I wanted a good book to end 2019 and Her Secret Past was just perfect. I’ve read one of Kerry Watts previous books and this book has made me realise I need to read more. This novel is explosive, gripping and you’ll be addicted within the first few pages. Loved it!

Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture and the author for the chance to review.

Ms Watts never fails to amaze me! This is the third book in the Jessie Blake series and it shows no signs of slowing down! Each story has so many mini-stories to keep you guessing to how they are all linked with the main story. I guessed a couple of things in this book but rather than it disappoint me, it made me so happy!

After such a brutal beginning, exposing us to the horrific murder of an elderly couple that happened in 1991, I just couldn’t see where we were going with this. Fast forward to present day with another elderly couple being murdered, it made me wonder if history is repeating itself?

Watts usual makeup of a small pool of characters to provide a well-rounded point of view and information just works wonders. I am never bored when reading her books, more frustrated that I have to do adulting. Watts’ books do need to come with a warning, once you start reading you don’t want to stop! A bit like a Pringle!! I started the book crazily at midnight but had to go to bed and I couldn’t sleep for ages because I wanted to get back to the book but I knew I had to do some adulting, so instead, I devoured most Her Secret Past in a 2-hour car journey! Tsk!

At the start, you can’t see how all the pawns in the book would fit it, but boy does it get juicy and taut when you do, each moving around a chessboard until it is checkmate! When past and present collide there are a lot of fireworks. However, it’s not just the case that is causing problems for Jessie, it’s when her past is catching up with her and that is also truly terrifying especially as it seems history really does repeat itself!

I really can’t praise this series enough. The first two both hit my books for the year, as I just love the writing style and structure of Ms Watts writing. She has a magic formula where she has struck gold. You are kept on the edge trying to figure out the jigsaw puzzle of people. You are drip-fed information until the right time and then bam! You wish you had more warning. It makes the book flow so fast-paced and it sucks you in. It whispers to you to keep reading just another chapter…go on you know you want to!

Jessie is a strong woman, so strong that it has taken three books before she finally considers confiding to someone her past. She takes this strength and realised that the past can’t hold her back anymore and that everyone is not the same. It drives and pushes her forward in a more determined state to solve this mystery, more so when it encroaches into her personal life. *shivers*

This book I think might just be the darkest one yet with all the topics covered and used to drive Her Secret Past. Abuse in all forms, mental illness and alcoholism are at the foundations of the characters, all dictating how everything will play out. The ending left me with some chills because it’s open-ended and it will be interesting to see what explosions we have in book four. I love that Ms Watts can keep surprising me with every book and I am excited to see what will happen in the next book! Just hope I don’t have to wait too long.

Alice Connor was only fourteen when she and her boyfriend committed a heinous crime, but that was almost thirty years ago and Alice doesn't exist any more. Integrated back into the community with a new identity her secret is safe, or so she thinks, but then an elderly couple are gunned down in their own home and her past comes hurtling into the present threatening everything she'd worked so hard to achieve.

Detective Jessie Blake, called to the isolated farmhouse with her partner, DC Dylan Logan, begins to investigate a case which seems to be motive less until she digs a little deeper and finds disputes and reasons she can only see leading in one direction or do they?

This is the third in the series of Jessie Blake novels and they are getting better and better. The complexity this time and the different aspects of the investigation definitely kept me on my toes and although I worked out a couple of the converging threads I was nowhere near guessing them all. I think there is another book at least; one continuing storyline definitely needs closure and so i will be keeping my eyes open for another follow up.

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 highly to anyone who has enjoyed this series so far or wants a tense, well written psychological thriller to read. There are no spoilers so going back to read the previous books wouldn't be a problem; in fact I'd recommend that course of action.

Her Secret Past by Kerry Watts is the third installment of a series featuring DI Jessie Blake, although I would suggest that it more than holds its own as a standalone novel. I was anxious to return to the character of DI Blake, and there was plenty happening in Jessie's life, both personally and professionally, to keep me invested in the ongoing development of this intriguing DI.

Told in dual timelines, the novel opens over thirty years ago, in the immediate aftermath of the grisly murders of an elderly couple. The perpetrators, seemingly known to the victims, are a teenage couple, with the female very much playing the role of submissive. Fast forward to the present, and DI Jessie Blake receives a call on Boxing Day to investigate an eerily similar case of an elderly couple who have been slaughtered in their home, this time with a young autistic man bearing witness to the horrific crime scene. Are the similarities merely coincidence, or has a killer remained undetected and at large in the community for decades?

As a police procedural, I found this to be a solid and enjoyable read, though I did find the back and forth between timelines, as well as the introduction of a multitude of players, to somewhat muddy the waters, and events became mildly chaotic at times. Nonetheless, I do feel invested enough in DI Blake and her team to continue quite contentedly with this series.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC.

This book covers two different timelines and two sets of murders, and how one influences the other. The pace started well but lagging in the middle with too many to and fro interviews and too many tea makings. Cutting short by about 30 pages would have made it better. The mental makeup of the girl is not clear. The violent streak in the autistic character is not explained. The DI character is being developed but she is not showing her wits, only instincts. The narrative is not coherent, like the parents are getting into a car and the next sentence they are talking to the desk clerk. I don’t know if there are sentences missing as it is uncorrected copy.

I thought Her Secret Past was an interesting, if not confusing, mystery. I think they could have developed the main character DI Blake a bit more - much is left hanging. But the story itself was engaging and I would read more of Kerry Watts books.

Although apparently the third in a series this works fine as a standalone in most respects. The story, as many do, brings together two time lines. Starting in 1990 we witness the brutal murder of two elderly people by two young teenagers.. We move to 2019 when DI Jessie Blake and partner DC Dylan Logan are called out to a murder on Boxing day. An elderly couple shot, their son Tommy finding them and their grandson Gordon, calmly eating turkey sandwiches at the table next to his dead grandfather, add to the mix. Enter the neighbour Rachel who wanted to buy some of their lands for her horsey business, her rich possibly not always quite legal developer husband not to mention Jessie's abusive controlling ex husband now moved to younger grounds. Entangled history, abuse, revenge lead to a well written and well argued story which also brings in a rather violent form of autism and a conscience as to whether revealing a person's past is the right thing to do. The two detectives work well together as a team. Descriptions of place and people are good and, whilst we continue jumping from 1990 to the present-day, it doesn't fell contrived. I do feel that Jessie is a bit too black and white at times jumping from one scenario to another too briskly and I'd rather see the autistic young man as a damaged psychopath needing help. Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

“Jean Angus pours the last of the lukewarm tea into her chipped cup, shivering as she looks outside into the dark night. Her eyes are drawn to a slow movement not far from her cosy farmhouse. She's not expecting visitors. And as the back door opens with a bang, she doesn't even have time to shout for help.

On a dark winter night, the bodies of Malcolm and Jean Angus lie cold and still in a pool of blood in their kitchen. Detective Jessie Blake is called in to find out what happened to the reclusive pair.

Searching the couple's property, Jessie learns about a vicious dispute with a nearby land owner, Rachel Ferguson, and when Jessie looks into Rachel further, she doesn't expect what comes up. Rachel isn't the person everyone thinks she is and a previous murder conviction just made her Jessie's prime suspect.”

Firstly I would like to thank #KerryWatts #NetGalley and #Bookouture for giving me the opportunity to read and review this amazing book.
#HerSecretPast is an interesting, chilling and intense crime and mystery book that kept me gripped from the first chapter. The plot is focused on Rachel and Jessie and i couldn’t stop reading this until I got to the very end. There are great and unexpected twists and I was absolutely hooked to this page turner!
Well written, easy to follow but extraordinarily written, I will definitely recommend it to everyone who enjoys curling up with a great and thrilling crime and mystery book! I did not come across with Kerry Watts books before and now cannot wait to read her previous books!

This was a gripping police procedural. There were plenty of twists and turns that kept me hooked. It was well paced and well written.

*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in return for a fair and honest review.
This is the first I've read of this author. "Her Secret Past" is apparently one of a series of books featuring detective Jessie Blake. It begins with the murder of an elderly couple and is replete with enough twists and turns to satisfy even the most jaded mystery reader. What kept this from being a four-star book for me was the author's portrayal of a young man on the autism spectrum who is obsessed with serial killers and attempts to commit a violent act. As the mother of two young men on the spectrum, I can attest that violence is extremely rare for a person on the autism spectrum, and is usually caused by an additional underlying condition, not the autism itself. Any portrayal of people on the spectrum as violent is problematic for me.

I was totally absorbed in this book from page 1! I couldn’t put it down! Tense and chilling! Kept me guessing right up to the end!

This book takes you in from the very first page and doesn't let you go! It primarily revolves around Jessie, a police detective trying to solve a gruesome double murder of an elderly couple, but the story also ties back to an even more brutal murder of another elderly couple from 25(ish) years ago. Jessie has to unravel the truth amid many different characters and potential motives. I learned later that this book was part of a series, but it reads well as a standalone (though I will now read the other books!).

The story was really fast paced and I had inklings of some of what was going on (some which turned out to be right), but it takes you through many twists and turns to get you to that point. The book does a good job at planting seeds of doubt and then having Jessie investigate it, so as the reader, I was constantly doubting what I had just thought was true. My minor nit was that Jessie seemed to go all in each time she came up with a possible conclusion, but then something else would show up and she would then go all in on that. I would have liked to see her balance her gut reactions with the evidence and the overall big picture instead of potentially jumping to conclusions. Overall, though, she got there at the end and the story was tied up nicely, despite the fact that there were a lot of characters and a lot to untangle.

I'd recommend this book for those who like police procedurals and psychological thrillers- it does not disappoint!

Thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Intense and twisted. The way this author interweaves the different characters stories makes for a compelling read. I'm a big fan of this series. Jessie continues to grow and the cases are always intriguing. I had this one figured out pretty quickly, however, it didn't take anything away from the story. After the way things were left at the end I'm anxious for the next book.

Thanks Netgalley and the Publisher. I did not realise this was book 3 but saying that I actually enjoyed it and will definitely read the first two in the series.

This is already the 3rd book in the Jessie Blake series, and wow, I can't believe how well the series is going. I just love Jessie, her interaction with her partner Dylan, and there was one specific scene in the book where she helped Dylan deal with a personal issue with so much love and compassion that my heart just melted.
This book was well written, jumping a little bit between the present and the past, but it doesn't distract from the story line, instead it enhances the fantastic reading experience.
This is one of my favorite reads of 2019.

This is the third outing for Detective Jessie Blake and her team. A retired couple are murdered and their neighbour appears guilty bu5 how is it all linked to a previous murder. The case was interesting and I enjoyed the characters but was definitely more interested in the evolving story of Jessie’s ex and his devious nature.
This was an enjoyable read and I look forward to book four.
Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
#HerSecretPast #NetGalley

I received an ARC copy of this book from the Publisher via Netgalley and voluntarily leaving my review.

This is the first book that I read in this series.

Detective Jessie is called upon when the bodies of couple Malcom and Jean are found.

Jessie and her partner Dylan are task to found who will murder these people. They learn they were in a dispute with a woman name Rachel. When Jessie digs into Rachel past she learns there more to this woman that meets the eye and she become number one suspect.

There were twist and turns because you have flashbacks and present time were there are two crimes that might be connected. There are plenty of suspects that had you guessing until the end. As Jessie rush to get to the truth she also dealing with her ex husband who seems to be up to something.

This is an enjoyable series featuring Detective Jessie Blake. She is investigating a double murder in this well written book which is filled with twists. I liked the character development and the small town setting as well as the writing style. Plenty of tension and surprises throughout. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

I haven't read any of the rest of the series. Not a problem because this seemed to be standalone .. I enjoyed this book and the twists and turns in the story . It might have helped if I had known more about the detectives, but I felt that I knew them quite well by the end.
Well written and a believable story . My only criticism is that it seemed to be wrapped up too quickly at first sight .... as the book went on that was not the case. I will definately look for more by this author
I receivedan advanced copy from Net Galley in exchange for an iunbiased review

This was a very interesting story of not one but two crimes. I loved seeing how the story unfolded and how the characters worked in the story. I hadn't read the first two books in this one but man I will now. This story had plenty of twists and turns and when I thought I knew what was going on I was surprised to learn I was wrong. This book keeps you on your toes and I couldn't put it down.