Silent Scream (Detective Kim Stone, #1) (Detective Kim Stone Crime Thriller)

by Angela Marsons

[Leah]

When I heard BookOuture were releasing their first crime novel – the first in a series no less, I was chuffed. I want to read more crime novels during 2015 because it’s a genre I really enjoy, but don’t always have the time to read. I rank Tess Gerritsen as my favourite crime author. Her Rizzoli & Isles series is one of the best set of crime books you could ever hope to read. Thank me later for the recommendation. So when I saw Silent Scream, Angela Marsons’ debut crime novel, I thought it sounded amazing and I was quite excited to get stuck in and see how this one fared. I have never been so impressed by a debut novel in a long time, and I’m actually now itching for more from D.I. Kim Stone and the rest of her squad.

Silent Scream is actually quite similar to Gerritsen’s first Rizzoli & Isles book The Surgeon. We hear from the killer, which is always fun as you try and determine just who that person is and the lead character D.I. Kim Stone is like the British Jane Rizzoli. She’s so ballsy and doesn’t understand the meaning of the word no. I LOVE heroines who just do what they want and sod the consequences and Kim did that, right from the beginning as people keep turning up dead, people who are all connected to a children’s home that burned down. Me and Kim Stone would make really good friends, I think. Her honesty was refreshing and she’s the kind of detective who doesn’t rest until the killer is brought to justice and I have huge respect for that. It helped that she had more of an affinity with the girls in the children’s home, having suffered through that herself when she was a kid and come out the other side stronger.

There’s quite a lot of strands to Silent Scream. Lots of balls up in the air and as you inch further and further in to the story you can see it all coming nicely together. I actually didn’t peg the killer. I didn’t see it coming at all, in fact. But I was gripped to Silent Scream from start to finish. It’s been a while since I’ve been so involved in reading and now I’ve been lucky enough to read two novels that I could barely put down. The first being City Love by Susane Colasanti, if you want to check it out. I can actually hardly believe this is Angela’s debut novel and I hope it’s the first of many, many D.I. Kim Stone novels. The plot was so well executed and the final twist at the end with the twins Beth and Nicola left me with my mouth hanging open like a fish. Other authors have tried to pull that off before, and it doesn’t usually work, but this was done so well and there wasn’t even a hint to it, so massive kudos to Angela for pulling it off.

One of the things I probably loved most was how much respect Kim garners. Yes, she can be a bit abrupt and snarky (especially with dishy Doc Daniel – I sense romaaaaaaaaance), but her team respect her and she’s rewarded with loyalty and dedicated from her team. Particularly her partner Bryant. I loved him, especially after the whole puppy thing. Men who do what he does with those puppies are the BEST and if he weren’t already married I’d totes be shipping Kim and Bryant, but I quite like Daniel so I’m happy to leave them as buddies. I even loved the Black Country setting and all the accents that come along with it (although I wasn’t a fan of the “marm”, as Kim wasn’t, either). If you were ever wondering how to write a gripping, wholly engaging crime novel, just have a read of Silent Scream and marvel at how Angela Marsons has done it. I can’t wait for the second book, because this one was a top-notch crime thriller.