BAD BLOOD

4.5 stars out of 5.

This is a series I've been following for quite some time now - this is the 19th book - and at this point, I know going in that I won't be wasting my time. And once again, I was right. This one has a couple of threads going for it, starting with a murder victim who isn't really dead (well, until he really is) and a stalker who's driving a wedge between Detective Inspector Kim Stone and Stacy, one of her police colleagues at Halesowen Station. The wedge has come mostly because Stacy, believing the stalker will give up and go away even though he scares the daylights out of her, has said not a word to her wife, Devon, or Kim - both of whom are noticing Stacy's out-of-the-norm behavior.

The dead guy, though, takes center stage; he's been "posed" in an odd position - a clue? - and certainly gave off the appearance of a corpse when the medical examiner got to the scene. But then he started to breathe, so the hope was he could identify his attacker; but he died for real before he could say a word. He turned out to be an abuser with a track record that included jail and one suspected of continuing that pattern after he got out. Aha - could this be a revenge killing?

Not long after Stacy finally comes clean to her wife, another body turns up under circumstances similar to the first. As the investigation intensifies, Kim and her colleagues learn that both victims lived for a time at an institution for incorrigible youth, where they were part of a group dubbed the "Psycho Six." Another aha - could the revenge angle be pointing at someone in particular?

Needless to say, the plot thickens, bringing into question the possibility of a killer that Kim is reluctant to acknowledge. Throughout, there's plenty of action that kept me thumbing the pages of my e-reader well beyond my usual bedtime. Well done, as always, and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for allowing me to read and review a pre-release copy. Now bring on the next one!

Bad Blood by Angela Marsons (Bookouture, November 2023); 415 pp.