This book really just took me for a ride. I loved the build up, the character development, and the writing. I would definitely read more from this author!

A Killer in the Family will have the reader going down multiple rabbit holes trying to uncover the true identity of the "bonfire killer." Disturbing, tense, suspenseful - this book has everything a thriller needs. I really liked the characters, especially Aisling and her boys. I loved that among all the suspense and thrill, there were real characters with depth and strong relationships. I would definitely recommend this book!

This ambitious police procedural features a serial killer who destroys his victims in forest bonfires, a woman searching for her long-lost father whose DNA matches the serial killer’s, and the Detective Chief Inspector and team who attempt to capture the killer. Multiple points of view, including the killer’s, are also featured in various chapters. A very busy novel, it held my interest well enough without any specific negative features. But at 416 pages it did feel a bit drawn out to me.

This is book five in the DCI Jonah Sheens series. I read book one and then this one so it definitely works as a standalone. While I thought it started a little slowly about halfway through it picked up quite a bit and was a pretty fast paced police procedural. I like the characters and the fact that you get to see the story from so many perspectives. I do think the beginning might have moved a little faster if I had been familiar with all of the police perspectives at least, it was a bit hard to follow at first. New Years Eve is a new beginning, but for one woman it is an ending as well when she gets into a car with a killer. As the police begin to investigate they find blood at the scene that is not the victim and when it doesn’t show up on any of their searches they decide to try a new science for their laws and enter the DNA into a geology site. I liked the red herrings and found the story to be interesting. The twists were nice.

I went into this not knowing it was a police procedural. I usually do not read them, but I took a chance on this one, and I had a ball with it. Figuring out the case along with the cop was a fun thing to do, and the book grabbed my attention from the start. I would recommend it to anyone that wants to branch out to read a police procedural.

A Killer In the Family is an interesting read. I liked the multi pov and appreciated the twists. It has a few red herrings that helped create tension and suspense.
It was, however, a rather slow paced read and several sections seemed to drag a little. I also never felt a real connection to any of the characters so the family interactions and revelations didn’t give me the emotional connection to the book that would make me rate it higher. It was an enjoyable detective mystery overall.

This book is Book 5 in the Jonah Sheens Detective Series. It does read well as a stand-alone.


I have posted this review on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cv_F0jELhCi/?igsh=dm5nbnQxenZlZ3hk

Goodreads

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5743205005

And Amazon

📖 Book Review 📖

🎧📱 "A Killer in the Family" by Gytha Lodge

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
Backlog of Netgalley

So here is a @netgalley ARC from earlier in 2023. Thank you and I am finally getting around to reading and reviewing. 🤦🏼‍♀️

I read this as a standalone, but it is #5 in the DCI Jonah Sheens series. DNA has come along way in helping solve crimes and the plot showcases how after uploading DNA online searching for her father a woman gets more than she bargained for and opens a whole police case. First a body is found, burned in a bonfire in an empty field, and when a second burned body is found the police believe they have a serial killer on their hands. Set in Southhampton, a single mother of 2 teenagers is searching for her long-lost father, and her DNA is a familial match to this possible "bonfire killer". All in all a dark, intense, and well-written novel, making me want to go back and read the first 4 in the series. 

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A Killer in the Family is book five in the DCI Jonah Sheens series. In this 2023 installment a killer is targeting women in their 40’s and burning them on funeral pyres in the woods. Detective Sheens and his team will need to find the killer before he strikes again. But when using the new DNA ancestry database Jonah finds a connection to Ainsling Cooley, a single mother with two teenage sons. Ainsling cannot imagine her sons being capable of murder but she’s also struggling with the possibility that the father that abandoned her thirty years prior is also a suspect. As the team digs into Ainsling’s family and other possible connected crimes they uncover the dark family secrets that have been hiding a killer.

A Killer in the Family is a twisty police procedural and a crime thriller. There is a nice balance between the crimes and details about the personal lives of the investigators. I found the explanation of how they used the DNA database really interesting and I could see how even with it there still needs to be a lot of solid police work. This book kept my interest and there were a lot of good twists and turns. I look forward to reading more from this series.

This was a very slow burn read hat took me two attempts to get through. The first time I got to 42% and DNF’d it for a little while. The second time I got through it, but almost DNF’d it again.

I don’t say this with the purpose of saying the book is bad. It’s not, the plot is pretty good and there were some aspects that I did find interesting throughout. However, I do not believe this series was meant for me.

I could not get into the storyline and there was no excitement for me. I have not read the previous four books in this series and it is possible, had I read these previously, that my opinion might be different, but I won’t be going back to read them.

Special thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for providing me with an advanced readers copy of this novel.

Okay let me just start by saying I did not realize that this book was part of a series. I highly recommend reading the whole series if you are going to read this because as a standalone it was a little confusing but I will get into that.

I really enjoyed this book! The plot was great and super engaging. There were twists that I did not see coming and that was huge for me!

I read this book as a standalone so for me some of the characters were a little confusing as they were introduced briefly at the beginning and their first and last names were used interchangeably.

If you are reading this as the fifth(?) book in the series, then I would probably prefer this as I hate an extended explanation of who someone is after reading about them over multiple books.

This book can 100% be read as a stand-alone and only has one SMALL plot line connected to the previous books (that I could tell not having read them).

Honestly I’m going to go back and read the first 4 now because I really enjoyed this!

I really liked this one. It kept me guessing. This is a fast paced, easy read. The advances in DNA bring used for forensics is fascinating and a little scary!
Gytha Lodge has penned a rollercoaster of a read in this title.
Thank You to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group, and Gytha Lodge for the opportunity to enjoy reading this ARC.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for my copy of this book! This was my first Gytha Lodge book, I found out halfway through it was a series… This one had me from the minute they announced that Aisling’s DNA was a match for a serial killers! It was a wild ride! I also really appreciate the research the author did to create all the twists and turns! 4⭐️/5 and I will definitely be reading all the other books in this series!!

This is the first book I have read by Gytha Lodge. I didn't realize this was part of a series but I managed to follow along. I will be going back and reading the book before this just to get all the information I missed. This was a well written book with really good characters. I was on the edge of my seat with this book and couldn't put it down. I can't wait to read more. I would definitely recommend this book. P.S. I also loved the cover!


Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for allowing me to read this ARC for my honest opinion.

Thanks to Penguin Random House & Gytha for an advance copy of A Killer in the Family. I actually did read this book on time and promote it on instagram but writing the review is another story…

Title: A Killer in the Family
Author: Gytha Lodge
Genre: Adult Mystery / Crime
Series or Standalone: 5th in the DCI Jonah Sheens series, but can be read as a standalone
Rating: 3.5 / 5 stars

Ainsley is a single mom living in Southampton with her two teenage boys. She’s been trying to locate her father, whom she last saw decades ago in Ireland, so she uploads her DNA to a site.

Meanwhile bodies are turning up in bonfires and local officials have dubbed the murderer the “bonfire killer” and are encouraging residents to exude caution when out and about.

When Ainsley receives a match to her ancestry account, she’s thrilled to see that she may be one step closer to tracking her dad down. Unfortunately it’s not her dad or any other relative. It’s a detective working the Bonfire Killer case and he has some questions for her, because her DNA is a very close match for the person they’re after.

The idea for this story is great - nearly everyone has heard how sites like Ancestry and 23 & Me have lead to a variety of things from finding out there are relatives people never knew existed to solving notorious cases like the Golden State Killer - so I absolutely accepted when I was offered the chance at this book.

I also really enjoyed that even though this is in a series that follows DCI Sheens the story was more focused on Ainsley & her family than on Jonah. Often times what loses me in procedural or crime books is the detective aspect of it. With this book I felt like I was reading a book about Ainsley with DCI Sheens as the side character. The multi-POV (including the murderer) was great as well. I always love a killer POV.

I enjoyed Ainsley, I liked that she was very much her own person. There aren’t a lot of single mom characters that I read and feel like there’s more to them than being a mom, and Ainsley was very much invested in her sons, but she had her own personality that shown through as well. I also liked both sons as characters.

What knocked this one down for me was that the reveal and conclusion felt kind of jumbled and rushed where as the majority of the story was more of a slow burn. I needed either a more drawn out ending or a little quicker beginning rather than a 0 to 100.

I would probably not read the first 4 in this series now that I’ve read the fifth, for no other reason other than we do get glimpses into DCI Sheen’s life and to backtrack would throw me off, but I’d absolutely continue with this series in the future.

3.5⭐️ I struggled to finish this one sadly. While the summary sounded right up my alley, it never fully held my attention. It had too many characters and different POVS for me. I started to lose track of who was narrating each chapter. The overall who done it did keep me entertained enough to want to finish it. This mystery just
wasn’t for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Ok to read as stand alone, I enjoyed.

Thank you to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review

The beginning of this book was very slow and I found myself struggling to keep with it. Once I got past 35% it picked up, but I was confused keeping all of the names straight. There were a couple of good twists. By about 55% I had figured out who the killer was, but was waiting for the rest of the characters to get there.

I’m torn on this one. I was intrigued but also a little bored. The second half was much more interesting and faster paced, especially the last 20%. I would say most of my time spent reading this was the first half which kind of dragged. But the end has me curious about the next one! Overall I enjoyed it enough.

A woman uploads her DNA to an ancestry website in the hopes of locating her father. It’s not her father who contacts her though, it’s a detective looking for a killer.

A Killer in the Family is the fifth book in the DCI Jonah Sheens series, but it can be read as a standalone. This series has some gripping mysteries, and I suggest reading the other books.

This book uses multiple points of view – the detectives working the case, the woman with a DNA match to the killer, the killer, and a victim. The characters are interesting and the mystery is intriguing.

A Killer in the Family is dark, tense, and twisty. Recommended for fans of British police procedurals.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Y’ALL!!! THIS WAS A WILD READ!!!! oh my gosh my mind is SPINNING! I absolutely adored this book! I’ve never read anything like this and I could not get enough!