3* Misses the mark on several fronts, and the requirement to suspend disbelief was just a bit too much, 'nah, can't go there' for me.

What's refreshing is that the book is set in the UK and doesn't have any faux gloss. But, the start is really random and you don't get an explanation of the parent-connection thing, not even at the end with what's transpired. Just a little background of Family 1 or Family 2 could've helped make it more interesting. You also don't find out about Mum 2, and why she left her daughter an orphan. You also don't find out about how bad sister could get away with what she did to her psych, and how the cops didn't pursue that incident. With Ring doorbells and CCTV times we live in, the activities of Emma and Ashleigh couldn't have been this under the radar.

To have 2 female characters with A-names, especially when one's targeting the other, isn't a clever move, especially with flashbacks to 10 years and at times, less, in the past. To tell us that a new red-herring-but-not character has lied about her reasons for being on the island, utterly randomly that it should've had questions being asked, should have rung major warning bells. The age gap rang bells. The forced-upon-them 'relationship' rang bells. The profession/background rang bells but none of the cops did anything about anything.

Emma didn't sound believable. We didn't get am explanation for the blue car crashing into the undercover cop car. Was that Ashleigh? Don't know, and by then, didn't care.

Segueing to take a kid's cop hostage was utterly random and didn't tie into the tale. Keeping Jenny Stone on the case when it was her daughter being held hostage couldn't happen. Death By Cop in the UK would've made massive headlines and the post-event stuff would be on-going weeks and weeks after said event, not neatly tied up 2 weeks on.

I wouldn't read more, as there wasn't a lot of excitement or believability in this tale, sadly.

ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Jones and Baker, for my reading pleasure.

Book 1 in a new series and the author has pitched it just right! I really liked DI Jennifer Stone, although she really needs to spend more time with her family. Amelia was an interesting character also, she is quite likeable. The pace was steady and the tension built throughout the book as the plot unfolded. The Isle of Wight setting added to the plotting and the ending left things neatly tied up. I liked it and would recommend it to lovers of the genre. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for allowing me to read and review this book.

I very much enjoyed this book. The writing was great and the characters were well developed. I hope to read more from this author in the future.

Great book. I was really entranced and couldn't put it down. Stayed up all night reading it and had immediate regret waking up to three kids. Love. 5 stars hands down.