Six Graves (Detective Kim Stone Crime Thriller Book 16) by Angela Marsons. Another twisty, action packed thriller with Detective Kim Stone. She is sidelined during most of the investigation due to the threat on her life and having police protection with her at all times. Much of the expected humor comes with Leanne (the police protector) and Kim's verbal interactions. At the last hour, Kim comes through and is a major player in the rescue of the girls and in solving the cases. Missed Barney but he was out of harm's way.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

SIX GRAVES is an outstanding edition to this utterly incredible series!

Angela Marsons is quite simply an incredible writer and fantastic story teller. Each time a new DI Kim Stone book is announced I’m literally checking NetGalley twice a day whilst counting down to the prerelease date on Amazon - time and life just stops until the latest book is in my hands.

What can I tell you about Six Graves that won’t spoil your pleasure of reading it? Well, you’re in for such a treat! As with most of the series there are two plot lines running in tandem. The first, a multiple murder suicide and the second being an escaped convict with a grudge against Kim. It’s a non stop, edge of your seat thriller of a read!

Lost Girls was first book I read of this series and was the beginning of my DI Kim Stone love affair. The escaped convict and everything that they have planned for Kim is directly tied into Lost Girls so if you haven’t read that book yet, or for awhile, I would suggest reading that before/again. If you can’t wait, then don’t worry because Angela does bring you up to speed on who they are and why they are so feared.

DI Kim Stone is very angry throughout this whole book. It’s a given that she hates being told what to do and is a bit of a vigilante in that respect. But in this book you can see that the cracks are starting to appear, not just within her team but in her ability to perform her duties under strict instruction.

Unlike the previous books we are given a lot less of Kim’s private life. Due to the risk to her life she is totally stripped of her private life, having to share her home with a protection officer. She’s not allowed to be with Barney and unable to focus on her bike or come and go as she pleases. She’s having to work remotely on the murder-suicide case and totally excluded/banned from tracking down the escaped prisoner. All this allowed us a totally new perspective of Kim and he abilities to deal with and compartmentalise her life. In Six Graves she has to allow people in and has to step back from what she knows. It’s an awkward and difficult time that brings out the worst and yet the best in her and her team. Through this book you see Kim recognise the bond she has with her team and how just how alone she really is.

A terrifyingly intense book that I loved from the prologue right through to the end. Nothing will ever be the same again and now Kim has to learn to live with her new reality and all that entails.

Fabulous read Angela… keep them coming! Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for my advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for the copy of Six Graves. I’m not sure why this book wasn't for me. I had a hard time connecting to the characters, especially Kim, the main characters. She came off as immature and not really a leader. Maybe it was a mistake for me to start this series with book 16, but usually I don’t find reading a series in order is necessary to keep the characters straight in my head. This time, there was so much going on in the beginning that it was hard to keep everyone straight. I really liked the storyline-who killed them and why-but because the writing also never drew me in, the story seemed long and drawn out. The conclusion was really good though and makes me want to start the series from the beginning to see if that makes a difference.

This was a tense, exciting, thrilling detective book! I really didn’t know what to expect, as this is the first book I’ve read by the author, but it was quite a ride! This was one where you didn’t know what was coming next. Thoroughly enjoyed!

Wow! Just….wow!
The SIXTEENTH book in the Kim Stone series, you’d think by now that the characters and stories might begin to be a bit stale, but nothing could be further from the truth. Angela Marsons has done it again, keeping me hooked from the Prologue right until the very end.
This book sees Kim and the team investigating a fire at a family home that ends up being a bit more sinister upon further investigation.
Kim’s past also comes back to haunt her, when she encounters a dangerous psychopath that is out for revenge.

I would like to thank Angela Marsons, the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Yippee another book in the Kim Stone series has landed in my inbox and of course it goes straight to the top of my reading pile. The Queen of Crime has done it again, another masterpiece of storytelling which kept me reading late into the night. An old adversary has escaped and has only one thing on their mind Revenge!!!! Loved it!!!!
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in return for giving an honest review.

Book 16 and they just keep getting better and better.

Kim Stone and the team are investigating a murder/suicide. A seemingly open and shut case, but Kim has her doubts. Meanwhile an old adversary from Kim’s past is on her trail. Can she keep her wits about her and bring him down?

A great suspenseful thriller which kept me gripped until the end. Looking forward to the next one.

I shall start with my normal first line of my Angela Marsons book reviews….Angela Marsons has done it again.

This is book sixteen in the Kim Stone series and I never tire of it. The books are fast paced and gritty. The characters are full of life. Kim’s team work together brilliantly even though their personalities are all different.

Six Graves has lots of twists and turns that keeps you turning the pages.

Loved it can’t wait for the next book.

Six Graves is another powerful police thriller in this series. Detective Kim Stone and her team are confronted by a gruesome family murder/suicide where the wife has apparently shot her husband, son and daughter then herself. This looks like an open and shut case until the post mortem says otherwise.
On top of this a psychopathic serial killer has escaped police custody and has made it clear he is out purely to kill Kim. So she has to have protection which does not go down well at all.
Through this book from the opening chapter set at a funeral you are left with the impression that perhaps someone from within the team has died, as all is revealed there are some heart stoping moments which had me questioning and doubting myself.
Yet again, for me this author can do no wrong, every book seems to be better and better probably because as readers of this series we’re really invested in Kim and the team.
Throughly enjoyable, a great story with the usual good and bad characters.
My thanks to net galley and publisher for the opportunity to review this book honestly.

16 books in and they are still absolutely amazing. Many long running series start to become poor as time goes on but Angela Marsons has you hanging onto the edge of your seat with every book.

While on a team-building weekend, DI Kim Stone is summoned by her boss DCI Woody who informs her that a convict named Symes has escaped from prison.

Some years back, Symes was involved in the abduction of two nine year olds and Kim was responsible for putting Symes behind bars.

Now he’s out for revenge. To this end, Woody assigns Leanne King a police officer to keep Kim safe, much to Kim’s disapproval since Leanne would be invading her privacy.

Later that day, Kim and her team get a call regarding a report of smoke coming from a residence that morning and they head to investigate.

Upon close inspection the police find the victims have all been shot to death by the wife Helen Daynes who then turned the gun on herself. Judging by the fact that she was found holding the gun.

What drove her to kill all her family before taking her own life?

But DI Kim is not convinced it’s a murder-suicide. She believes someone shot the family.So she and her team set out to find more evidence.

An engrossing police epidural. I loved the way Kim and her team tried solving the murders. There’s no shortage of suspects. This one kept me on my toes. Totally recommend this well written book. Highly recommend

Thank you to Angela Marsons, NetGalley, and Bookouture for an ARC of this book.

I have followed Kim Stone from the very first book and they have all been exceptional. The characters, the stories, everything just built from that first one. This latest one is no different.
DI Kim stone and her team are investigating an apparent case of murder / suicide. An apparently normal family has been ripped apart when the mother seems to have killed two of her children and her husband and then herself. As they delve deeper the find that all may not be as it seems. But there is a black cloud hanging over Kim. Symes, the psychopath who Kim put away a few years ago has escaped. He swore to physically and mentally destroy her if he ever got the chance and now it seems he is coming for her.
Kim's boss Woody wants her to move away until he is caught but Kim refuses to hide. They compromise by having Leanne King shadow Kim as her protection officer. Kim and the team will have to call on all their resources to get to the truth of what happened to the family.
I love the fact that although Kim and the team are getting on with the job there is always the feeling of a dark presence hovering in the background. From first page to last this had me totally gripped. It was like being on a rollercoaster of emotions. 5 stars are just not enough.

As a long time reader of the Kim Stone series, I eagerly started this. It's easily as engaging as the other novels in the series and I struggled to find a place to pause reading so I could get on with my day job. As a result, I read it in one sitting at the weekend.
The structure of book 16 is slightly different as Angela Marsons uses flashback to detail what happened in the lead up to the open events of the story. Kim Stone reluctantly follows instructions from Woody to stay out of an investigation when she is being hunted by a killer. Long time readers will know that this goes against the grain of the character but rest assured she is given a plausible reason for doing so.
Stacy's Black Country accent is softened throughout the book and I can only assume this is to make it easier to access for readers unfamiliar with the quirks of the dialect. Before meeting people from the Black Country, I'd have been completely lost when it came to sentences such as, "It wor me, I day do it." (It wasn't me, I didn't do it.) or "It's older than God's dog"; "It's looking black over Bill's mother's." That last one means there's a likelihood of rain! The charm and quirkiness of the dialect makes it difficult for readers not familiar with the Black Country to access meaning and without a character questioning it, there's no way to explain it to them. It's a good authorial decision to make. The description of places throughout the area make it very clear where the story is set.
The plot is difficult to predict beyond some broad strokes and my advice is to not try. Let the story sweep you up and take you along with it.
A very enjoyable book and well worth the read.

Wow, wow, wow! Just inhaled this book in about 2 hours. I can't imagine how Angela Marsons keeps on writing such brilliant books and I always worry that there's going to be one that isn;t as good as the others. They only keep getting better though, and this one is up there on a par with Dying Truth (Book 8) which has always been my favourite of the series.

In this book, Detective Kim Stone is called to a suspected murder-suicide, where a whole family has died. At the same time she faces a deadly threat from a terrifying figure from her past. (Me, trying desperately not to be all spoilery! )

SIX GRAVES is the 16th book in the D.I. Kim Stone crime-thriller series by best-selling author Angela Marsons. Angela Marsons remains one of my favorite mystery authors, and her publisher, Bookouture, always publishes the very best novels. I have read all of her books…and she keeps getting better. I don’t want this series to end!

It was so refreshing to touch base with Kim’s team again: DS Byant, DS Penn, and DC Stacey Wood. Her team are driven and compassionate in their work. The characters keep getting stronger and stronger. We also touch base with Kim’s boss, DCI Woodward, Alison Lowe, the behaviorist, Keats, the local pathologist, Doctor A, the Forensic anthropologist, Mitch, the lead forensic technician and Ted Morgan, the child psychologist…and who could forget Kim’s faithful dog, Barney. Love that dog!

Kim, Bryant, Stacey and Penn are on a weekend police team building exercise, when Kim is soon pulled back to the station by her boss, to inform her that Symes, a dangerous psychopath, that she was had helped convict, had just escaped from prison. Her boss wants her to take a leave of absence…or disappear until Symes is captured, as he wanted her dead.

Kim refuses and is assigned a witness protection officer, Leanne King, to protect her every move, who is a thorn in her side.

Detective Kim Stone, Leanne and her team race to a crime scene, a house fire, that claimed the life of two teenagers, Rosalind and Lewis and their parents, Helen and William Daynes. But each body has been shot and the mother is holding the gun? (murder-suicide scene?)

The case stirs up painful childhood memories for Kim who suffered at the hands of her own abusive mother. Kim and her team discover Helen had a history of clinical depression. But how could a mother kill her own children and husband?

Could someone else have killed the Daynes family?

While Kim keeps investigating the murders looking for further clues, she has to deal with a witness protection officer on her back, and a psychopath ready to pounce at the right opportunity.

This was a fast-paced psychological thriller, with relatable characters, and short chapters that kept the suspense level high. Another brilliant read that gripped you from beginning to the shocking end, that I didn’t see coming. Another winner!

Many thanks to the author, Bookouture and Netgalley for my digital copy.

I’m always thrilled to be approved for an ARC by this author - anything else gets bumped down the queue! Six Graves is the sixteenth book in the consistently compulsive DI Kim Stone series, about a CID team from the Midlands solving complex murder cases. Each book works as a stand-alone but there are references to previous cases and the character dynamics will make much more sense if they are read in order. This was another tense procedural which teases the reader with a shocking possibility, then puts you through the wringer to find out what happened.

Kim’s team are attending a funeral, numb with disbelief at what has happened. Flashing back two weeks, we learn that vicious psychopath Symes (from book 3, Lost Girls) has escaped from prison and is coming for Kim. To her horror, her DCI Woody has assigned her a minder for her protection- in Kim’s eyes, the worst person possible. Then they are assigned a case - the horrific murder-suicide of a family of four. How can Kim catch a killer when a vicious predator is ready to pounce?

While I do despair that even after sixteen books and every possible trauma, Kim hasn’t evolved one bit and still behaves like a bratty teenager, her prickly pigheadedness and snarly insults are part of what make her so addictive as a character. Her terrible childhood continues to poison her life and she sees echoes of it in every case. The rest of her loyal team are the perfect counterbalance and watching them swing into action despite their differences is an important part of each book. I enjoyed the bickering between Kim and Leanne - a not dissimilar relationship to the one she has with Frost. I was very happy that the author has reverted to normal dialogue for all the characters rather than the heavy regional dialect she lumbered Stacey with in the earlier books.

I did guess the identity of the killer before the reveal, and suspect the other big twist, but this didn’t affect my enjoyment in any way. The only thing I was disappointed by was the cover - the publisher has gone back to putting Kim in a bright red coat - something she would never wear, suggesting a lack of originality that maligns the book - a huge mistake in my opinion. I’m sure established fans won’t notice or even care, but it’s been so overdone in recent years that new readers might scroll/walk on by.

I do like the way Marsons explores a different social issue in each book, and gives her killers motives beyond just another sexually motivated serial killer. It’s impressive that she keeps finding new plots and issues even after so many books. The ending leaves things open for the series to shift direction and I’ll be waiting impatiently to find out what happens next. 4.5 rounded up.
Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC. I am posting this honest review voluntarily. Six Graves is published on May 12th.

I am running out of ways to say just how good this series is and how great a character Kim Stone is. I go into every book thinking it can’t possibly be better than the last but it is! This book was so good, it was very emotional and shows just how far Kim has come since the first book. I loved the banter between Kim and Leanne, was a perfect way to counter the heaviness of the story. Once again Bryant, Stacey and Penn work hard to help Kim solve a complicated and sad case which involves a whole family being murdered.
I can’t wait to see how Angela Marsons tops this book but I’m confident that she will...

Never dull. Never boring. Only getting better!!!!

Book #16 and Angela Marsons is still killing it! (pun intended)

DI Kim Stone and team are investigating a house fire where four people perished when it becomes obvious that this wasn't a housefire tragedy but another type of horrible tragedy that occurred. To make it worse, she has witnesses behaving strangely. They are secretive and appear to be hiding something. To add insult to injury, she learns that Symes - her I'm-not-your-number-one-fan enemy has escape and is on a collision course headed straight for her.

Just when she thought things could not be bad enough, Leanne King, her not so favorite witness protection officer has been assigned to her. Throw in Kim's not so favorite journalist and you know Kim is going to have a rough go of it in this book!

Kim Stone is such a strong and fascinating lead character. She is tough as nails with a heart of gold (especially for her dog!). In this book she not only has to deal with murder, family secrets (there are some whoppers here), and having her arch enemy coming after her. What's a girl to do?

This series just keeps getting better! I am always excited when I see there is a new book in the series. I also enjoyed the banter between Kim and Leanne. I hope we see more of Leanne in some capacity in future books as she is such a great character.

As with the other books in this series, Six Graves was well written, riveting, had me biting my nails and sitting on pins and needles. What's not to love about that?

Fans of the series are going to be extremely happy with this book. If you are new to the series, this could work as a stand alone. I guarantee you that if you start here, you will want to go back and read the previous books!

Another gripping, pulse pounding page turner from Marsons!

Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you Netgalley and Bookouture for the ARC of Six Graves by Angela Marsons in return for my honest review.
Wow that was a rollercoaster of a ride that had me reading late into the night. I love all of the Kim Stone series and they just get better and better. If you’re looking for a fast paced crime series with great characters then this is it, with each book you become more emotionally invested in the characters, can’t wait for the next instalment.

DI Kim Stone and her team are sent to investigate a house fire, when they arrive they find four members of the Daynes family dead; Helen, William and their teenage children Rozzie and Lewis but it wasn't the fire that killed them, each of them have been shot and as Helen is holding the gun it appears that she shot them all before turning the gun on herself, but what would have led her to commit this heinous act? As Kim and the team start digging they start to uncover some vital clues, but one in particular changes the course of the investigation and Kim believes someone else is responsible for the murders, she just needs to work out who! Then a threat is made on Kim's life when a psychopath she caught in a previous case escapes prison and is intent on getting his revenge on her, Kim is immediately assigned a police protection officer who is constantly by her side to ensure she comes to no harm and, with strict instructions to stay well away when he mirrors his previous crime, she finds it difficult to stick to the rules, is she putting herself in danger to protect the innocent and how will it end?

Six Graves is book sixteen in the Kim Stone series by this hugely talented author and I defy anyone, whether it be a well seasoned fan that has followed this series from the beginning or a reader that is discovering her books for the first time, to not feel goosebumps when you read THAT prologue! Angie Marsons then takes you on a rollercoaster journey that will batter your emotions and leave you feeling completely wrung out before you even reach THAT ending! You'd think that at this point in the series the books would start to wane but, as Queen of Crime, Marsons delivers each book as fresh and exciting as the last and with each one I've thought that's her best yet, but they just gets better every time she puts pen to paper and yes, I have to say this is her best yet. Just when I thought my heart was starting to recover from the emotions of book eight (which I still haven't forgiven her for) she has grabbed it once again, smashed it up the wall and stamped on it for good measure, and this one will stay with me for a long time to come. It's taken me a day just to process what's happened so I can write this review. Anyone about to start this, be warned you will need tissues!

I'd like to thank Bookouture and Netgalley for the auto approval, I will post my review on Goodreads now and Amazon on publication day.