Review: Silent Scream by Angela Marsons (audio)

Title:Silent Scream

Author:Angela Marsons

Series:DI Kim Stone, #1

Narrator:Jan Cramer

Published:April 2015, Bookouture

Length:8 hours 18 minutes

Source:Publisher

Even the darkest secrets can’t stay buried forever… 

Five
figures gather round a shallow grave. They had all taken turns to dig.
An adult sized hole would have taken longer. An innocent life had been
taken but the pact had been made. Their secrets would be buried, bound
in blood …

Years later, a headmistress is found brutally strangled, the first in a spate of gruesome murders which shock the Black Country.

But
when human remains are discovered at a former children’s home,
disturbing secrets are also unearthed. D.I. Kim Stone fast realises
she’s on the hunt for a twisted individual whose killing spree spans
decades.

As
the body count rises, Kim needs to stop the murderer before they strike
again. But to catch the killer, can Kim confront the demons of her own
past before it’s too late?

My thoughts:This is a brand-new author/series to me and I am so glad to have been given access to it, thanks to the folks over at Bookouture. I had been seeing this series all over the blogosphere and had just hadn’t picked up the books yet. Well, let me tell you – DI Kim Stone might just be my new favorite crime–fighting gal out there, right up there alongside Detective Helen Grace from M.J. Arlidge’s book series.

I absolutely love DI Kim Stone…she’s one tough cookie. She’s extremely passionate about her job, yet keeps herself closed off to her co-workers. She puts herself all in on her cases, and the way the book was written, I felt that I was able to not only know what she was thinking at all times, but also know what she was feeling, too. Everything was put out there with her – for the reader, not for anyone else. She definitely puts up walls with everyone else. 

This is a tough book to read at times, as the case that DI Kim Stone and her team are working on is graphic and disturbing, yet I couldn’t pull myself from this book once I started it. There were so many twists and turns with this mystery and the pace is go-go-go from the start. It‘s definitely an uncomfortable read at times, yet one that you just don’t want to stop reading…I loved that!!!

I cannot wait to continue on with this series – DI Kim Stone is such a fascinating, complex character and I think we haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of what makes her her. I think this is going to be a great series, if this first book is anything to judge it by, and I can’t wait to start the next book!

Audio thoughts:I am a big fan of Jan Cramer and so I was quite excited to see that she was narrating this series. I’ve listened to her before as the narrator of another series, but had no trouble adjusting to her giving life to a whole set of new characters. She gave each and every character a unique voice and the pacing is spot on. I just hope she decides to continue to narrate this series!

Books in this series:

1. Silent Scream
2. Evil Games
3. Lost Girls
4. Play Dead
5. Blood Lines