanted to come off of. I still can’t believe the ending. I also like the plot of this book. I love missing person cases with a link to the past. As I read each chapter I kept wanting to know more and more on what happened to this poor woman and if she was ever going to be found.

Between the plot, characters and all the twists in this book it made it an easy and fast read. I would definitely recommend it and happily give it 5 Hearts❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

This is the fifth book in the Gina Harte series and reads well as both a stand-alone and as part of the series. While the book focuses on the police-procedural at hand and solving the case of a missing woman, Kovach creates an excellent character arc for our protagonist, DI Gina Harte. Veteran fans are sure to find resolve in a long-time issue that has plagued this character and obtain some finality in the recognition. The plot moves at a steady pace and holds just the amount of suspense. Excellent read. 5 stars.


Thank you to #NetGalley and @Bookouture for this ARC.
#HerDarkHeart was read and reviewed voluntarily by Tarrah Marie (@wayward_readers).
All thoughts and opinions are my own.

#waywardreader #wayward_readers #CarlaKovach

Reviews and mention can be found here:
https://www.bookbub.com/reviews/3598653135
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3006716330
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