Six Graves by Angela Marsons

Today I am absolutely delighted to wish a very happy publication day to Angela Marsons as Six Graves, the 16th!!! Kim Stone thriller is released into the wild. I love this series and am thrilled to be one of the blogs opening the #booksontour rodeo for this absolutely cracking new addition to the series. My thanks to publisher Bookouture for the advance copy for review. Here’s what it’s all about:

About the Book

It’s a typical teenage bedroom with posters covering the walls and clothes littering the floor. But the girl lying on her bed, wearing a delicate chain around her neck, is lifeless. A circle of red stains her white vest top. How had the girl’s mother looked down at her sleeping child and pulled the trigger?

When Detective Kim Stone rushes to the scene of a house fire, she’s shocked to discover it’s claimed the lives of two teenage children and their parents. But this tragedy is not quite as it seems. Each body is marked by a gunshot wound and the mother, Helen Daynes, is holding the gun.

The case sparks painful childhood memories for Kim who suffered at the hands of her own abusive mother, but it just makes her more determined to uncover the truth. As Kim untangles Helen’s past, she finds a history of clinical depression. But did it drive Helen to murder her loved ones?

Then Kim uncovers a tiny, vital clue in Helen’s bedroom that throws the investigation wide open. Could someone else have killed the Daynes family?

Just as Kim feels she’s making progress, a deadly threat is made to her own life by a dangerous psychopath from her past. Biting back her fear, she keeps digging. And when Kim hits upon a shocking secret that changes everything she thought she knew about Helen, she realises that the remaining family members are in grave danger.

Kim is under pressure like never before, and the monster circling her is getting ever closer. Four bodies already. Four graves fresh in the ground. Who will be next? Can Kim find the killer and save herself before it’s too late?

An absolutely nail-biting mystery thriller that will have you gasping out loud. You won’t come up for air until you’ve reached the breathtaking final twist. Fans of Karin Slaughter, Mark Billingham and Robert Dugoni will love Six Graves.

My Thoughts

I am just going to say it – Angela Marsons is a very mean writer. She clearly gives no consideration to the mental well being of her audience at all. That is the only possible reason for the opening scene of this latest Kim Stone novel, because it is emotional, jaw dropping and fluffing hell, did it make me hungry to devour the rest of the book. I tore through this in one evening – not an unusual occurrence for me with Kim Stone books, granted – but this had everything I needed and more. Mystery, tension, threat, fast pacing and that perfect amount of intrigue to make me almost tempted to skip to the final chapters just to reassure myself everything would be okay. Almost …

If you can get past the prologue without fainting or having a cardiac episode, then you will, like Kim and co, find yourself faced with a tragic and somewhat perplexing case of what, initially at least, seems like murder suicide. Almost an entire family lost under very devastating circumstances, with all clues pointing towards the mother as the potential aggressor. But this would be a very short novel if it were all that simple and you know from the minute Kim Stone’s special spidey senses start a tingling that something is not quite right with this almost perfectly closed scene. And what faces us and the team is a case that is far more complex and twisted than anyone could have foreseen, with Angela Marsons keeping the revelations and surprises coming at regular intervals, the clues, and the shocks, dropped at just the right moment to keep us all on our toes, especially if you think you’ve even half a chance of guessing the what, why and wherefores of this particular case.

As if that’s not enough, and to be honest, it’s a fair old twisting and turning case in its own right, a face from Kim’s past makes a very unexpected reappearance turning Kim’s whole life upside down. And no – it’s probably not who you are thinking. The least said the better in this particular case but it sees the threat and menace levels burst right off the top of the scale and, as foes go, this is possibly one of the worst and most heinous of people Kim has ever had the misfortune to meet. Its an unwelcome distraction to the team, but a very welcome one for readers who, if you’re like me, love the kind of dastardly darkness that Angela Marsons excels at drawing into her stories. There are some very uncomfortable moments, scenes that will have you on the edge of the seat, largely thankful that, this far at least, the author never quite goes that dark, but she goes dark enough to make those emotional and nerve-wracking moments really hit home.

It’s not all darkness and tension though – don’t panic. The book is loaded with the usual banter and humour you might expect, and some of the early scenes in the book, where Kim and co try a little out of the office teamwork, really do make you smile. All of our favourite characters are here where they belong, the camaraderie between Penn and Stacey and the back and forth between Bryant and Kim causing many a smile. Plus there is an unexpected fifth wheel as it were, someone who gives Kim as good as they get and whose very dry and unphased attitude towards Kim’s barbs made me laugh on more than one occasion. It’s not often Kim Stone gets out manoeuvred and it’s fun to see shen she is.

And then there’s that ending. The one where we get to understand the full meaning of that fateful, jaw dropping prologue. Gah. I hate, hate, hate the way in which Angela Marsons can so easily manipulate our emotions. There is one particular scene, when we are forced to think of misdemeanours past (the author’s that is) where is it nigh on impossible for anyone with a soul, or anyone who loves these characters, to keep their tear ducts in check. I could feel myself welling up. Not helping my reputation as a cold and emotionless reader at all 🤨😉

But it’s a perfect way to wrap up what has definitely got to be one of my favourite reads in the series. Those final lines though … You get that sense of a step change in tone, and maybe even character perhaps, and I’m really intrigued now to see where the author takes the series after this, perhaps Kim’s toughest case to date. Most definitely recommended and a very easy one of these ⬇️

About the Author

Angela Marsons is the Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of the DI Kim Stone series and her books have sold more than 5 million in 7 years.

She lives in Worcestershire with her partner and their 2 cheeky Golden Retrievers.

She first discovered her love of writing at Junior School when actual lessons came second to watching other people and quietly making up her own stories about them. Her report card invariably read “Angela would do well if she minded her own business as well as she minds other people’s”.

After years of writing relationship based stories (The Forgotten Woman and Dear Mother) Angela turned to Crime, fictionally speaking of course, and developed a character that refused to go away.

She is signed to Bookouture.comfor a total of 28 books in the Kim Stone series and her books have been translated into more than 27 languages.

Many of her books, including Blood Lines, Dead Souls, Broken Bones, Fatal Promise and Dead Memories reached the #1 spot on Amazon on pre-orders alone and the translation of Dead Souls, La Verita Sepolte, recently won the prestigious Primo Bancarella award.

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