this was an ok book i sort of worked it out quite early on in the story, the storyline was ok but felt i had read a book like it before

This was a brilliant read.
I love a good police procedural
There are plenty of twists which kept me gripped
This is the second book in a series

The Woman in the Wood is Book 2 in the DI Sasha Dawson series. It is a dark, tense and twisty read which you won’t want to put down once you begin. If you like thrillers and particularly police procedural genre, I’d definitely recommend you put this series on your TBR list

The Woman In The Woods is a fast paced, addictive read that I couldn’t put down. I managed to read half the book in one day as I was so enjoying it.

Firstly this isn’t a gritty crime read but a more character driven story which I thought made a nice change. It manages to be emotional in parts but also quite funny in places which I wasn’t expecting. The story is told from the pov of Sacha as she tries to solve the murder case and Abs as he tries to work through his guilt of what happened. There are also some interesting flashbacks from three years ago which helps tell the readers what actually happened.

The author has created some amazing characters who I enjoyed following throughout the book and who I’ve kept thinking about long after I’ve finished reading. I really liked that Sasha wasn’t the stereotypical police officer you normally find in crime books. She has a family (albeit a slightly broken one) and therefore a life outside work. She is a strong, capable women but she also has a soft side and is always happy to listen to her colleagues problems. I absolutely loved Abs and the other Laid in Essex cast members who were so true to life that I actually had Mark Wright in my head when I was picturing Abs! Their antics and opinions in the book often had me laughing out loud and I found myself warming to Abs as the book continued.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this book and can’t wait to read more from this author. The book had a great pace to it and there was always something happening to keep me reading. I often found myself trying to hide away in the kitchen so I could just read one more chapter. I did guess part of the ending but a huge twist towards the end took me completely by surprise which I absolutely loved. The author let’s the reader know what happened afterwards to each of the characters which I thought was a nice touch and helped clear up any loose ends to the story. The very last pages were brilliant and I closed the book with a huge smile on my face.

Huge thanks to Anne Cater for inviting me onto the blog tour and to Head Of Zeus for my copy of this book.

I enjoyed this thriller, and found that I got through it pretty quickly with its easy writing style. It was book 2 in the series but can be read as a standalone. It had an interesting premise and I liked the fact Abs was a reality tv star. He was a likeable character but annoyed me sometimes! There were some unexpected twists and the ending surprised me.

It’s 3 years since Rhiannon went missing, no body has yet been found but, she’s presumed dead.

In the area at the time on a mini-break were former reality TV star ‘Abs’ of Laid in Essex fame, and his friends Jez, Deano and Tony.

Abs and the lads were questioned about their whereabouts when Rhiannon went missing, no evidence was found and they were never charged but, the guys never shook off the stigma and this cast a dark shadow over Abs’ TV career and he never bounced back to his former fame and fortune.

He was living the dream when he got to be the other half to Kelsey his on-off screen girlfriend but, she’s replaced him with the next up-and-coming star and all Abs has been booked for is to cut the ribbon at the opening of the local bargain basement, Quidstore.

I liked Abs, he seemed a bit of a happy go lucky kind of guy, stopping to give autographs and letting fans take selfies with him. Not the sharpest tool in the tool box but, with a big heart and a trademark saying of ‘Abs,mate’ which gained him fans in both men and women alike. We can all picture a reality TV star like him.

When Abs starts to feel he’s being watched and the body of one of his friends is found on the train tracks, it seems there might be more that Abs knows about Rhiannon than he’s letting on. His guilty conscience weighs on his mind and we are led to make assumptions about what he may have done.

Enter DI Sasha Dawson who’s assigned to the case, she’s a formidable and fearless character and determined to find out the link between the men and their involvement. We also get to see the other side to Sasha in her home life, she was authentic and likeable. I was rooting for her to keep safe and catch the killer(s)!

The pace really picks up when a second of Abs’ pals is found dead and I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough to find out what they had done that had resulted in two of the four friends being found dead in suspicious circumstances.

Rhiannon’s family always threatened retribution but surely the infamous Abs wasn’t capable of being involved in something so shocking.

This is gripping, dark, and twisted with a good pace. I found my heart racing and my palms clammy, as I raced to turn the pages quickly enough to make the connections between the gritty murders and the events of the past. Highly recommended reading but, don’t expect to sleep afterwards!

The Woman in the Woods by MK Hill is a story about the disappearance of 5 young women, beginning with Rhiannon 3 years before the book begins. This book is about DI Sasha Dawson and her team investigating the murder of two young men, who may know the answers to Rhiannon’s disappearance. As well as, a fallen reality celebrity who lost his career when questioned about the disappearance. Once I managed to get into the story I found myself engrossed with the characters and the pace. I was surprised by some of the ending and predicted some as well. I would recommend this novel as well as the author who penned it.

Review coming soon. Thanks to MK Hill, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC; the opinions are mine.

Pub Date 3.4.21
#TheWomanintheWood #NetGalley

First book I read by this author and won't surely be the last as I found it quite gripping and entertaining.
A fast paced plot full of twists and turns, interesting characters and a solid mystery that kept me guessing.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Three years ago Rhiannon went missing no body has ever been found.
Tv reality star Abs and his friends were questioned as they was in the area when she went missing .
But nobody was charged.
Now Delano one of Abs friends is troubled drinking and getting into trouble and then he’s found dead.
D.I. Sasha Dawson and her team are brought in
Then another of his friends is found dead.
Great read
Thanks NetGalley

It's a couple of years since I read the first book in the Sasha Dawson series, which was well-written police procedural with a cold case element and a group of friends with dark secrets. This story has a contemporary theme, members in a group of friends keeping quiet rather than helping a vulnerable victim. In this story, a gruesome death on a train track turns out to be murder, and the victim is one of a group of four men accused when a girl went missing.

The investigation led by DI Sasha Dawson involves the cold case of the missing girl and the murder on the train tracks. Told from two main viewpoints Sasha's from the investigative point of view and Abs as one of the previous suspects now in danger from someone's retribution.

The immersive story involves the reader in the investigation, making this authentic and addictive reading. The suspense intensifies as the clues outweigh the false leads, and the ending is climactic.

I received a copy of this book from 'Head of Zeus' via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Another excellent read by Mark Hill!

This is the second in the series and I can honestly say it is just getting better. I raced through this book and it kept me guessing till the end. What a jaw-dropping twist at the end!
It's a story about 4 friends and a missing girl. What really happened that night 3 years ago in the wood? Suddenly 1 of them is killed. Is it linked to the disappearance of Rhiannon Jenkins and should the others start looking over their shoulders?
On the case is DI Sasha Dawson.  Not only must she try to solve the case but also put up with her sister making gaga eyes at her boss.

I can't wait for the next instalment!
Don't despair if you haven't read the 1st 1. You can easily read this as a stand-alone.
Thank you to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you to Head of Zeus and Netgalley for an e copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was extremely fast-paced - I read it all within 12 hours.
<b> description</b>
Three years ago, Danny "Abs" Abbingdon was living the dream. Boyband good looks, a famous girlfriend, a happy-go-lucky personality and a starring role on the nation's favorite reality TV show, Laid in Essex. And then, on the night of the party, everything changed.

It was supposed to be an intimate gathering. Just a few close friends in a remote cottage in Wales. But one thing led to another, the guest-list swelled, and the party spiraled out of control. A few days later, a local girl was reported missing, presumed dead. Abs and his friends had been the last to see her alive.

<b>my thoughts</b>
This book is so apt for the current climate this week in the UK, especially. The conversations surrounding missing girls and how men are complicit in these disappearances or assaults because they are not calling out their friends, and not choosing to protect women are completely at the forefront of this novel.

The book was really good at leading you down a path, and then switching up the narrative. It felt like an investigation, where the leads that the police follow aren't always the right ones which I liked.

The ending was one of those thrilling 'all comes to a head' type endings which I have seen a lot in detective type stories. It was overall really enjoyable, and I will be picking up others from the series.

A thoroughly enjoyable read, a great story line, kept me puzzled almost to the very end. A lot of red herrings on the way, didn’t have a clue who had actually committed these crimes had for it to unfold till the very surprising conclusion.

When an angry drunk is killed by a train, at first DI Sasha Dawson thinks it’ll be an open and shut case. It quickly turns out to be anything but, when it’s found that a cattle prod was used to drive the dead man to his death, along with acid being thrown in his eyes. Who would want to kill someone in such a brutal way? What did ‘Deano’ do to anyone?

Turns out that three years earlier, Deano was involved in something very ugly, along with three of his friends, one of those being reality TV star ‘Abs’ Cruikshank. A young girl went missing after a night out in a pub in rural Wales, the four men being the last to see her. Someone believes the four men did something to Rhiannon Jenkins. And someone wants to see them pay.

The story is told mostly from the viewpoints of Sasha, as the lead investigator, and Abs - who comes off shallow and self-obsessed, but is also a basically decent person desperate to get on in life doing the only thing he knows how to do - trying to figure out what’s going wrong before he turns into the next body Sasha has to investigate. Sasha was actually quite hard to get a handle on; this is the second book featuring her, and maybe in the first one she was given a bit more of a personality, but in this one she’s pretty much just ‘too busy, has white hair, drives a convertible’ and that’s really all I know about her. Abs was way more fascinating, despite his apparent shallowness. He thinks he knows the truth, but as the mystery unfolds, it slowly becomes clear that something a great deal darker is really going on.

The mystery here is intriguing, and I didn’t see the twist coming. While it didn’t come completely out of left field, all the players being on the board from early on, nothing was really telegraphed, so we had to figure it out along with Abs and Sasha.

I would have liked this better if I’d liked Sasha better, I think; she was a bit too much of a cipher, particularly in contrast with Abs’ out-there, gregarious personality. Overall, the story is good. I’ll give it four stars.

The Woman in the Wood – A Good Police Procedural Thriller

This is the second book in the Sasha Dawson series, and once again MK Hill has written an engrossing story, that draws you in from the start. Dawson is the sort of detective inspector who has the respect and trust of her colleagues, and more importantly, the reader. Her character, while complicated, does not play to the usual stereo types of woman competing against all the odds to succeed, she is not even a defective detective.

Called to a murder scene at an Essex railway station, they discover the parts of Andrew ‘Deano’ Dean, the victim. Ordinarily it would have been dismissed as a suicide, but the distraught train driver saw him fighting with someone before he was killed. Once an autopsy has been completed, it becomes a lot clearer that this is murder and not suicide.

When they dig deeper into Deano they discover that he had been interviewed along with some friends about the disappearance of a girl in Wales. Amongst those who were interviewed was TV reality star Danny ‘Abs’ Cruikshank whose career had gone downhill since that investigation and was trying to work his way back to television.

Dawson who leads a team of officers, some of whom may watch too much reality tv, have this murder to investigate as well as the disappearance of a number of young women from around Essex. Two different crimes, but the team would investigate them both to the best of their abilities.

This book gives an interesting insight to the world which reality stars inhabit, how they have to keep reinventing themselves, and can never allow the truth to get out. How they will do anything to stay in the publics view, even if it puts themselves in danger, take too many risks anything just to be loved by the public.

This is a relatively pacey procedural thriller, with carefully scattered clues to who the killer is, and while there is no big twist at the end, there are a few surprises along the way.

An excellent read, not to taxing on the mind, but highly enjoyable.

My thanks to Head of Zeus for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Woman in the Woods’ by M.K. Hill in exchange for an honest review.

This is the second in Hill’s series of police procedurals featuring DI Sasha Dawson of the Essex Police. It opens with a shocking incident that links to the disappearance of a girl three years previously in Wales after she attended a party that had gotten out of hand.

Central to the story is Danny "Abs" Abbingdon, who is both good looking and has an upbeat personality that charms everyone. He had been living the dream as a star of the popular reality show, Laid in Essex (what a gem of a title). Then on the night of the party, everything changed.

Abs and his friends had been the last to see Rhiannon Jenkins before her disappearance and were questioned by the police though there were no charges against them or anyone. Still the surrounding controversy was enough to destroy Abs' career. Now the only work he can get is opening Southend's new branch of Poundland. Also, new evidence has been uncovered by Sasha and her team that could either clear his name or implicate him. No more details in order to avoid spoilers.

I have to admit that while I am no fan of reality television, Abs was a brilliant representation of a cheeky chappy, whose easy going nature was easy to emphasise with.

Overall, I found this a solid police procedural and I enjoyed getting to know Sasha as well as following the case. I was pleased to read in the acknowledgments that there will be another in the series. I also plan to read the first book, ‘The Bad Place’.

Another fantastic thriller from M K Hill, based around a tight knit group of lads who have been friends since childhood, One of them has found fame on reality TV, another has married into money, others havent changed so much.
On a weekend trip to Wales for them all, a young woman goes missing and suspicion lands on the men. 3 years later, they are still feeling uneasy but nothing has happened to them. Until one of them gets killed mysteriously; have all their hidden secrets come to light?

Couldnt put it down, excellent plot and written to make you need to read more. 5/5 for The Woman in the Wood

The Woman in the Wood is the second instalment in the DI Sasha Dawson series, set in Southend-on-Sea, Essex. Andrew "Deano" Dean is a deeply troubled guy who spends most of his time using alcohol to escape the reality of his past, especially the party he attended at a sequestered holiday cottage in Denbighshire, Wales three years ago with his three best mates Danny "Abs" Cruikshank, Tony Gardner and Jeremy "Jez" Weston. Deano thinks he is a murderer and he wants to go to the police and confess what he did, and where they could find the body, and finally, all these years later, he would face the consequences of his actions. His alcoholism causes him to pick fights with anyone who happens to be around at the time and his strapping six-foot plus stature and broad shoulders intimidated those around him. One evening he becomes rowdy and targets a woman who is with her boyfriend at the pub; this ends in him been thrown out by two burly bouncers. He is in Hockley, only two stops away from Southend but as he waits on the platform at the train station he notices he is being watched from the shadows. Desperate for a cigarette he is forced to ask if the creepy guy has any; the man reaches into his pocket and produces a spray bottle before he aims it at Deano’s face. He ends up in excruciating pain feeling like his face is on fire. In a futile attempt to escape the searing pain Deano leaps onto the tracks in front of the approaching train. Initially, the police believed the death to be a suicide but there were far too many suspicious aspects that it needed properly investigating.

Enter DI Sasha Dawson and her team from the Major Incident Team. It's soon confirmed that Deano's death was in fact murder but the team are unable to work out the motive behind it, and when Abs later finds out about the slaying it rocks him to the core. Danny is a former reality TV star, having had a starring role in a show called ”Laid in Essex!”, and he loved the fame, fortune and attention that came with it. He was also voted ‘Britain’s Sexiest Guy three years on the trot by readers of the Daily Star. But at the height of his career, he decides to take a trip to Wales. While Abs and his mates were staying in Denbighshire they were the last people to have seen nineteen-year-old Rhiannon Jenkins at The Red Lion pub near Llandrillo where they happened to be drinking at on the 4 May. She was never seen again and after being interviewed no charges were brought against Abs but his career did not survive the scandal given all the fingers pointing in his direction. Rhiannon’s body was never found and no-one has ever been charged in relation to the case. Now DI Dawson while investigating Deano’s murder renews police interest in Rhiannon’s cold case and has discovered some important evidence. Can Sasha solve the two cases before another person dies? This is a riveting and highly addictive procedural with some totally unexpected twists and red herrings throughout. An enthralling read told primarily from Abs and Sasha’s perspectives the narrative slips seamlessly between past and present. There's lots of action, drama and mystery and the writing was particularly absorbing allowing you to immerse yourself in the story. Highly recommended.

I’d like to thank Head of Zeus and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘The Woman In The Wood’ by M K Hill in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Four friends, Deano, Tony, Jez and reality TV star Abs were at a remote cottage in Wales when Rhiannon Jenkins disappeared, her body was never found and no-one charged. Now, three years later, two of the friends Deano and Tony are dead and DI Sasha Dawson and her team from the Essex Police’s Major Incident Team are investigating.

‘The Woman In The Wood’ is the second in the Detective Sasha Dawson series and is a gripping and fast-paced thriller packed full of drama, action, twists and turns, and lifelike characters who speak in the idiom expected of those from Essex. Following on from the previous novel ‘The Bad Place’ it’s good to again meet Sasha and her team of DS Ajay de Vaz, DCs Craig Power and Lolly Chambers and her boss DCI Vaughn, not to mention her chaotic and larger-than-life family. This thriller had me hooked from page one, it was thoroughly enjoyable and I can recommend it.