I loved this book, it was a smooth transit from
The Blossom Twins, although it could be read as a stand alone. I thought I knew who the killer was at least 3 times, I was wrong every time! Thank you to Netgalley for letting me review this title, I would highly recommend Carol Wyer

I would like to thank Netgalley and Bookouture for an advance copy of The Secret Admirer, the sixth novel to feature DI Natalie Ward of the Staffordshire Police.

When student Gemma Barnes is killed in an acid attack Natalie returns from extended leave to lead the team. With no forensics and very few suspects the team is hard pushed to find a motive, never mind a solution. And then Natalie’s estranged husband comes to their attention.

I enjoyed The Secret Admirer which has more twists than a rollercoaster and a convoluted plot, some parts more believable than others. The novel is told from the investigative point of view so the reader gets to guess along with the team although I defy any reader to guess all the intricacies, or even most of them until the reveals set them in the right direction. I had an inkling of the perpetrator in the second half but no idea of the whys or hows and was urging the team to catch up. Interspersed with the team’s point of view are various letters to Gemma from the eponymous Secret Admirer. I don’t think that they are really relevant until the denouement as they are, basically, the usual nut job “I love you until you reject me” fare.

As I said the plot is extremely convoluted and I’m not sure if that is good or bad. It’s good in that there is a surprise or twist in every chapter so the reader can’t help but get engrossed in events. It’s bad that it involves so many characters acting badly or lying that it really stretches credulity. I also think it’s a little glib on motivation, notably the acid attack.

The Secret Admirer is a good read that I can recommend.

I think that this D.I. Natalie Ward series is absolutely amazing. I am definitely addicted to this police series and at least I didn’t end up with tears streaming down my face sat reading late at night with this latest edition. The Secret Admirer by Carol Wyer has a fascinating storyline with interesting characters. I found it difficult to decide who did it! Or did what!
With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the arc, which I thoroughly enjoyed reading
Highly recommended.

I wasn't sure how Carol Wyer could follow the previous book in this series, The Blossom Twins, but I can assure you, she nailed it!

The Secret Admirer is breathtaking, creepy, sad and compelling.

DI Natalie Ward is one of my all-time favourite characters. She and her team are so efficient and professional, yet they remain human and likeable.

I can't wait to see what happens next!

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review. I have read all the Natalie Ward books now and each one gets better and better, this story line again interweaves with her own personal life very closely, involving her ex-husband, how she is coping after the murder of her daughter and moving on. The murders are piling up one by one and it is up to Natalie and her team to find out who did it before it's too late.

Book 6 in the Natalie Ward series. Although this could be read as a stand alone I highly recommend you read the earlier books as, apart from they are each brilliant books, I feel it's better to have the full story.

After the devastating turn of the previous book I wondered how Natalie would be able to carry on.

I loved the mixture of pure dogged determination and raw emotions in the story.

I was hooked from the start and the twists and turns kept me guessing until the very end.

I absolutely love this series and I cannot wait to read more!

I am a huge fan of this detective series but I will not let that get in the way of writing an honest review!
I really like Natalie as a person. She is real, compassionate and dealing with very complex emotional struggles of her own which gives her character such a wonderful depth. I would love her as my friend because as well as these personal qualities she also has very high professional standards and excels at her job.
She has a terrific team around her. Each detective is different and we are always treated to bits of their back story which makes them all so likeable and human!
In this book Natalie is suffering from a huge dent In her confidence and yet comes fighting through for justice.
She is dogged in her determination to find out what happened to student Gemma Barnes and in doing so a brilliant set of events unfolds.
Three quarters of the way through the book Mike (Head of the Forensic Unit) reads a letter aloud to Natalie. It broke my heart and made me cry!
Carol doesn't just sweep aside difficult emotional situations either in favour of a tense and gripping plot. Instead she once again produces a page turner which is also full of very real portrayals of grief. She does this with sensitivity and a beautiful compassionate touch.
This is easily a 5 star read for me and I eagerly await the 7th in the series. Keep writing Carol. My reading addiction and love of your books needs constant refuelling!

Omg I love these books. Following DI wards story as she works on cases is amazing. I'm already looking forward to book 7 great book well worth the read. I couldn't put the book down 5🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 absolutely amazing storyline full of usual twists

Loved It! This is one of my favorite series and always look forward to reading them. The ending of "The Blossom Twins" was so unexpected, but a great twist to the story. I LOVE Detective Natalie Ward. I want her, Josh and Mike to live happily ever after, but I don't foresee that happening in the near future. There's always something standing in their way. Right now it's David. Big, miserable David, who blames everyone else(mainly Natalie) for what happened to his daughter and his marriage, except himself. I have never liked David, ever since book one. He's very angry and needs help. His gambling and alcohol use is out of control.

Really enjoyed the story. I had no idea who was behind everything and wasn't sure who the secret admirer was going to be. Even when I was halfway through the book I was still in the dark. At times I felt like the book was moving a bit slow and wanted Natalie and her team to figure everything out. I was definitely suspicious of everyone living in the house with Gemma, especially Ryan. There were so many twists and turns. It was a great mystery and didn't give anything away. Pinkney Watson, the pathologist, is my new favorite character. He sounds like such a sweet man, plus he has a pair of Aegean cats and a 1960s VW campervan called Mabel.

Definitely recommend the book and all the previous books in the series. Can't wait to find out what is in store next for Detective Natalie Ward. Definitely looking forward to book seven. I'm hoping Natalie moves in with Mike!!!

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

I absolutely adore the DI Natalie Ward series and was so excited to read this one.

The ending of Book 5 had me in complete shock and I was really looking forward to seeing how Natalie dealt with her feelings whilst also having a new case to solve.

This book did not disappoint at all and if anything, exceeded my expectations. I am truly emotionally invested in Natalie, her family and her team and again the events of the book had me a bit emotional.

The case itself was an interesting one. I liked that it focused on an acid attack as we are reading about these happening increasingly often which is truly frightening. Having lived in student accommodation myself a few years ago I fully empathised with the descriptions of shared living, although luckily I didn't have quite the same tensions with my housemates! The story kept me guessing and I almost had it figured out by the end, but there was one last twist that did surprise me.

There was quite a heavy focus on the lives of the detectives compared with the case itself, which I loved as I am invested, but for this reason I don't think it would really work if read as a stand-alone.

I would wholeheartedly recommend this book and the rest of the series to others.

After the emotional turmoil that Carol Wyer put us through with the previous book in this series ‘The Blossom Twins,’ I went into this latest instalment with very realistic expectations. I knew that there wasn’t any possibility of it being able to reach that height once again. The Blossom Twins had been in a league of its own; it had a very unique and one-off storyline that could never be replicated. It had had a shock factor that if tried to be repeated, it would become hackneyed. It needs to remain unparalleled as a sort of beacon in the Natalie Ward franchise. That said, how on earth could the storyline continue after reaching such dizzying heights?
Carol does an amazing job with the segue from the previous book to this one; we get to see Natalie dealing with the fallout and coming to terms with her new reality. I think if a book can be a tribute to a previous book, then this complimented it perfectly. There is a good balance throughout the book between this and the current investigation. I was expecting there to be too much of one or the other, but it did all sit so well together. It all blended and flowed and you were once again along for the ride as part of not only the team investigating the heinous crimes but also the Ward’s tragedy.
The storyline of this book is very complicated, and I did wonder at one point if it was a little over-complicated. However, it did all come together in the end, and we do get all the answers. Carol’s writing is undoubtedly flourishing and developing as the books progress. If the Blossom Twins had never have happened, I’d say that this one was better than ‘The Sleepover’. I think at the time that I read that; I said it that was better than ‘The Dare’. So they really are getting better and better with a little spike of excellence, of course there with book five.
There are lots of twists and turns and shocks you don’t expect. You are really kept guessing the whole way through the book. I did think we were going to get another BIG shock at one point and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it, but I’m glad with the way she went.
I agreed with Carol’s note at the end about David, he has been deplorable throughout the series, but you really start to feel for him in this book. He has become a shell of himself, and your feelings towards him really do begin to change after everything he has been though.
This book left me the same way books 1-4 did, very satisfied having read an incredible crime novel and being engrossed with a fantastic detective team. There were no tears the way there was with book five. Book five left me bereft for weeks, this one didn’t have the same effect, but I didn’t expect it to. So even though this isn’t going to leave the lasting impression The Blossom Twins did; I think the Natalie Ward series as a whole will do. I’m already excited for the next instalment, and Carol has promised in her note at the end that Natalie will endure more problems and shocks. So I am eager and impatient to find out what is in store for her in the next book. Thank you, Carol, for writing the perfect follow-on book!

Di Natalie Ward returns still shocked by the wnd of her last case but once more thrown back into another harrowing case, this time the suspect is a little too close to home

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy

This author can do no wrong. Another fantastic installment of a fabulous series of books. Loved it. . .

I love the DI Natalie Ward series. I really didn’t know what to expect after The Blossom Twins had such an outstanding, heart in your mouth read that I didn’t know if this could live up to its predecessor. I was delighted to find out that this is as good as that book.

Natalie is still raw from grief after loss of her daughter, returning to work she is asked to find who is responsible for the death of a student, Gemma, who has died after having had acid thrown in her face.

Gemma is seemingly popular, pretty, well liked student. Who would’ve had a motive to attack her?

When it appears that Natalie’s estranged husband frequents the bar that both Gemma and her mum work in, Natalie is left trying to find proof he’s not involved.

There are plenty of red herrings and plenty of shocks and further deaths in store.

What is clear from these stories and this story in particular is how much Carol Wyer enjoys writing for the detectives in this book and Natalie in particular, they all come across as extremely human and likeable.

I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this book to readers of crime fiction but if you haven’t read any of the Natalie Ward series, I would seriously recommend you do so to get a better understanding of these characters. Plus they are great books so it’s no chore!

Thank you to Bookouture and Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my review.

This is book #6 of the Natalie Ward series. If you haven’t read the rest of the series, then where have you been!!! I suppose this book could be read as a standalone but if you do decide to go back and read the others it may spoil the continuity of the series reading this book first as major plotlines from the previous books are revealed. Honestly though, read them in order to get the full enjoyment of each one of the books!

So…where do I start and how do I write this without giving anything away? I will try my very best for the review to be spoiler free!! We pick up the story from the tragic conclusion at the end of the last book. Things will never be the same again, but D.I. Natalie Ward decides it’s time to return to work. She’s thrown into the deep end with the case of a young woman who is killed by someone throwing acid at her. I really felt for Natalie, not just with this case, but for her situation throughout the whole book. She was obviously finding things really difficult but as a reader I was so proud of her for taking the huge step of trying to return to normal.

The usual characters have all returned for this book along with the new characters involved with the case. It was great to see Natalie’s team – Lucy, Ian and Murray – together again. They all gel so well together, despite the initial awkwardness they all experienced on Natalie’s return. I loved Murray’s interview techniques and just wanted to tell the solicitor to shut up every time they warned Murray of his attitude!

The story began straight into the action with the attack on student, Gemma Barnes. With a gruesome description of her fatal injuries, the story grabs you immediately ensuring you’re not going to put this book down until the very last word. The author has put a lot of research into the storyline, filling my mind with little snippets of information which I wouldn’t have known from anywhere else – who knew that emotional tears are less salty than normal tears, and that oxalic acid is present in rhubarb leaves (not me anyway!!)

The book twists and turns with quick snappy chapters interspersed with anonymous notes from a ‘Secret Admirer’ to Gemma, the first victim. There are plenty of suspects to choose from, and believe me, as the story moves on, you’ll swap and change your mind as to who the culprit is. The author certainly doesn’t make it easy for you though, making you scratch your head just as much as Natalie and her team do, feeding you red herrings and taking you down dead ends before the big reveal!!

Obviously running alongside the murder investigation is Natalie’s personal story. The shockwaves of what happened in the previous book are still reverberating through her family, friends and colleagues. If you’ve read my previous reviews, you’ll know I’m not the biggest fan of Natalie’s husband, David. He’s gambled and drank away any trust Natalie had in him, and I’ve always said he’s a bit of a prat! In the last book however, I began to waver how I felt about him, feeling sympathetic to the situation they found themselves in. But this book has put me back in a right old quandary!!! I just don’t know how I should feel about him now! I do feel really sorry for him, but I’m still waiting for him to let everyone down again – which I’m sure will happen!! The author has done such a fantastic job of writing characters that are so realistic that you have a job separating fiction from reality and end up talking about them like they are your real-life friends.

This was a fabulous, fast paced crime thriller, just as I would expect from this author. It’s captivating and emotional with plenty of secrets, lies and mistrust mixed with heart-breaking and tender moments. It will keep your eyes glued to the page for fear of missing the smallest detail and you will keep turning the pages until you find out who the killer is! Will Natalie ever get her happy ending? – I suppose we will have to wait until the next book in the series to find that out!! Fab, fab, fab!!

Another great installment in the Detective Natalie Ward series! Natalie has returned to work 3 months after her world was torn apart by the death of her daughter and the breakdown of her family. Right away, she's thrown into a murder investigation of a university student, Gemma, who was the victim of an acid attack. No one can understand who would want to harm such a kind and beautiful young woman. Although there are plenty of suspects, Natalie and her team struggle to determine who is telling the truth and who may have something to hide.

One of very few clues is a note that Gemma received from a secret admirer. Could this be from the person responsible? Or is it a harmless note of affection from a shy fellow student? When the body of one of Gemma's roommates is found soon after, it really throws the team for a curve. Now there's the possibility that it's a serial killer determined to hurt more young women . And how in the world is Natalie's soon-to-be ex-husband David, involved in all this - found to have chatted up both Gemma and her mother at the bar they worked at? Sure, he's not the same man Natalie married years ago, but could he really be harboring such dark secrets?

The story flows effortlessly and once I started reading, it was almost impossible to put down. Part of why I enjoy this series so much is that it moves at a realistic pace, outlining all the little details that the team has to consider. It's not just one discovery after another leading to the killer, it takes so much hard work from Natalie and her team, investigating every person in Gemma's life, every neighbor who may have seen something, every piece of evidence that could be nothing or everything to the case. And at the same time, Natalie has to hold it together while constantly being reminded of the loss of her own daughter. It is an emotional and gripping story that stays with you well after its conclusion.

Another fantastic book in this series. I was gripped all the way through, so many brilliant twists and turns. Definitely worth reading

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

This instalment concerns an acid attack on a student, which leads to her death. Then one of her housemates goes missing... This was very readable and the plot moved on quickly and logically, although I felt it got a bit bogged down towards the end.

SPOILERS

The involvement of Natalie's ex, David, with two of the housemates was extremely unlikely, and seemed to serve merely to pile more misery on his head. Natalie's relationship with Mike remains stalled, and if she thinks she's looking after Josh properly, I'd hate to see how she thinks a neglectful parent behaves...

Overall, another strong instalment.

Still reeling after the tragedy which rocked DI Natalie Ward at the end of her previous case she is beginning to consider returning to work. A phone call from her boss propels her right into the heart of another traumatic investigation but she has her team around her and knows together they will get the job done.

The attack on Gemma Barnes leaves very few clues but the devastating nature of the crime means everyone involved wants a quick resolution. When a second body is found and her ex-husband David becomes a suspect Natalie has to fight her boss as well as her memories to remain focused on finding out what happened and why.

After the stunning finale of Carol Wyer's previous novel, 'The Blossom Twins' I wondered how on earth she would follow it and even whether another book could be anywhere near as good. There are no worries on either front. It works because the tragedy is a integral part of an excellent story but doesn't overwhelm it, instead, even though it effects everything Natalie does, the whole team get to shine as they work together to solve a devastating crime and it is once again a first class read from an author at the top of her game.

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 already hooked on this series or who wants an excellent crime novel to get lost in.

I was finishing reading this in the early hours of Saturday morning. It became so chilling I had to stop and make my coffee! I experienced every emotion while reading this. The characters so real you feel like you are part of the story. Carol Wyer has knocked it out of the park once again!