There’s a gap in the investigating team but the murders keep happening and they have to solve them

Angela Marsons has written a series of crime novels about her character Kim Stone of which Fatal Promise is the ninth. I’ve read a few of these from earlier in the series but I haven’t read the book immediately before this one which was a bit of an issue because events in this book are connected with what has come before – I didn’t find it too much of a problem in the end, but if I had read it then things might have been a little more clear.

Kim Stone is a detective who has had a traumatic childhood and this has left her unable to connect with people easily so the team that she leads have to get used to her different way of reacting and interacting. She is passionate about her job and finds it hard to stand back from anything. As this book starts the events of the previous story have left her with a leg issue which is restricting her mobility and also a gap in her team because another detective died. All the way through this book Kim battles her leg pain and also her feelings of bereavement which she is unable to articulate.

The book starts with a character from the previous story being murdered. This is difficult because the team has little respect for him whilst still having to investigate his murder. As the team start to investigate his son is then killed in a car crash which it soon becomes obvious is not an accident. Then there is another murder which connects with the hospital at which the first victim worked. The team have to follow the evidence and find out what is going on in order to prevent more murders. They also have a new team member who is very competent but who they all resent because he isn’t their missing colleague. In addition, one of the team is following up a separate issue where a young woman has gone missing and is without medication so it is a race against time to find her.

I like this series. I like Kim and her team and it is good to have detectives who mostly follow the rules, communicate with one another and have a boss who supports them. This means that we concentrate more on the story than on the individuals investigating and the author makes sure that the plot is good enough to hold your interest. I find that the writing is good enough to engage me and keep me gripped until the end of the book. I enjoyed this novel a lot and will now go back and read the titles in the series that I have missed.