Her Mother's Grave: Absolutely gripping crime fiction with unputdownable mystery and suspense (Detective Josie Quinn, #3)

by Lisa Regan

• ISBN10: 1786814455
• ISBN13: 9781786814456
• Publish Date: 19 July 2018
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Bookouture
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 316
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Her Mother's Grave is the third book in the Detective Josie Quinn series by Lisa Regan. Published by Bookouture, and released 19th July, 2018, it's 346 pages and available in ebook, paperback, and audiobook formats.

This is a graphically brutal novel. Every possible trigger warning is appropriate; there's explicit psychological torture and abuse, drug abuse, sexual abuse, trauma, sexual abuse of a child, etc. I read this book as a standalone, and wondered (no spoiler warning) if the book might actually be using the unreliable narrator trope (it isn't). I was sort of impressed wondering about that since it's the third book in the series using this main character.

All that being said, it wasn't an easy book to read, though it is a well written book. I do like police procedurals and mysteries especially with ensemble casts and I'm more than willing to stick with an author for a long while in a series until they find their footing. The plotting in this particular entry is taut and suspensful, it just felt like slow torture to read about all the horrible things which happened to main character Josie as a child and as an adult. It was (for my taste) just over the top.

I do know there are huge numbers of fans of procedurals/thrillers who really love nonstop action and suspense. The ratings for this book and others in the series are proof of that. I will add that the language is quite brutal throughout with a fair bit of strong cursing, so for readers for whom that's problematic, it's something to be aware of going into the book.

I will stick around to see how the characters develop, though the violence may cause me to bail on the series eventually.

Three and a half stars.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes

[Emma (SCR)]

This review was originally posted on Star Crossed Reviews I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.Thank you to Bookoture for letting me take part in this tour. I loved the first two books in this series so I immediately jumped at the chance to read this one. This book can be read as a stand alone but I think you would get more enjoyment out of it if you read the first two books. 

I have literally just finished this book and I don't quite know where to begin. The revelations in this book are huge. In my reviews of the first two books I kept saying how I want to know about Josie's past, how she came to be the person she is. Well Lisa gave me that in spades in this book. Josie's mother is beyond shocking and we most certainly find out how Josie became the woman she is. I definitely feel like I understand Josie's character much better after these books. Josie Quinn has been through hell and back throughout her life. Lisa was not afraid to go into all the details of Josie and her childhood. 

The book flicks between the present and varying points of Josie's childhood. Lisa reveals just enough information about the past to have you screaming OMG and while I worked out something about Josie before it was explicitly revealed., I'm sure that Lisa planned it that way. There is a certain sense of satisfaction when you get something right in these kind of books because it doesn't happen often. 

This book will pull you this way and that. It will tug on your emotions and it will leave you feeling a down right emotional wreck by the end. It feels weird to say I adored every page because there were some real gruesome and horrific events but they were all necessary for the story. I was hooked from the moment I read the prologue and I devoured every page. 

I really hope that this isn't the end of Josie Quinn because now I know her past I need to know her future too. 

[zooloo1983]

Well, Noelle has got me hooked on another corker! Wow! I have to berate myself too, why have I not read anything by Lisa before! Seriously where have I been living!! This is going to be rectified quickly!

This is the third in a series and whilst it can be read on its own, I think it’s best to read in order. There were references to cases and people where the background of the previous books would have helped.  You can read this and it not affect the story too much, it is just like you have missed the beginning of a conversation with someone but got the gist of it.

Where do I start? The prologue had me sucked in, who was leading this book? What fire? Who will be taught a lesson? Hello! Then nothing, radio silence... until later...

The opening chapter has the police called to a scene where a body has been discovered by two boys in a trailer park where the Chief of police Josie grew up, and life as she knows it changes forever.

I thought this book was fab, it gripped me from the start as we are switched between present-day Josie and growing up with her abuser of a mother. Those chapters were heartbreaking, how one person could treat a child like that I will never know. Through the darkness, there were some touching moments from people outside the cocoon of Josie and her mother Belinda, to show there is good in people, not just evil and darkness, and to help guide Josie in life.

I had half guessed the twist in the story a few chapters before Josie, to us the reader it was made obvious to us.  We have to watch Josie as she figures things out but when she got to the same point as you, it was heartbreaking for her but wholesome in the same way. I say that because it is now a missing piece for Josie has been completed. I can not say any more in case it ruins the ride for someone else.

I have to say something about Noah! What an absolutely cute character. Love the admiration and love he has for Josie, he always has her back and he tries to be there for her. Again I want to visit the past to see how he was before this book and hope that it is built on in future books.

I have started to turn off on my kindle the page numbers and % of the book so I don’t sit there worrying how much or little I have left to read. With this book I had no idea I was near the end, I was thoroughly enjoying the read and then I got near the end. I mean oh man! Now I have to wait for god knows how long because this book was published on 19th July 2018! Not that I am moaning too much as I can read the first two. Aaahhhhhh I need the next one and I need it soon...no pressure there then for Lisa!