Thanks Netgalley for the ARC.

I hadn’t realised this was book number 2 in the DI Blood series but it did not spoil the reading as a stand alone.

Ruth has moved into a new house and a new area following her divorce. Coming home late one night, laden with shopping she is horrified to find a man in her bed. Not only is he dead but she has no idea who he is and no idea how he got there.

So begins the mystery of who he is and why would someone want him murdered. With no break in and not much in the way of clues or evidence it becomes a race against time when Ruth herself goes missing. What could be the connection between the two.

As if this wasn’t enough for DI Blood she is also dealing with a strained reunion with her estranged father and meeting her step brother for the first time. As secrets are exposed at home and work will DI Blood be hold it all together.

Real page turner.

This is the second book in the series D I Isabel Blood. I haven't read the first but found this stood well enough on its own.
Ruth Prendergast returns home from work, puts a pizza in the oven and goes upstairs while it cooks. To her shock and her surprise she finds a dead man in her bed. When the police arrive on the scene they find he was killed by a knife - still lodged in his chest. So far so good but Isabel Blood and her team fail to find any connection between Ruth and the dead man and the murderer has been very careful not to leave any trace of his/her presence in Ruth's house.
Tracking the killer takes time and hard work for the team, and when Ruth goes missing as well they have a second problem on their hands.
This is a well written, police procedural, with a likeable main detective who appears unhindered by the usual foibles that fictional detectives have. Indeed she is a happy, family orientated woman, the only blot on her horizon is the visit of her father and his bigamous relationship with her mother.
Easy reading for a wet Sunday afternoon.
With thanks to Netgalley and HQ Stories for an arc copy.

Such a fantastic read! Constantly guessing who done it throughout.
A very well written book, can't wait to read more from Jane!

I don't know why but I struggled to really get immersed in this one. I like DI Blood as a character, in fact, I really like her but I feel some of the edges of the story just had too much weight to them.

Overall, a good premise for a crime thriller, good characters but something just didn't grab me.

Thank you to #NetGalley for the advance copy of #WithoutATrace by #JaneBettany

Firstly let me say I enjoyed the book and will read the next one.
The storyline was good with a woman coming home to find a dead stranger in her bed.
The case is handed to DI Isobel Blood and her team, and problem was Isobel was supposed to be on two weeks leave hosting her father whom she hadn’t seen for over 40 years. I felt the characterisation was glossed over, we really didn’t learn anything about her team, or indeed about Isobel. I am hoping the series will grow into itself The basics are there and it could be very good.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for approving me for this arc

I really enjoyed this, the concept of the novel was different and was pulled off really well. I was immersed into this novel from the minute I picked it up!!

A steady thriller with a family backstory.
I enjoyed this but wasn’t gripped. The premise is good but it just didn’t excite me.
Ruth Prendergast says she returned home after work to find a dead man I. Her bed with a knife n his chest.
DI Isabel Blood must establish whether Ruth is telling the truth or hiding her involvement - only Ruth disappears.
It’s nice to have a lead female character over fifty!

Giving it a 2.75*

Without a Trace is number two in the D.I. Isabel Blood series, but even without have read the first book, In Cold Blood, I was still able to follow along just fine, with enough background/backstory of the character.

I wanted to check out a police procedural murder mystery book, because I had came to the realization that I had not yet read one before. So… I tried it. Ehhh, I believe they are not really my thing, at least so far, after reading this one.

I say that they are not really my thing, because I did catch myself being bored with this type of storyline and I felt that some of the information given throughout the story was just not needed or it was info that did not even build into the character development, nor the story.

Don’t get me wrong, this book does indeed start off interesting, but then I think it just lacks from there; the story, to me, just stays at the same pace with not TOO many twists and turns.

I received an ARC from Netgalley and HQ for a chance to review.

Thankyou to netgalley and the publisher for allowing me a copy of this book. i did not know what to expect when went into this as it is the first book i have read by this author. I do love a good murder mystery and this did not disappoint, it kept me focused with a good plot which was well written and kept me guessing throughout.

A gentle murder mystery with family complications. Two stories are told along side each other. One of the murder and the other of the Detective Inspector in charge of solving the murder. The setting of the murder is intriguing and the solving of it is meticulous in following up on every avenue until it is solved. Showing how even the smallest of clues needs to be investigated. The story of the DI's childhood, how her father suddenly disappeared out of her life, as a result of bigamy, then at the age of 57 the DI manages to track her father down and invite him over from France to visit her and her family in Derbyshire. The two tales unfold alongside each other.

Although I have not read the first book in this series, Without a Trace functioned fine as a stand alone. Interesting plot. I liked it well enough to consider reading the next book.

I'm not usually a murder mystery fan, but this was well written and enjoyable. It had a good plot and keeps you engaged to the end.

I thoroughly enjoyed Without a Trace, which is a straightforward police procedural with a bit of Isabel’s tangled home life thrown in as a bonus. It is not a profound novel but it satisfies my liking for puzzles and attempts to guess along with the detectives. I got a few things right ahead of them, but the perpetrator’s identity and motive had me beaten until all the information was revealed. I loved the final twist as a cautionary tale.
I liked that the novel is told entirely from the investigative point of view, highlighting the efforts the team go to to dredge up small amounts of information and push the investigation forward. Obviously as it is crime lite everything falls into place more readily than is realistic, but I was going with the mystery of who, what, why etc. and I liked what I got. The novel held my attention throughout.

Ruth Prendegast was happy to be home from work and looking forward to a quiet night in but then she finds a dead man in her bed.

DCI Isobel Blood was on two weeks leave to spend time with her estranged father when she got the call to lead on the investigation into the dead man. Juggling trying to spend time with her family and solving the mystery man in the bed was difficult when each lead on the case was a dead end and the team struggled to make any progress.

When Ruth disappeared - the investigation had to move fast to ensure her safety.

The book flips between Blood's private life and work life but that helps to build the bond with the character. A few twists and turns throughout however the hardened murder mystery readers are likely to guess the ending fairly easily.

This isn't the first book about DCI Blood but it is a good stand alone read if its your first one.

A good solid crime novel, if not very ambitious.
It started out well, Ruth returns home to find a dead man in her bed and then she disappears. Detective Blood is tasked at solving the crime.
Some good twists along the way and a decent bit of the lead characters back story made the plot a bit more original.
I guessed the ending though.

I’m always on the lookout for new detective series set in Derbyshire, but few live up to my expectations. This one seems to be set a little to the south of my beloved Peak District, in the fictional town of Bainbridge (no relation to the village in North Yorkshire), which has the feel of Bakewell about it minus the pudding shops and most of the tourists. Without a Trace is the second, and latest, book in the series; however, I decided to dive straight in without having read the first.

DI Isabel Blood is looking forward to spending her upcoming leave getting to know her long-estranged father, whom she last saw when she was a teenager. Before she can even collect him from the airport, she s informed that her leave has been cancelled in order for her to head up the investigation into what appears to be a locked room (or rather locked house) murder investigation. In a further unwelcome surprise, Isabel’s dad turns up with one of her half-brothers in tow and announces that they plan to stay in a local hotel, rather than with Isabel’s family as she’d planned. Not too daunted by any of this, Isabel drops her visitors at their hotel and heads off to the crime scene.

The body has been discovered by the new owner of the house – in her bed – after she returned home from work, and she claims to have never seen the man before. Isabel has to juggle a case where the victim has no obvious connection to any of the properties in the area, with family disagreements exacerbated by her father not being entirely honest with his other children about his relationship with Isabel’s mother. Meanwhile, the murder victim turns out to have been a wrong-un, not particularly mourned by those left behind, and there’s no shortage of suspects with motives. The only issues are which of them had access to the scene, and why it was chosen.

It seems likely that the woman who found the victim had nothing to do with him, just as she said, but when she disappears there is an added urgency for the team to establish whether they were wrong about that, or whether she is, or is about to become, another victim of the same killer.

There were a lot of characters in this book, and it wasn’t always easy to keep track of those who had, presumably, been introduced in the first book as well as all those who Isabel was meeting for the first time. Ultimately, the central ones failed to hold my attention, and Bainbridge didn’t provide an interesting enough backdrop to keep me entertained in spite of them. I liked that most of the pointers to how the crime had been committed were flagged up (subtly) early on, but this is probably not a series I’ll be diving into again in the near future.

I did not read the first book in this series. This did however work well as a standalone read. I didn't think this was my kind of crime fiction, I found it far too detailed in relating every move made by each individual member of the police team and their often mundane conversations. This changed as I got farther into the story and more engaged with the central mystery, and the suspense increased. Isabel has to balance being in charge of the murder case while at the same time handling the emotionally complicated visit of an elderly father, arriving unexpectedly with her half-brother, Fabien, whom she is meeting for the first time. . She wants her father to come clean about his past and his bigamous marriage to her mother to Fabien, and to build a closer relationship with him and Fabien. This turned out to be an engaging and entertaining crime read that I enjoyed, and the murder case had some surprising twists and turns.

A really enjoyable whodunnit that makes you feel like you're part of the investigative team as each witness/suspect is interviewed, and each strand of evidence is examined.

Ruth Prendergast returns home from work and grocery shopping. Just an ordinary day and she's looking forward to pizza and taking the weight off. But those plans are scuppered when she discovers a man in her bed. A dead man. With a knife in his chest.

With no sign of a break-in, very little forensic evidence and no causal link between Ruth and the victim, police have very little to go on.

And things become even more disturbing when Ruth herself goes missing.

A really interesting and well written book that draws the reader fully into the mind of a detective and become fully invested in the solving of this strange crime.

I struggled with this one. I don’t know why but I couldn’t get in to it so left it and came back to it a few times but it still ended up on my DNF list. I can see from other reviews I am in the minority with this so it’s likely it ended on my DNF list due to me rather than the story.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

This is the first book I’ve read from this author and it won’t be the last.
I really enjoyed the story, it gripped me from the start and kept me guessing throughout.
Recommended to any thriller fans.