Book 20 in the Detective Kim Stone series. I feel I keep repeating myself after reading every book in this brilliant gripping series. . Fortunately the stories do not repeat themselves. Each book is as fresh as the first in the series . The team , Kim, Bryant Stacey and Penn are an important and integral part of the stories. Each has their own role to play in the investigation. Guilty Mothers centres around tge Pageantry circuit of young girls. Yet again I was blindsided as to who the murderer was. Roll on book 21!

Twenty books into this series and Angela Marsons still has fresh ideas for interesting plots! This one takes us into the world of children’s beauty pageants when a young woman is found next to her mother’s body holding a knife and covered in her blood, unable to speak and in no state to be questioned.

In her mother’s house, Kim discovers a bedroom packed with pageant trophies and the clothes she wore to win them as a little girl all those years ago. Her mother was known to be obsessive about her daughter winning, forcing her to participate. As Kim is wondering if this is the reason she murdered her mother, a second woman is stabbed to death, also with connections to the pageant world.

Marsons uses this topic to explore the relationship between mothers and their daughters caught up in beauty pageants (but it could also apply to sport, dancing or music). There are the obsessive mothers trying to live vicariously through their children, as well as those who enjoy the closeness participation brings them and also a mother whose son suffers from her lack of attention to him.

It was good to see Kim being her usual irascible self during the investigation – may she never change! It was also good to see Tiff working on a suspicious death case along with Penn and Kim supporting Tiff’s instincts that not all was well in the relationship between a son and his mother. While I wasn’t totally sold on the motivation for the killings all this time after the pageants, I very much enjoyed the topics raised and as always, look forward to the next in the series.

Book 20 in this amazing series and she has done it again.
I have been a big fan of the series from the start.

Kim and her team investigate the murder of mothers involved in pageants, who is killing these women and why?

I raced through this book as needed to finish it as quickly as possible to find the answers, i can't wait for the next one.
If I am being picky, there didn’t seem to be as much of the usual banter within the team, especially between Bryant and Kim. Or as much background to the locations, which I always enjoy.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the highly anticipated ARC. It is recommended for all fans of Angela Marsons and anyone who enjoys a compelling detective story. Guilty Mothers is due to be published on May 31.

I love Kim Stone. At the top of my favourite Authors and Series. Beauty pageant Moms are the victims of brutal murders. If you want to know who the killer is, then read the book! We also have a missing man who turns up dead. Stacey and Penn solve this puzzle. Thanks to NetGalley, Bookoutre and the Author for allowing me to read and review this book.

I loved this book, another fab story from Angela Marsons. It was good to be back with DI Kim Stone and her team.

Di Stone and her team were called to a brutal murder scene where a woman had been stabbed multiple times and her daughter had found her. The daughter Katie was arrested on suspicion of murdering her mother but it some became evident that she was not fit to be questioned.

While Katie was in custody the team worked hard to establish the facts but their investigation was soon turned upside down as further events added to the pressure of solving the case.

Alongside this James Nixon’s body was pulled out of a fishing lake and his girlfriend Olivia and her son Logan were informed of his death. Things seemed straightforward initially but soon doubt was cast on the manner of his death. At their home Olivia and Logan seemed to be a normal mother and son but nothing was as it seemed.

A real page turner. I can’t wait for the next DI Kim Stone instalment.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow Angela you have done it again! Kim Stone is back in this 20th instalment of the series.

Having read this series from the start i was delighted to receive this arc through net galley and the publishers.

Kim and her team investigate the murder of mothers involved in pageants, who is killing these women and why?

I raced through this book as needed to finish it as quick;ly as possible to find the answers, i can't wait for the next one.

4 stars

Seriously, how did we get to book 20 in the Kim Stone series?? It feels like yesterday when I first found Angela Marsons and here we are 20 books later.! Once again another fab instalment in the Kim Stone detective series which can easily be read as a stand-alone book. Kim and the team are called to investigate a straight forward open and shut case which soon develops into something much more sinister! 2 investigations are playing out in this book with every page being a proper page turner!

I can't believe we are twenty books into this amazing series already. Feels like only yesterday I was sitting down and devouring the first DI Kim Stone book which had me hooked for life!

I adore this series, and Guilty Mothers is another wonderful addition to it.

Not only do we have the main case which is set within the world of childhood beauty pageants, Tink is also back and has asked Kim for help with a situation which was heart breaking. In fact this side storyline held my attention and had me possibly even more invested than the main one. And seeing Tink work with Penn was a fresh dynamic and interesting to see.

Stacy is back to her best after her ordeal in the previous book, which I was very happy to see, and the Kim and Bryant partnership is a enjoyable and brilliant as ever.

It is a far more complex case than it first seemed, but then again it would have been a very short book had the person standing over the dead body, holding the murder weapon, been guilty! So I was sort of glad when the body count rose, as it meant we got to see Kim's team do what they do best!

This was one of those rarer crime books where I did have sympathy for the murderer, but there is no excuse for what they did. I loved hearing about this world which was so unfamiliar to Kim.

I was hooked on this book and couldn't read it fast enough. I didn't remotely guess correctly, and I was over the moon with the way the case that Penn and Tink were working on was resolved and dealt with.

Another wonderful addition to this addictive series.

Thank you to Bookouture and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

Another fantastic story about Kim stone and her team investigating a murder relating to the world of child pageants. Love this series can’t get enough of them!

Before my review, I just wanted to give a bit of a warning. I loved this book. I have read this entire series and it is truly one of my favorites. But I did struggle with this one because of the subject matter which was narcissistic mothers. It did affect me while I was reading it. If you struggle with a relationship with your mother, this might not be the book for you. If you still read it, try to have someone to talk to during and when you’re done.

4⭐️

This is one of my favorite series and I love how we get character development with each book. I love all the characters. I love how they connect with each other, how they support each other and I will forever love the banter between Kim and Bryant. With each book, the characters grow and develop and I love seeing it come together.

I always enjoy that we get two cases with each book; the main one and then a small side one (I’m a gamer. I love side quests lol). This is the first time I have been able to guess what was happening with the side case before the characters did. I was kind of yelling at them for taking so long.

As for the main case and the pageant murders, I did disagree with Kim when she started empathizing with one of the mothers whose daughter wanted her own life, especially after learning how bad pageants were. I don’t think Kim really understood the negative effects that pageants have on children because one daughter said she enjoyed her time. It bothered me that Kim focused on that one experience versus all the other sources that said just how bad and damaging they were.

All of Angela Marson’s books make me feel a lot for the characters, but this one I really connected with because I am the daughter of a narcissistic mother. Because of that, some of those descriptions really hit hard, like being the scapegoat, never being able to do anything right, constantly being blamed for everything, being yelled at for absolutely nothing. This book actually disrupted my sleep while I was reading it because those descriptions were triggering.

I still loved this book though, and I can’t wait until the next one. I have a love/hate relationship with this series. Love because they’re amazing and one of my favorite detective series ever, but hate because I need to sleep and I don’t want to put the book down 😂

Thank you so much to Angela Marsons, Bookouture and NetGalley for the advanced eARC!

Book 20 in the DI Kim Stone series. Another great addition to the series. This book was not one of the better ones in the series as I think the storyline was a little lame, saying that, still a great read.

Firstly I would like to thank netgalley and Bookoutune and the fantastic author Angela marsons for an early copy of her book


This is book 20 in the Kim stone series,another fantastic read.Kim and her team in another murder investigation of a mother murdered and her daughter was at the crime scene was she guilty of killing her mother,more murders followed and they find a connection the daughters have all entered beauty pagents is the murderer have a grudge against pagents? Kim and her team find the answers...another case of a man in a fishing lake was he murdered stacey investigates...another exciting brilliant intense read from one of my favourite authors. Looking forward to reading the next instalment..Angela is writes brilliant crime reads I'm always looking forward to reading the next instalment...five stars review.


This book will be reviewed on goodreads and Amazon uk and waterstone's.

Detective Kim Stone is someone I truly would want fighting on my behalf! This book gets a thumbs up and five stars! Gripping suspense delving into a competitive world of beauty pageants will keep you turning pages into the night to finish the story.

OMG Angela Marsons has done it again. How she maintains the beyond amazing writing skills she has is beyond me. I’ve read every single Kim Stone book and love them. My only complaint is that I now have to wait for the next one to be released

Book 20 in the Brilliant Kim Stone series. How this author keeps up the intensity of the plot after all these books I don't know. I just know that she does. I was hooked from start to finish. A cracking 5 star read.

In a quiet kitchen, where two mugs wait by the kettle to be filled, Sheryl Hawne lies in a pool of blood. Her only daughter, Katie, is found at her side, still clutching the murder weapon and apparently incapable of speech. To Detective Kim Stone, the case seems open and shut. But Katie is in no state to be questioned, so Kim and the team must dig deep to understand what triggered this brutal act.

Soon, they learn that Katie participated in beauty pageants as a child, and her mother kept a shrine to her achievements. As Kim gazes at the golden trophies and shiny rosettes, she is forced to wonder if this was what set Katie on the path to murder…

But then Kim receives a shocking call. Another woman is dead. And with Katie safely locked up, she cannot be the killer. The second victim also entered her daughter in pageants, and a broken tiara is found thrust down her throat. Someone clearly feels that these mothers are guilty – and that they deserve to die. Forcing back the memories of her own monstrous mother, Kim vows to find justice for these women, no matter what pain they caused.

As always another great Kim Stone story. I love this team together and enjoyed the side story that Tiff and Penn had to solve, quite dark but I really liked that part of this book, the abusive son to his mother.
The main story about pageants was dark and gritty as always with some very unlikeable characters involved. The unravelling of clues leading you down different paths thinking you know who the killer is and as always it’s a surprise when you find out. 10/10

Beauty pageants for little girls, murdered mothers, and complex mother-daughter relationships form the foundation of Kim Stone's twentieth case.
Various perspectives on child pageants were explored, and the memories of former participants varied significantly. Kim and her team led a great investigation, with excellent teamwork. I especially appreciated all the additional secrets that were uncovered during the investigations in this case.
Penn and Tiff pursued a separate line of inquiry unrelated to the murdered mothers, shedding light on a different mother-child relationship from an entirely different angle.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to the next one!
I would like to thank to NetGalley, Bookouture, and author Angela Marsons for providing a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Book 20 in the wonderful Kim Stone series and of course it is another belter. The stories are as fresh as the very first. Hard to put down, this novel takes us into the world of child pageantry and ambitious narcissistic mothers. And a second story brings "Tink" back into the team. I love her character and I think Kim sees a lot of herself in Tiff. She has a sixth sense when somethings not quite right and is quite tenacious in getting her point across. A quick read as I raced through the book to discover who the killer was. Another sure fire bestseller.

WOW HOLY MOLY!!!! I can’t believe Guilty Mothers is the 20th book in the Kim Stone series! And yet here we are! Twenty books in and you would expect some repetition, or even a dud book now and then in the series, but not in the more than capable hands of Angela Marsons. God, this woman knows how to write! She always brings something fresh to each book she releases, which makes this series such a MUST read.

Three women are brutally murdered, and the investigation leads Kim and her team to the controversial and toxic world of Children’s Beauty Pageants. If that wasn’t enough for the reader to get their teeth into, there’s a subplot involving Tiff investigating the death of a man found dead in a nearby lake. Tiff is a welcome addition, and I’m hoping she’s going to become a permanent member of the CID team. Both cases explore the complex themes of motherhood, the good, the bad and the downright ugly, so it’s understandable that Kim and her team find themselves reflecting on their own relationships with their mothers during childhood.

 I always find it amazing that Angela Marsons can address dark themes, and yet she can inject just the right amount of humour to lighten the mood. The banter between Kim and her team is one of the highlights of this series, as are the team themselves. Each character fits into the team like a pair of well-worn gloves. They look out for each other; they lean on each other and work tirelessly to bring the victims of murder justice. I have loved seeing how their characters have grown and developed.

I’ve always felt uncomfortable seeing young girls being paraded on stage like mini adults, but after reading about the jealousy, rivalry competitiveness, and the damage they can do to impressionable young girls, I’m definitely in the ‘against them’ camp! The sporadic chapters, told from an unknown source, are desperately sad and highlight the lengths to which some mothers will go to satisfy their own narcissistic needs. They also add a sense of dread to the overall plot. As you would expect, the plot gains momentum and the suspense never wavers. And DAMN Angela Marsons (in a good way) as once again I stayed up way too late reading since I couldn’t put down this addictive read. Guilty Mothers is another stellar addition to this unmissable series, and it’s one I would highly recommend to all crime thriller junkies.
My review will be posted to my blog closer to publication day

By far my favorite mystery/thriller/crime series EVER!!! Both cases in this book were completely fascinating to me! I absolutely DEVOURED every page! My favorite moment was when Tink came on the scene and I absolutely LOVED getting to read her coming into her own! I keep wondering if Angie will ever run out of interesting things to write about and every time, she knocks it out of the park! I love the fascinating facts and research that goes into each of her books. will keep reading about Kim and her team as long as Angie keeps cranking these books out!