Killing Mind by Angela Marsons is book 12 in the Detective Kim Stone Series (there is a prequel, First Blood) but is a stand alone story. I first read about Kim in book 2 (Evil Games) and turned around and immediately purchased book 1 (Silent Scream) and have read every one since then. I love this series and each book is like catching up with an old friend. I just wished Ms Marsons wrote a little faster as I'm already anxious for the net installment! I want to thank Net Galley and Bookouture for an early copy to review.

Woop woop, another great addition to the Kim Stone series! I have been with this series from book 1 and here we are at book 12 which was another 5 stars from me!

This one starts with a suicide but something seems off to Kim. A friend of the victim also turns up dead and Kim and her team are now on the hunt for answers. I love the whole team and look forward to each and every book that comes out in this series. An excellent story line as always. Fast paced and addictive, I highly recommend and can't wait for the next one.

A big thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book! 5 stars!

Killing Mind # Netgalley
Well here we are again with another mesmerising book from Angela Marsons. Detective Kim stone novel, what can you say when her books just get better and better every single time. The twist and turns lead to what you think is the killer only to find out it’s not. You follow the twist and turns and it’s like being in a maze. However when you come out of the maze your no wiser because you have exited the wrong way she takes you on this path that lees leading you, now I really did like the subject matter in this particular book. Alternate way of life is just another few words for cults, it’s refreshing to read about something that is real within the U.K. yet for some bizzar reason not many people really want to know about them or even go as far to say they don’t think they really exist. Yet they do. It was evident from the first couple of chapters that Bryant was preoccupied, it was quite refreshing to see Kim using penn a lot more in this book. Although you can understand why Bryant is preoccupied by the possibility of a something taking place. From way back when he was a constable. Overall another brilliant and mesmerising book. That once you start it it grips into you so quickly that you just keep turning the pages with no thought of time. You just can not put it down, I could not recommend a book more highly that it’s a must read. Also one last thing do not knock the storyline because we in the U.K. do have cults that’s actually a fact. Ms Marsons you are a queen of thrillers and I can not wait until Kim stones book 13. Thank you to Netgalley and booktour for the advanced copy, my review is mine and mine alone I have not been asked or paid for my review.

I was so grateful to be given the opportunity to review this latest book in the Kim Stone series. As always it did not disappoint.
Very current storyline with the usual characters working hard to resolve things.
So looking forward to the next offering by Angela Marsons.

Another absolutely fantastic addition to the Kim Stone series set in the Black Country. Somehow Angela Marsons gets the mix just right between ongoing character development and background of the Kim Stone and her team whilst simultaneously coming up with a plot line that is engaging and fresh feeling as well, of course, introducing a whole set of characters linked to the crime.

Killing Mind opens with Samantha Brown's suicide with Kim Stone and the pathologist Keats happy that it is an open and shut case but then Kim gets a feeling in her gut that the parents Myles and Kate are hiding something from the police. When a friend of Samantha's is also found dead that suspicion turns to certainty.

Meanwhile we see a more moody Bryant who is being haunted by a case that he was on the periphery of but had never forgotten and now the perpetrator is about to go for parole.

Not only are the plot lines absolutely compelling Angela Marsons takes a peek at the psychology of persuasion in this novel in a way that takes the reader behind the headlines.

I can't praise the series as a whole enough and this book is a stand out read against that background.

I’ve read most of the previous Kim Stone novels and I love the characters and the way they interact with each other. It’s like a family at work that differs from their home life.
When Kim is called to an apparent suicide of a young girl who cut her own throat, she gets a niggling feeling that it’s not all as it seems. She is right and soon the verdict is murder. When she traces the victims parents she learns that their daughter Sammy was involved in a cult and the parents had had to intervene. When they discover a second body with links to the cult, Kim realises that there is a lot more going on than she first thought. She meets Kane, the guy Sammy’s parents had paid to get her back, he is hiding something and seems to be linked to a lot more than retrieving lost souls.
This was another great read from Angela, and I will always feel grateful that I happened to see one of her covers at the library and liked to look of it. I was hooked!
#netgalley #killingmind

Wow the 12th book and to think I started at book 2 evil games. It's been such a wonderful journey to see this Kim Stone become what she is today.

I have been privileged to read these books before the official release as an arc and each book seems to increase the enjoyment to the previous ones.

Nothing can replace book 2 but this comes close and it's great to see how much Kim has grown in 12 books.

Wonderful writing with such great characters

WOW!!!! This book was fantastic!!! This is book 12 in the series but this is the first one I have read. Although, I did not start with the first book this book was still very easy to follow. It was very well written and a book that is hard to put down. It kept you wanting more. It started off strong and also ended strong. I highly recommend this book. I will definitely read the other 11 books in the series and any book written in the future.

Samantha Brown has committed suicide and it seems an open and shut case. A few things niggle Detective Kim Stone and she tells Keats she's not so sure it was suicide.. Sammy's parents, Myles and Kate aren't telling them something and where is their other daughter, Sophie at this tragic time?

A young man who was friends with Sammy is found dead in a local lake with similar wounds. They seem to be connected to Unity Farm, a retreat in remote farmland.

Bryant is distracted from an old case earlier in his career and has always supported the victim's father. When rapist and murderer Peter Drake gets Parole he's not sure how Richard is going to cope. He has to make a decision whether to take things forward or leave them firmly in the past...

Kane Devlin, is employed by families wanting to snatch their children back to reality away from the cult. He's quite a shady character - is his heart in the right place or is he just doing it for the money? There's a hint we might be seeing more of him in the next book.

Kim sends young cop, Tink in undercover to the farm and she befriends Brit, one of the "farm's" recruiters. It seems she could be drawn in for real and the Leader takes a special shine to her....Behind the scenes Stacey & Penn are finding out the information which will lead Kim to the connections needed to solve the case.

A fast paced and exciting read. It was great to catch up with all the characters we know and love so well. Just brilliant (and can't believe we're at book 12 already!) Highly recommend.

There are not many authors that can keep up a series of books about the same characters for this long (this makes 13 if you include last year’s prequel First Blood) and still make them as exciting, emotional, surprising and well researched as this, but Ms Marsons has done it again. Killing Mind explores the topic of cults, and how they prey on the vulnerable, but shows how anyone could fall under the spell of a charismatic leader. The biggest strength of this series are the characters, so you definitely get the most out of them by reading the series in order, but each mystery stands alone.

DI Kim Stone is called to the apparent suicide of a young woman found alone in a bare flat with her throat cut. After interviewing the devastated parents, she senses they are hiding something and re-examining the crime scene photos shows that it was in fact a murder - and then another body is found with the same injury. Discovering that Sammy had recently left a Wellness retreat led by the handsome Jake Black, Kim is initially sceptical that a cult could be operating in the Midlands, but once convinced, decides that sending someone in under cover is the only way to learn the truth. Meanwhile Bryant is horrified to discover that the killer whose crime made him become a detective years earlier is to be released on parole.

This was another perfectly paced police procedural showcasing one of the best developed CID teams in modern crime fiction. Marsons strikes the perfect balance of keeping us updated with the detectives personal lives - Stacey obsessing about losing weight for her upcoming wedding, Penn worried about his terminally ill mother - without ever getting bogged down by them or distracting from the plot. Long term fans of the series know all about Kim’s difficult past so we don’t have to revisit it each time. Minor characters like Mitch the CSI and Frost the annoying journalist get to reappear without getting in the way, while this one brings the adorable Tink to the fore - and given this series’ history I was genuinely afraid for her.

While Marsons writes about serious topics, there are some pretty funny scenes too - like what happened to poor Betty and how Bryant tackles a pesky surveillance drone, and I always love the banter between our regular characters. Once again I was blindsided by the reveal of the killer, but everything was wrapped up satisfactorily. 4.5 stars rounded up for Kim being as awesomely badass as ever.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC which allowed me to give an honest review. Killing Mind is published on May 13th.

Detective Kim Stone continues to develop and leave some of her own traumatic childhood behind. With every book her keen insight into her team and her/ their investigations become more realistic. She understands the vulnerability her own team members have as individuals and their strengths as investigators. She is allowing their strengths to compliment her abilities. This book deals with cults and how members are indoctrinated into this type of community. Lots of information is presented in this book on this subject. The ending came fast and was sad and surprising. I really like the short concise chapters . Another intriguing read.

I have read other books by Angela Marsons and so I know the members of the team. That does not really make a difference because the books , although part of a series are also standalone. I like the continuation of the stories of the characters .
This one is slow to get going, the death in the opening chapter seems like suicide and her family seem to have a strange reaction to it. There were also other stories which at first did not seem to be related and felt like a distraction. However by the middle of the book I was totally hooked and I was totally engrossed in the story , enjying the twists and turns.
What I like about this author is that her stories are o believable, description is detailed and interesting without going over the top so that the reader gets enough information about someone or something without having to trail though pages of superfluous text.
I am looking forward to the next book in this series

Thank you to Net Galley for a free advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review

When DI Kim Stone is called out to verify a suicide by a young woman initially she agrees that it is suicide but something just doesn't feel right about it. After giving it some thought Kim feels that someone else is involved in the death and starts to investigate. A farm in a local village has been converted into a commune but there appears to be other deaths which are connected to it. Is this just a coincidence or is it more sinister.
This is the 12th book in the Kim Stone series and I have enjoyed every one as they seem to get better as the series progresses. Loved this one and look forward to the next one.

It looked very like a suicide, and to begin with, that was how both DI Kim Stone and Keats, the pathologist called it. It was only later that Stone and her team realised that when Samantha Brown cut her throat, hers was not the only hand holding the knife. It was murder. Sammy's parents. Myles and Kate were a little bit reluctant to say what their daughter had been doing recently. The property where she was found was less homely than most hotel rooms: her mother was about to accuse her husband of saying that Sammy was ready... But what was Sammy ready for and where was their other daughter, Sophie?

I've been reading Angela Marson's DI Kim Stone books from the very beginning. At one point I did begin to wonder if they were not getting just a little samey with the constant referencing of Marson's childhood traumas, so it was a relief to find Stone working on cases that had absolutely nothing to do with her. The murder of Sammy Brown followed her escape from a cult and Marsons paints a picture of what cults are really like which I'll find difficult to forget, to the point where I realised just how easy it would be to become embroiled in one. Marsons understands the psychology of cults rather than just the mechanisms.

Sammy Brown's death would be only the first of several associated with Unity Farm and its charismatic leader, Jake Black. Who, exactly, was Kane Devlin, and why was he involved in snatching people from Unity Farm? Was it for money? It would take the combined efforts of Bryant, Stacey and Penn on the CID team to unravel the problem.

Bryant has problems of his own, though. A case he was involved with in the early days of his police career has returned to haunt him at regular intervals, but this time it looks as though Peter Drake, a violent killer and rapist will be free to kill again. How can the father of one of his victims cope with the thought that the man is out of prison? Will the judicial system actually bring about justice?

Sometimes you find yourself so deep in a book that you're not bothered about things which you normally do. Well, Killing Mind is one of those books. I've always liked Kim Stone's rather acerbic attitude and she and Bryant make a superb combination which is more than the sum of the parts. I can't wait for the next instalment and I'd like to thank the publishers for letting Bookbag have a review copy.

At first glance Samantha Brown’s death seemed to be a straightforward suicide but it niggled at Kim Stone and she took a second look. Kim and her team find that Samantha had only just moved into her flat and had spent some time in previous years in what her parents call “a cult”. Unity Farm is run by Jake Brown and everyone who lives there is there of their own free will but the team are suspicious. Then a second body with links to Unity Farm is discovered and Kim puts one of her officers in undercover. Bryant is distracted by the parole of a murderer - as a PC he guarded the victim’s body until CID arrived- and he’s accompanied the victim’s father to parole board meetings for several years.

As is the norm with this series I couldn’t put it down. Great read from start to finish.

Thanks to Netgalley, Headline and Angela Marsons for the ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

Thanks to #NetGalley and #AngelaMarsons and #Bookcouture for the opportunity to read and review the latest "Kim Stone" Crime Thriller "Killing Mind".

Having just read the 'prequel' - "First Blood" - and also having read all of the other books in the series, I was eager to get to this one and meet up with Stone, Bryant, Penn, Stacey and all the other regular characters - and I was not disappointed.

Stone and Bryant are called to a suicide of a young woman, a matter of procedure, and figure that once Keats has pronounced that the case is closed. Little do they know that things will soon be turned upside down when other evidence surfaces.

in the middle of the investigation into Samantha "Sammy" Brown's death, another body surfaces, with similar method of death and Stone and company are plunged into the world of cults and mind control.

Angela Marsons manages each and every time to imbue her characters with just the right qualities to do their work somewhat dispassionately, but always shows their humanity - as she does when Bryant is enmeshed in an old case that has resurfaced due to the perpetrator being paroled. And Bryant's sense of that is right and wrong is stretched thin while still working on the team's case.

It's been wonderful through the years to see how the characters have grown and changed, matured and work closer and closer together as a real team - but not afraid to let new members in (once they've proven themselves, of course).

I think one of the final paragraphs of the book sums up just how far Kim Stone has come: "She knew that Bryant would struggle with the decision he'd made, but she'd have supported him whichever route he'd chosen. Because she now knew that's what friends did."

I love this series and highly recommend it. I look forward to the next Kim Stone thriller with great anticipation.

Really enjoyed this latest instalment of the Kim stone series, the only complaint is that I wish the book was longer!

I’m a massive Angela Marsons fan. Kim Stone is one of my favourite characters in all of the books I’ve read! This book is just another brilliant instalment in the Kim series. Kim is sent to a suicide..... but is it? Or is there something else behind it. We follow all the characters as they try to unravel what’s going on.

I don’t want to spoil any part of this book, but it didn’t go the way I thought it was going to.

A brilliant read and again I can’t wait for the next one.

I say it every time, how can this series possibly improve? How can the cases grip you even more than the first one we read? But they do. From the first page we are yet again there with DI Kim Stone and her fantastic team

The case this time surrounds a sinister cult. I’ll give nothing away except to say that you won’t be disappointed.

Another amazing book from Angela Marsons, they just keep getting better and better. I love all of the characters and have loved them since the very beginning. I found this plot different to the others but in a good way. I thought the idea of a cult at the centre of the plot was interesting and had me hooked from the beginning. I also liked the fact that there were two plots running alongside each other and thought this developed Bryant's character even further.

Excellent 5 star read as always! Looking forward to the next instalment!