Title: Play Dead
Author:Angela Marsons
Series:DI Kim Stone, #4
Narrator:Jan Cramer
Published:May 2016, Bookouture
Length:9 hours 35 minutes
Source:Publisher
The dead don’t tell secrets…unless you listen.
The girl’s
smashed-in face stared unseeing up to the blue sky, soil spilling out
of her mouth. A hundred flies hovered above the bloodied mess.
Westerley
research facility is not for the faint-hearted. A “body farm”
investigating human decomposition, its inhabitants are corpses in
various states of decay. But when Detective Kim Stone and her team discover the fresh body of a young woman, it seems a killer has discovered the perfect cover to bury their crime.Then
a second girl is attacked and left for dead, her body drugged and mouth
filled with soil. It’s clear to Stone and the team that a serial killer
is at work – but just how many bodies will they uncover? And who is
next?As local reporter, Tracy Frost, disappears, the stakes are
raised. The past seems to hold the key to the killer’s secrets – but can
Kim uncover the truth before a twisted, damaged mind claims another
victim?The latest utterly addictive thriller from number-one best seller Angela Marsons.
My thoughts:This is the fourth book in Angela Marsons’ DI Kim Stone series and I just love this series. I fall more in love with Kim Stone with each book. This psychological thriller series is disturbing at best, but oh so good!
Every time I start a new DI Kim Stone book, I am astonished at how chilling and terrifying they can be – this one dealing with body farms! – yet so well-crafted. With this one, there is a slow build to a great ending, with plenty of twists and turns that really keeps the suspense high.
All the characters that Angela introduces in her books have depth – they are all dynamic and well-developed, so that you never quite pick up on just who the villain is until the end. And what I’ve come to realize with Angela is that it’s often the last person you would expect to be the guilty one – you really do need to be suspicious of everyone in these books! But back to the character development – she really gets under every character‘s skin – not just her main characters, but all of them, giving us that full picture of who they really are.
We see more character development in this book, not only for Kim, but for some of the other characters as well. I really enjoy this aspect of the series – seeing the characters evolve as the series progresses. A few developments occur that could have significant impacts on different relationships that Kim has with a few characters – we‘ll have to see how these play out in the next few books!
I love this series and cannot wait to start the next book…
Audio thoughts:Once again, Jan Cramer has delivered a stellar performance! She really does a fantastic job with the voices in this series and just seems to get Kim Stone – all her nuances and characterizations and all. Her pacing is spot on and she adds tension to her voice when needed. I love her narration of this series and am so glad she is continuing on!
Books in this series:
- Silent Scream
- Evil Games
- Lost Girls
- Play Dead
- Blood Lines
