The Missing by C.L. Taylor

Description - You love your family. They make you feel safe. You trust them. Or do you…?

When fifteen-year-old Billy Wilkinson goes missing in the middle of the night, his mother, Claire Wilkinson, blames herself. She's not the only one. There isn't a single member of Billy's family that doesn't feel guilty. But the Wilkinson’s are so used to keeping secrets from one another that it isn't until six months later, after an appeal for information goes horribly wrong, that the truth begins to surface.

Claire is sure of two things – that Billy is still alive and that her friends and family had nothing to do with his disappearance.

A mother's instinct is never wrong. Or is it?

Publication Date ~ April 7th 2016

Published by ~ Avon

My thoughts - Sometimes when you start a book you are so desperate to read it, to rush through the pages and find out how the story will end but at the same time you want to take it slow and for the story to go on and on and never end, well this is exactly how I felt reading The Missing.

There are a huge amount of books out at the moment about missing children but The Missing is about a 15 year old boy which I felt gave this book a different edge.

C.L. Taylor's writing always completely draws me in and I just didn't know how this story would unfold and I was left with a gaping mouth. I really didn't guess how it was going to go, which was great as I love to try and guess.

Full of fear, suspicion, doubts and desperation The Missing is a brilliant thriller with a strong plot and characters, you really wont want to put it down. A seriously good read I would highly recommend.

Thanks to Netgalley and Avon for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

Play Dead by Angela Marsons

Description - 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 tea
m 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 …?

Publication Date ~ 20th May 2016

Published by ~ Bookouture

My thoughts - Play Dead is the fourth book in the Kim Stone series by Angela Marsons and after each book I read I always say "this is my favourite". To be honest though they are all blooming fantastic.

Angela Marsons has a way of writing stories that have you turning pages way into the early hours of the morning and I had this book finished in two sittings as I was totally engrossed as we are taken back to the Black Country with Kim and her team. They are sent to Westerley research centre (the body farm) where a new investigation gets under way as a fresh body is discovered.

Play Dead could be read as a stand alone book but really you would be best to read them all in order as Kim's character evolves in each book and she is fast becoming one of my favourite protagonists, even with her flaws she's a strong likeable character.

Angela Marsons has written another fast paced thriller that had me trying to guess who was guilty, with no luck right until the reveal. I'm not sure how she does it but this was another edge of your seat read that gave me goose bumps and took my breath away.

I cant wait for book five and highly recommend this to anyone who likes serial killer thrillers.

Thanks to Netgalley & bookouture for the copy in exchange for an honest review.

Other books in the series are Silent Scream, Evil Games & Lost Girls.