“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 team 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 …?”

When you hear on the blogger grapevine that the new Angela Marsons book is up for grabs on NetGalley, you drop everything.  EVERYTHING!  There is something so appealing, so special about this series.  It’s addictive and we all need our next DI Kim Stone fix!

DCI Woodward offers Kim and her team an extra special treat.  A visit to the local body farm, a place were they study the effects of weather and insect activity on long-dead corpses.  Not everyones idea of a treat!  Whilst on the guided tour Kim discovers a more recent addition to the body farms residents, the freshly deceased body of a woman.  Can Kim find the killer before anyone else meets the same grisly fate…?

This is a fabulous book.  I have grown to love Kim Stone and her team in a way I haven’t with other characters in other series.  I feel a fondness for Stone, Bryant, Stacey…even Dawson!  Don’t get me wrong, this is not a warm fuzzy story.  It’s a dark and scary read. Some parts I found quite harrowing and some parts my heart ached for one particular character.  I loved it.

I found the story very gripping and hard to put down.  I was drawn in from start to finish.  I loved the body farm setting, it really appealed to me and isn’t the kind of location you read about every day (ignoring Patricia Cornwell!).  It is clear that Angela Marsons has done a lot of research for this book.  Parts of the body farm content are truly fascinating and I learnt a few things that I didn’t know before.

Would I recommend this book?  Oh yes, but start with Silent Scream (DI Kim Stone, Book 1) and work your way up.  Only because all of Angela’s DI Stone books are fabulous and I wouldn’t want you to miss out!

Five out of five stars.

Many thanks to Bookouture, Angela Marsons and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of Play Dead in exchange for an honest review.

Play Dead by Angela Marsons was published in the UK by Bookouture on 20th May 2016 and is available in paperback, eBook and audio formats | amazon.co.uk | amazon.com |

Via Goodreads.com

Angela discovered a love of writing at Primary School when a short piece on the rocks and the sea gained her the only merit point she ever got.
Angela wrote the stories that burned inside and then stored them safely in a desk drawer.
After much urging from her partner she began to enter short story competitions in Writer’s News resulting in a win and three short listed entries.
She used the Amazon KDP program to publish two of her earlier works before concentrating on her true passion – Crime.
After many, many submissions Angela was signed in a 4 book deal to http://bookouture.com as their first crime author.  Connect with Angela Marsons on Twitter @WriteAngie