ramblingmads

An icy morning, a muddy riverbank. The body of a promising swimmer is found in the River Don close to Thorpe.

Returning from a six-month absence, DI Kate Fletcher leads her first murder case
since she nearly lost her own life to a desperate killer.

Grappling with her own doubts and insecurities, she has to negotiate a team transformed by differences in staffing and in attitude. Everything has changed and nobody is comfortable.

A second body leads to a strong suspect, but the evidence is circumstantial and far from clear cut.

Kate’s ex-Detective Sergeant finds the breakthrough they need to help track down a cunning and meticulous murderer who has no conscience and no fear of consequences.

But can Kate act in time to prevent more deaths?

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Heleyne Hammersley is a British writer based in Cumbria. She writes psychological suspense thrillers
and crime novels.

Heleyne has been writing since junior school – her first work was a collection of poems called ‘Give Them the Works’ when she was ten years old. The poems were carefully handwritten on plain paper
and tied together with knitting wool.

When she’s not writing, Heleyne can often be found wandering on the fells or cycling the back roads of Cumbria in search of coffee and cake.

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Giveaway to Win 5 x Kindle Copies of Invisible (distributed via Amazon) (Open INT)

My thoughts: Returning to work after being off after almost being killed, DI Kate Fletcher finds her team off kilter with staff changes and her absence. Unfortunately there isn’t time to get them settled, a young woman’s body has been found in a local river, and the team need to find the killer.

As they look into the deceased, another body is found in similar fashion – is it the same killer? Both have a tenuous link to a former athlete turned motivational spokesman and he denies all knowledge.

As the team work on the case, it’s their former DS, retired due to injury, who offers up an interesting theory that sends the team in a different direction, but is it the right one?

A clever and twisted serial killer is stalking the streets, they’ve left one victim alive, unintentionally, and as Kate and her colleagues close in, could they be putting themselves in danger?

I really enjoyed this book despite not having read the previous titles, and I liked Kate’s team, they’re a little divided but as they work together they seem to be gelling more and finding a new way to work. 

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.

**Terms and Conditions –Worldwide entries welcome. Please enter using the Gleam link above. The winner will be selected at random via Gleam from all valid entries and will be notified by Twitter and/or email. If no response is received within 7 days then Rachel’s Random Resources reserves the right to select an alternative winner. Open to all entrants aged 18 or over. Any personal data given as part of the competition entry is used for this purpose only and will not be shared with third parties, with the exception of the winners’ information. This will passed to the giveaway organiser and usedonly for fulfilment of the prize, after which time Rachel’s Random Resources will delete the data. I am not responsible for despatch or delivery of the prize.**

Julia Bird is as keen as anyone in Berrywick to see inside the famous Greystone Manor. But when she does, the last thing she expects to find is a body!

When Julia Bird is asked to clear out the gatehouse at Greystone Manor after the sudden death of Colonel Loxton’s sister, she is intrigued to finally see inside the impressive house. But when she discovers the body of the Colonel, who greeted her only hours before, dead behind the sofa with a bruise on his forehead, Julia believes his death is no accident.

Once forensics confirm it was murder, Julia tries to piece together what happened. On the day the Colonel died, she saw an unknown man getting into a car outside the manor. The butler Garforth and the housekeeper Biddy claim there were no visitors that day, so who was this mysterious man? Or is someone in the Colonel’s family not telling the truth, with tensions running high over the inheritance?

Days later, Julia finds another body dead among the rhododendrons and knows the deaths must be connected. At the Colonel’s funeral she heard his friends talking about a long-buried secret. Had the second victim discovered it, and is it motive enough to kill? With time running out, can Julia solve the case before there’s another murder at the manor?

An addictive and totally charming cozy mystery set in the English countryside. Perfect for fans of M.C. Beaton, Faith Martin and J. R. Ellis.

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Katie Gayle is the writing partnership of best-selling South African writers, Kate Sidley and Gail Schimmel. Kate and Gail have, between them, written over ten books of various genres, but with Katie Gayle, they both make their debut in the cozy mystery genre. Both Gail and Kate live in Johannesburg, with husbands, children, dogs and cats. Unlike their sleuth Epiphany Bloom, neither of them have ever stolen a cat from the vet.

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My thoughts: Julia is back and this time she’s having a nice, tomato heavy, summer, with daughter Jess in tow. She’s been asked to clear out someone’s home after they died, for the charity shop she volunteers in. Unfortunately while she’s there, the owner is murdered. Neither Bird saw or heard anything, but someone at the manor house must know.

As the police launch their investigation, the Colonel’s gardener is found with similar injuries, Julia as always, picks up some local gossip and some overheard things while popping into Greystone Manor to check on housekeeper Biddy. 

All of this extra information helps Hayley and her team get to grips with the family relationships and start to figure out the important things – means, motive and opportunity.

As always there’s lots of food, dog walks, book club and other distractions but Julia can’t stop thinking about the case and Hayley needs some help this time, so it’s a good thing Julia has lots of ideas and a quick visit to a local solicitor changes everything.

I really like this series so I was delighted to read another book with the delightful Julia and her friends as she helps solve another case.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of the book in exchange for taking part in the blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.