What happens when a small child goes missing? What are the ramifications for those who loved him, and is it feasible to learn what happened to the youngster 10 years ago?

Kate and Tristan, private investigators, try to figure out what happened to Jeanie's grandson, who went missing while camping. The incident, however, is not one-dimensional; it involves other people who did not appear to be involved in the disappearance at first.

Robert Bryndza understands how to craft a good detective story. Fascinating, exciting, and full of twisted human nature and emotions.

The reader quickly interacts with the protagonists and grasps the complexities of the human psyche and behavior.

Excellent reading!

Classic Kate Marshall, classic Bryndza. One of my favorite series to date. In #4, Kate is forced to deal with her own demons while figuring out what happened to little Charlie all those years ago on Devil’s Way.

If you haven’t yet, start with Book 1. You’re welcome!!

Five full stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This may be the darkest Kate Marshall thriller yet. After getting caught in a riptide during her usual morning ocean swim, Kate must deal with concerns that she was drinking again as well as facing her own mortality. When she and Tristan get hired to track down a missing child, she is reminded of the years that she missed with her own son while in the grips of addiction. An interesting mystery with lots of twists and turns, and I was satisfied with the ending. Hoping that there is more in this series to come.

Thanks to Raven Street Publishing for providing access to a digital ARC on NetGalley.

Detective Kate Marshall, who is recovering from a near drowning, is asked by her hospital roommate, an elderly woman named Jean to look into the disappearance of her three year old grandson, Charlie. Charlie disappeared eleven years earlier while the family was on a camping trip near a river and gorge called the "Devil's Way." Kate and her young partner, Tristan decide to investigate even though Charlie's mother is now dead and his father has remarried and has a new family. The pieces of Jean's story of the night Charlie disappeared don't seem to match up with the official record and even the police officer's personal notes about the crime scene. Did Charlie wander off during the night and fall into the raging river or was he abducted? Why was the family being harassed by a local social worker and how did she end up dead? The tale moves along at a good pace and the characters of Kate and Tristan are well drawn but this plot has been written before and seasoned mystery readers will guess the ending before the end of the book.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #RavenStreetPublishing for my advance copy of #Devil’sWay by #RobertBryndza
This is the fourth book in the Kate Marshall series and the best one yet.
The story grabs you at the beginning and doesn’t let go.
Kate wakes up in hospital totally disoriented and in the middle of the night the woman in the next bed tells her a strange story and hires her to find the answers.
Gripping read.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Review of Uncorrected Advance Review Copy

Private investigator Kate Marshall’s daily sea swim turns dangerous when a deadly riptide current pulls her under.

When she awakens in the hospital, shaken by her near-death experience, she finds out that surfers rescued her and called emergency services. As she recovers, she learns her roommate’s sad story. Jean Julings tells her how her three-year-old grandson, Charlie, vanished from a Dartmoor campsite one night eleven years ago. Before she leaves the hospital, Kate has agreed to investigate Charlie’s disappearance, hoping to find an answer to what happened to the toddler.

Working with her partner, Tristan Harper, the two investigate. Perhaps, as the police believed, Charlie fell into the river and the Devil’s Way current swept him away.

However, Jean hasn’t shared everything and as the two dig deeper into the case, they learn some disturbing facts about the family. But the murder of a social worker who’d expressed concerns about Jean and her daughter, Becky, leads them in a different way.

Will they learn what happened to Charlie all those years ago? And just what is Jean hiding?

=========

Fourth in the author’s Kate Marshall series, this riveting tale works well as a standalone. Featuring well-defined, believable characters, a strong sense of place, and a twisty, surprise-filled plot, the unfolding narrative keeps readers involved in the telling of the tale. Here Kate seems more susceptible than she has in previous stories, but the near-death experience makes her vulnerability plausible.

Drawing readers into the telling of the tale from the outset, the narrative's hefty dose of deception keeps those pages turning as readers work to unravel the mystery surrounding the long-missing toddler. The unputdownable narrative is both dark and haunting, but readers are sure to find the denouement satisfying.

Highly recommended.

I received a free copy of this eBook from Raven Street Publishing and NetGalley
#DevilsWay #NetGalley

Jean Julings is with her 3 year old grandson when the worst happens - he vanishes. No trace of him is found, Charlie's mom commits suicide, and Jean has Charlie declared dead.
11 years later Jean hires two PIs - Kate and Tristan and asks them to determine what happened to Charlie. I enjoyed all the breadcrumb hints sprinkled throughout the novel - and the stumper when the social worker was murdered (not that she didn't deserve it, according to people who knew her!)
Kate and Tristan get enough evidence to solve both cases when the police get involved and arrest the offenders in the nick of time.
Devil's Way is the name of a place. I was confused at the beginning as I thought some creepy person was going to get their way - and that's almost true - but just to clarify, the Devil's Way is a place.
Quite enjoyable - I finished it in 3 sittings.

Devil's Way is a complicated cold case mystery investigated by private detectives with all characters with shady pasts that increases the suspense as the secrets are revealed. As you root for the amateur detectives, everything gradually falls into place making for an excellent novel.

This story, set in the English countryside, has many of the characteristics of an English novel. The newly minted private detectives, not widely known in England, have a case to solve but their provate lives and issues often intervene.

Tristan and Kate are partners in this agency as well as in the caravan park (aka mobile home). What happens to "give" them the case is when Kate, after a near-death experience finds herself in hospital. She is befriended by an older woman who talks about her missing grandson (from 11 years ago) and wonders if Kate can help find Charlie.

The rest of the story revolves around the investigative techniques that Kate Marshall has learned as a former police detective. She and Tristan, who was a former researcher at university, get into some interesting scrapes but the primary focus is on finding Charlie even if it may mean stepping on toes and maybe even being a bit deceitful and bordering on the illegal. Find Charlie could be their mantra!!!

Can they be successful when it seems that fate is conspiring against them? Read this interesting book to find out. Hard to put down once you start reading!!

Kate is a great investigation, but her assistant as a bigger role to place. The writing is easy to read. The characters are familiar and very realistic. The ending was extremely surprising and made the story satisfying. I thought the book was great!

Overall I enjoyed this book. Two private detectives take on a case of a missing boy from 11 years prior. One of them has just survived almost drowning in the ocean and it is possibly the young boy drowned as well. It got bogged down for me a bit with details of the geography of the area but I also understood that they had very little to go on in terms of clues so everything mattered.

3.5/5⭐️

This is my first from this author, and unfortunately I did something I try to avoid by jumping into an established series…this is number 4 in the Kate Marshall stories.

Kate, a former cop and her business partner Tristan are private detectives. While in the hospital following a near-death experience, Kate meets Jean who asks her to investigate her grandson’s disappearance (he was 3) eleven years ago from the family’s campsite on Dartmoor.

There are lots of twists and turns with an interesting assortment of characters trotted out. Did Charlie drown in a nearby river? Was he taken/murdered?

While the second half was engrossing, this was a slow starter for me. There were a couple of plot points that I questioned, and at times I felt like there was an over abundance of plot lines being pulled in. While I didn’t feel overly connected to Kate or Tristan, I’ll pass that off as jumping into a running series.

Enjoyable but not sure if it was enough to double back to the beginning.

My thanks to the author, NetGalley and Raven Street Publishing for providing the free early arc of Devil’s Way for review. The opinions are strictly my own.

Kate Marshall and her partner-in-criminal investigation, Tristan, have their work cut out for them in Robert Bryndza’s fourth installment of the series, Devil's Way. Kate suffers a serious injury while swimming when she’s overcome by a riptide and nearly drowns. While hospitalized, she meets Jean Juhlings, whose three-year-old grandson went missing more than a decade earlier during a family camping trip. Jean feels guilty for having left him alone in the tent, and she misses him terribly. He’s presumed dead, but Jean’s never stopped wondering what really became of her grandson.

Naturally, there’s much more to the story, and the more Kate and Tristan dig, the more questions they find. Early on, Tristan carries much of the load as Kate still suffers after-effects of her accident. Digging up witnesses and records after eleven years is not an easy task, but Bryndza finds creative ways to piece things together. Will our P.I.s find that Charlie indeed drowned all those years ago, or is he alive and well somewhere? I had a good hunch, which, surprisingly, turned out to be correct.

This was an enjoyable story in a very readable series. I’m grateful to NetGalley, Raven Street Publishing, and the author for an ARC version of Devil’s Way in return for my honest review.

4 stars

Wow! Robert Brynzda does it again! I loved this new thriller. Well written and great execution. The characters were all amazing. This story hooked me early on and never let go. Highly recommend
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book

I’ve come to expect great things from the author’s two series, Erika Foster and Kate Marshall and I haven’t been let down. This is a Kate Marshall and I was hooked from the first page. Kate, who is into Wild Swimming gets caught in a riptide and almost drowns but it is while in hospital that she finds her next case from a fellow patient.An 11year old cold case of a 3 year old boy who went missing while the family were camping; no clues, no leads - he just disappeared. Kate doesn’t give up on unsolvable cases and together wit her business partner Tristan set out to find answers. Brilliant writing, atmospheric setting, dialogue that flows and characters to believe in lead through into a multi twisted plot. Loved it!

Thanks to Raven Street Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Robert Bryndza has yet to disappoint. Kate Marshall and Tristan are back again with another interesting English seaside mystery. From Kate's harrowing beginning, Devil's Way becomes more riveting as it progresses. Bryndza's descriptions of the Devil's Tor were terrific as always and you just know he has experienced these scenes up close and personal. The ending was a bit abrupt, but maybe that's just because I was sorry to see the mystery solved.

Another corker of a book by Robert Bryndza!
Absolutely gripped from the start and literally couldn't put it down!
Highly recommended

Robert Bryndza first gained attention with his series of books about London police detective Erika Foster. The series had a strong serial killer theme to it and attracted a strong following, especially in the United Kingdom. In 2019 Bryndza shifted to a new character, former police detective Kate Marshall who was eking out an existence as a lecturer at a small coastal English university and trying to forget the traumas of her past. Containing hints of Silence Of The Lambs, Nine Elms was a significant step-up for Bryndza and was a gripping tale that held attention till the end.

Devil’s Way is the fourth book in the Kate Marshall series and once again Bryndza has produced a
well-crafted tale that entertains and surprises. After a brief prologue, the story opens with Kate, who is now a private eye, being rushed to hospital after being pulled into a riptide current in the sea off the southern coast of England. The near-death experience leaves her shaken. During her recovery in hospital, she befriends Jean, an elderly lady on the same ward. Jean tells the harrowing story of how her three-year-old grandson, Charlie, went missing eleven years ago during a camping trip to Dartmoor and was never found. By the time Kate is well enough to go home, she has agreed to take on the case to find out what happened to Charlie.

Still suffering from the effects of her near-drowning Kate, and her trusty sidekick Tristan, start to look into the events of that fateful night and find that things were not quite how Jean remembered them. As they peel back the layers of deception they find a connection to another horrific event around the time of Charlie’s disappearance. Suddenly their investigation takes a nasty turn and the pair find themselves caught up in a series of tragic events reaching back eleven years.

I really enjoy Bryndza’s Kate Marshall series. The characters are finely and convincingly drawn, the locations are very evocative and the plotting is credible and interesting. In Devil’s Way the after-effects of Kate’s accident mean that Tristan has to step up more, which brings a new dynamic to the series and creates some tension within their relationship. The story flows along at a good pace and moves through some good twists and turns before arriving at the thoughtful conclusion.

As always, the strength of the book lies in the cast of interesting characters, even the minor ones are finely tuned, and the great sense of place, especially the creepiness of the Dartmoor, that Bryndza creates. Some of the outcome is not difficult to guess, a telling clue is dropped early in the piece, but there are plenty of unexpected developments along the way. A very enjoyable read.

This book is part of a series, but I think it can be read as a standalone book. The characters are likeable and believable. The plot moved along fast (I ended up reading it in an evening). I did guess part of the ending earlier on, but it didn't spoil my enjoyment. I recommend this book

Fast paced read with Kate Marshall and Tristan Hartley Private Investigators trying to unravel the mystery of a missing boy.
Charlie went missing eleven years ago when he was three on a camping holiday near Dartmoor. Jean, the grandmother of Charlie, asked Kate to find out what happened to her little grandson. Jean feels he is still alive , even though the Police firmly believe that Charlie had died by accident .
Delving into the background of the Police investigation at the time , inconsistencies appeared which raised doubts into the Police stance on the missing Charlie.

Interesting and great book to read that keeps you guessing until the end , a good page turner.