Review: Her Pretty Bones by Carla Kovach

Title: Her Pretty Bones

Author: Carla Kovach

Series: Detective Gina Harte, #3

Published: January 2019, Bookouture

Format: ARC E-copy, 330 pages

Source: Netgalley via Publisher

Summary: 

She’s just the girl he’s looking for…

A
young woman falls from a van speeding down a quiet road. Battered and
bruised, she turns her head to the person who comes to her aid. ‘Help
her’, she whispers before her eyes close.

Days later, the body
of another young girl is found in a shallow grave just a few miles away.
The similarities between the two girls are startling – same age, same
frail body, same shocking red hair.

As the town fears there’s a
serial killer living amongst them, Detective Gina Harte must put aside
her own struggles at home, and catch the killer before he finds another
perfect girl.

AN ABSOLUTELY HEART-STOPPING CRIME THRILLER FROM CARLA KOVACH – if you like Lisa Gardner, Robert Bryndza or Clare Mackintosh, Her Pretty Bones will have you hooked.

My thoughts:  This
is the third book in the Detective Gina Harte series and  I think this series just keeps getting better! It’s so addicting and compelling…I just love when I
find these crime fiction/police procedural series with a strong female
lead.

While this third book can definitely be read as a stand-alone – something that I am finding most books in series can be done these days – I will say that I highly recommend reading the previous books first. There is quite a lot of backstory on the characters that I think is helpful in really understanding the characters more fully. Plus, this book in particular does reference quite a few times events that happened in the previous book, events that if you were to read it after the fact, would in fact be considered spoilers.

Once again, I love that Detective Gina is pulled into a case and you see that she is putting all of herself into solving it. But, and this is a huge but, this time, there are a few mitigating factors standing in the way. First, she might have come back to work a little too soon after the last case…I won’t say too much due to spoilers, but just know that this causes a bit of a rift between her and her daughter. Her daughter seems to think that Gina always puts work first, and this time she might just be correct! I really like that we see this family feud play out and that we see Gina struggle with her new-found anxiety throughout this case. It’s real and it’s definitely not without warrant.

This latest installment is told from multiple points of view and the three threads that keep the story moving are woven together to form quite an unforgettable story. The twists and turns really keep you guessing not only as to what is going on and who is involved, but also it keeps the suspense ramped up. 

I hope there is another Detective Gina Harte book out soon. I really like this series and cannot wait to see what is in store for Gina and her team next!

Books in this series:

1. The Next Girl
2. Her Final Hour
3. Her Pretty Bones