When DI Grace Allendale returns to Stoke to lead the major crimes team she is returning to her hometown. Recently widowed, Grace is in need of a change of scenery but Stoke has a lot of negative memories for her. Grace's mother managed to escape her violent husband but Grace's half brothers and sister were not so lucky and now, as adults, they form one of the more notorious families around. When Grace's first case causes her to link to her estranged family she has to decide where her loyalties lie.
Sherratt is developing into a great writer of undemanding but satisfying police procedurals. What I really like is the fact that she has set her novels in the Stoke area and there are links between the characters. The plot are pleasingly complex but not so that the reader can't follow them. Here a new character is introduced, DI Grace Allendale, and Sherratt gives just enough information to allow the reader to warm to the character without overdoing it. Sherratt is fast becoming a guilty pleasure!

Full review to come.
I deeply apologize, but life is a handful lately and I'm using all my free time to read, not review. I hope everybody understands.

Thrilled to be given the chance to read and review this book. What a book this was.
Another hit, another great book written by this very talented author. DS Grace Allendale is not only starting out with a new team, the first new case she is faced with is investigating one of the local crime families, which turns out to be her own family. Her estranged family, she's certainly not close to any of them. This had conflicting views from all around. Her team didn't know if they could trust her and her family didn't want anything to do with her. It certainly added an edge to this story.
Can Grace and her team figure out who is murdering men in their city, before the count rises?
This certainly turned into a real page turner, once I managed to get around to reading the book, I couldn't wait to pick it up, each time I had chance to sit down, I did so with this book.
It's a great start to what I believe is going to be another damn good series by this author. The pages of this book are packed with everything you would expect from a Mel Sherratt book, with a little more thrown in. I sure can't wait to read more.

whilst i found this to be a good read i did struggle with the reality of an estranged family member who was a police officer being allowed to investigate a crime linked to criminal
family members or involvement with those family members.

Absolutely loved this! Couldn’t put it down. I know this sounds ridiculous but I’ve had it on my kindle for a while and haven’t read because the cover put me off. I’m pleased I did though because I have some other Sherratt books on there I’m going to get round to now! Loved Grace and can’t wait to read the next instalment in April. The only thing I’ve marked it down on is sometimes when the author is trying to make a point she states the obvious to support the dialogue of the characters and it feels a bit clunky. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and Avon for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Imagine you're a cop in a new city, and then you have to help investigate your own family. Even though you and the family aren't exactly Christmas-card buddies, just the idea. Where does you loyalties lie or not? This made for the interesting premise of this latest offering by this talented author, Mel Sherratt. The book is highly recommended, and I can't wait for the next one!

Can I get a #hellyeah! We are back on Stoke-on-Trent where family, organised crime, secrets, corruption, the past, loyalty, exploitation, jealousy, fear, abandonment, anger and a search for the truth fill the pages of this incredible new series!
What a bloody great opening! Full of suspense and a brilliant hook, the reader has no choice but to keep turning the pages as this fantastically gritty story unfolds! I have to say that Mel Sherratt has excelled herself this time – I absolutely love both The Allie Shenton and the Estate series by this author but this…OMG THIS … my new fave for sure! Well developed characters, with just enough 🤔 that you want to know more, a real, edgy storyline that has you 😱 and it was perfectly paced, giving me just enough time to catch my breath before the next 💥BOOM💥 knocked me off my seat!
DS Grace Allendale is making a fresh start, back in her hometown but doesn’t ease into the new team smoothly. I loved the initial conflict at the start – like “Who does she think she is?” because she is replacing our (and I say our as if I am one of the team) beloved Allie Shenton. Grace is a fantastic character and like all of Mel’s books, Grace is brought to life so well, I’d almost believe I knew her – like I could walk into the police station and expect her to be there! BRILLIANT – and I can’t wait to learn more about her. I’m sure (in fact, I know!) that a few peeps in the criminal justice system have family on the wrong side of the law and this can either make or break you – but Grace won’t be broken…at least not in this book!
I simply adored the Steele family too! Yes, they may be the #baddies …but I wonder if some have a redeeming quality that may shine through (more) in future books. There was a charm about them as a whole and each one had a very unsettling side too. Yay! Yay! Yay! So cleverly done…I’m simply desperate for more!
I also love the police team, who I’ve come across in the previous series, but OMG there was some fabulous conflict and total WTAF-OMFG moments – where’s the popcorn! 😜
I want to just rave and rave about Hush Hush as I think Mel is onto a real winner with this series and hope that Avon sign her up for a mega contract for this series alone…anything else would be a bonus of course…🤣👌🏻 Would I recommend this read? Holy Friggin’ Sh*tballs – damn right I would! Gritty, realistic, addictive and relevant – This is a must read for 2018!

“Hush Hush” by Mel Sherratt begins with a brief account of an attack in March 2017; the significance of which soon becomes obvious. Readers jump ahead to August 2018, and find Grace Allendale meeting colleagues in her new job as detective sergeant. She is brought up to speed on local affairs including “The Steeles,” one of the local crime families. The head of the family, George, had been murdered the previous year, and his killer was still at large. What she does not tell her new colleges is that George Steele, criminal, racketeer and murder victim, had been her father. Now additional murders have the community on edge, and it is up to Allendale and her team to find the killer.

Sherratt created a very different police procedural thriller combination with murder, family drama, and page-turning action. Allendale is a convincing character who struggles to balance job loyalty and family connections, and at times, it seems that both sides are out to get her. Readers almost become part of Allendale’s team and experience the pressure as she struggles to stop the murders, and prove herself to her new team. There are a number of twists and turns along the way to a satisfying and appropriate end.

“Hush Hush” is a fast-paced police thriller. The characters are believable and the action is non-stop. I was given a copy of “Hush Hush” by Mel Sherratt, Harper Colins, and NetGalley. This was the first book I have read by Mel Sherratt, and I cannot wait to read the next in this compelling series.

Brilliant really loved it. Reminds me a bit of Martina Cole writing style. Grace joins a new team and has to gain the trust of her team, her position is made more difficult by her family connection. You get a real sense of Grace throughout the book. Not to forget that there is a murderer on the loose that is attacking men. There is a race against time to find the killer before someone else is attacked. I really got involved in the book and the characters of of the story 💜

5☆ A Taut, Pacy Crime Thriller, I couldn't put down!

Hush Hush is a fast paced chilling police procedural that mixes with a gripping crime thriller. I literally couldn't put down!

This is the first book in a new series and wow did it go off with a bang!

I can't say anything about the plot for risk of giving anything away, the blurb says plenty.

But what I will say is, Grace is the new DI, and she's about to make a HUGE impact on Stokes gangland. But there's only one drawback.... She's hiding a big secret and things are about to get messy!
The murders are gruesome, graphic and brutal. But just who is picking off the Steele's crew and acquaintances?

The police procedural was cleverly researched and executed seamlessly I felt like I was apart of the team and investigation.

The Characters are a cast of multi-layred, perfectly written, challenging, and very believable characters.

Hush Hush is a taut, pacy thriller, with exciting twists, that has dark undertones in all the right places.
A riveting tale filled with colorful characters, chilling crime scenes, realistic police procedural, a dark and sinister gangland, with plenty of secrets to hide!

It's an enticing mix of gripping suspense, with an engrossing storyline I couldn't put down.
I am so excited for Mel Sherratt's latest series, I can't wait for the next instalment! Bring on book 2!

Thank you to Avon books for this copy which I reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

As my first crime thriller, I was appeased. The book takes you on a roller coaster ride of you life. It has it all, action, murder of course and bit of drama. What’s not to love? It has everything to keep you interested. It’s worth trying out the rest of the series.

I won’t give away anything else because if you love movie like The Bone Collector, Kiss the Girls. Basically Alex Cross except the female version then you’ll love this book.

I received this ARC for a honest review. Thank you to the publisher, Netgalley and the author.

Another brilliant read from Mel. Just gets better and better with each new book release. Keep them coming.

I love Mel's books! They're always edge of your seat, nail bitingly good. Hush Hush is gritty and dramatic, it's dark and thrilling and completely brilliant!

DS Grace Allendale is a great protagonist. She's ballsy yet vulnerable at times. She's loyal, hard working and very skilled at her job. She has secrets, but don't we all. And when her secrets and history threaten to unravel all her hard work, she has to choose a side.

This book, and I suspect series, is highly readable as you get drawn in very quickly and are kept hooked until the end. It's a proper page turner!

With thanks to the publishers for the copy received. The book starts with a murder. The more you find out about this man in the flashbacks throughout the novel made me feel little sympathy for his death. He was a horrible man whose actions had severe repercussions for the rest of his family. His murder is only the first and occurs before Grace returns to Stoke. It is the subsequent murders that she has to try to solve but she does have a connection to him. And it is that connection to him that could stop her becoming part of the team in her home town.
His actions are described in the book from a child’s point of view. You see the fear and upset over the violence shown to a mother but much of it is from listening to what is happening. It’s different to what I’ve read before and at times chilling.
Grace was a character who I warmed to instantly. Still struggling after the loss of her husband and mother she has moved back down to Stoke. Whilst the move could be good for her it also brings back unwelcome memories and brings her into contact with family she wants to have no contact with. But she has a stubborn streak, is determined to be honest with her new colleagues and solve the murders that are happening. I was willing her to succeed and not feel threatened by events that were happening in modern-day and the memories of her childhood.
I loved the descriptions of Stoke, it’s somewhere I’ve never been. It must be easy to over describe a place you know well and I found it worked perfectly here. I had a feeling of the area, with its history. places to see and places to go. And the oatcakes.
I really enjoyed Mel’s Allie Shenton series so was looking forward to what her new series would be like. I was delighted that there were some characters that had reappeared.
It is good news that book two will be released in Spring 2019.I am looking forward to seeing Grace and her team become good friends.

This is my first Mel Sherratt book and I'm wondering why that is. I've missed out on so much! I absolutely loved Hush Hush.

Grace Allendale has just moved back to her childhood home of Stoke on Trent to take up her first post as a Detective Sergeant. She's experienced loss so moving back seems like the right thing to do but it's complicated by the fact that local well known crime family, the Steeles, also happen to be her family. Unfortunately, Grace's first case is a series of murders that seem somehow to be linked to the Steeles. Tricky!!

I loved Grace. I thought she was incredibly brave and strong, and also principled. She leads a team of officers who she has to try and win over and gain their trust. This is doubly hard considering who her family are and I thought Grace dealt with it very well.

For me, Hush Hush stands out in the police procedural/thriller genre. It's so well written, absolutely gripping and with a main character that appeals to the reader. I thought it was brilliant and I can't wait to read the second in the series, Tick Tock, out in April 2019.

I must admit that I did guess who the killer was but that didn't matter at all. I enjoyed Grace's investigations, her dealings with her family and the glimpses into her private life which I guess will be explored further in the next book. Hush Hush is so well plotted, with elements of the story being drip-fed to us to lead us down the path towards the conclusion. One of the strands was a surprise and made me rethink certain things that I had read which I thought was a clever ruse by the author.

I thought this was a gritty, pretty unputdownable read. The chapters are short which made it particularly fast-paced and meant I would always just fit another one in, and another one, and.....you get the picture. I highly recommend it.

What a fantastic start to a new series by the wonderful Mel Sherratt.

DS Grace Allendale has recently returned to her home town which Grace and her mother escaped from when Grace was still a child, running from a very abusive husband/ father.

Grace is investigating a string of violent murders and the investigation leads her to a local crime family the Steeles, the Steeles are not just any crime family, they are Graces estranged half brothers and sister.

I absolutely love DS Grace Allendale and the way she tackles her new team, trying to fit in and be accepted.

I highly recommend this new series and can’t wait for book two.

Nerve-shredding and nail-biting crime fiction does not get any better than Mel Sherratt’s heart-pounding and breath-taking new thriller, Hush Hush.

Keeping people safe from harm and danger is one of the reasons why DS Grace Allendale had joined the police force and with a shameless killer on the loose ready to cause maximum damage for the slightest and most trivial of provocations, it is up to her and her team to catch this vicious criminal and ensure that justice is served. With each passing day, this case gets more and more challenging and difficult. Grace and her team are on the trail of a killer who attacks his prey in the places they feel safest: from their homes to their workplaces. There are no boundaries that are off limits and no depths that this dangerous predator does not stoop to. With people getting attacked on a daily basis, dead ends are plenty and answers are pretty thin on the ground, but could the notorious crime family, the Steeles, provide the police with some much needed clarification about this killer that has them all stumped?

The Steeles’s reputation as criminals precedes them and with all the clues pointing in their direction, the police are positive that they know more than they are letting on about this case – a fact that Grace is convinced by! The Steeles are not just any family, but they happen to be Grace’s family. Connected by a violent and vicious father who had made the lives of Grace and her mother hell before they had managed to escape his poisonous clutches, Grace has two brothers and two sisters who are up to their necks in criminal activity. Grace might be their sibling, but the last thing they are prepared to do is cooperate!

With the killer still wreaking havoc and time running out, Grace finds herself in an impossible situation: she has to choose between her family and her job and with both sides out to get her, one wrong move could cost her everything! Will Grace manage to catch the killer? Or is this a case that she simply cannot solve?

Mel Sherratt’s latest novel might be called Hush Hush, but after reading this book, her fans will be screaming about it from the rooftops and recommending it to all their friends and family. Gritty, gutsy and so gripping, you will end up putting your entire life on hold, I was completely and utterly glued to the pages of this first class crime thriller. Mel Sherratt is a talented crime writer who is more than a match for the queens of the genre like Martina Cole and Lynda La Plante.

If you like your crime novels tense, taut and terrifying, you will simply adore Mel Sherratt and Hush Hush! Unsettling, jaw-dropping and absolutely brilliant, Hush Hush has got outstanding written all over it!

I absolutely loved this book, it is a great crime thriller that I really enjoyed reading.

Throughout the story you are introduced to the main characters, giving you some insight into their childhoods to help you understand how the characters tick. I found this a great mystery with several twists to keep you guessing and keep you on your toes.

I highly recommend reading this, it is a book that makes you want to forget about everything you are supposed to be doing and just keep reading.

Now this is what I call a story...Mel Sherratt brings us a brand new series with fresh characters and it is an absolute corker of a story! I freaking loved it! Having read all of Mel's books I have to admit that the estate series has been my favourite so far until I read HUSH HUSH where we meet DS Grace and what a character she is.

This isn't just your normal police procedure story this is so much more than that. Grace finds herself back in Stoke on a case involving her family the Steele's. Don't get me wrong there is plenty of police procedure and we really get to know grace. She has been through a lot of heart ache in her past and has made her stronger. But how stronger is the question, when she has to choose between her team and blood. The story alternates between now and the past which I loved. There are some rather dark and disturbing moments where I found myself shouting at my kindle...and I have to say OMG I wasn't expecting that.

I am literally blow away by this story Mel Sherratt has totally smashed it. This is an excellant start to a series and without a doubt Mel's best book yet. It is full of twists and turns and will keep you on the edge of your seat...seriously my heart is still pounding.

Hush Hush is outstanding from the plot to the descriptions, you can feel the tension and emotion with in the characters. I loved every single page and I cannot wait until book two.

I love the fact that this story has the added element of grit lit...yes guys it's very gritty and perfect for fans of Martina Cole, Kimberley Chambers and Dreda Mitchell.

I must admit that I only discovered Mel’s books fairly recently – within the last couple of years. Since I discovered them, I have been trying to catch up with her back catalogue as well we keep pace with each new book that she releases. So far so good. I read the synopsis for ‘Hush Hush’ and I just knew that I had to get hold of a copy to read as soon as possible. The wait is finally over because her latest novel ‘Hush Hush’ was released on 18th October 2018. The wait was well worth it because I absolutely loved this start of a new series but more about that in a bit.
Grace Allendale is certainly an intriguing character with several different layers to he. She is career police officer, who has recently been promoted and she has transferred back to an area that holds a fair few bad memories for her. Grace was married but her husband sadly died at a young age from Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. She misses him terribly and wishes that he was still be her side. Of course she has her memories of her life with him but memories in no way compensate for his physical presence. I got the impression that Grace feels a bit lonely, not that you would ever get her to admit that. She has her work and most of the time, that is it. She doesn’t seem to have many, if any, close friends she can relax with. As alluded to above, the area that Grace transfers back to holds bad memories for Grace as it was where she witnessed her mother becoming a victim of domestic violence. That sort of childhood trauma never goes away. Grace’s transfer has further implications too as it means that she will be back in the same area as her half siblings, who are part of the underworld. Talk about a conflict of interests. Grace is determined that her family connections will remain buried to a degree and she will not risk her job for the sake of her half siblings, who are initially not that keen on knowing her. Her first case on her home soil immediately brings her into contact with her half siblings. Will Grace solve the case? Will her family connections overshadow the case? Well for the answers to those questions and more you are just going to have to read the book for yourselves to find out as I am not going to tell you.
Oh my goodness, ‘Hush Hush’ is one hell of a read. When I picked the book up it was a case of ‘settle down, strap in and enjoy the ride’ and what a ride it was. The story hits the ground running and maintains the pace throughout. It’s a story guaranteed to get your heartbeat racing, the adrenaline flowing and at times it’ll take your breath away. That’s what happened to me anyway. Reading ‘Hush Hush’ became extremely addictive and thank goodness that I wasn’t going anywhere that day because all I wanted to do was have a good old reading binge. That’s exactly what I did too. Not that I could have put the book down even if I had wanted to. The book wasn’t exactly glued to my hand but it might as well have been because it came everywhere with me. I didn’t realise the speed with which I was getting through the book until I closed the back cover. I had been that focussed on the story and the characters that I didn’t realise just how quickly the pages had been turning. I had mixed feelings about finishing the book. Don’t get me wrong I was pleased to finish the book because it meant that I knew how this instalment of the series ended but I didn’t want the book to end because I was enjoying it so much. Reading ‘Hush Hush’ was very much like riding on a rather scary and unpredictable rollercoaster ride with twists, turns and surprises around every corner. There were times when I almost had to read through my hands because I feared what was going to happen next. ‘Hush Hush’ has a bit of everything – drama, betrayal, murder, grit and action.
In short, I absolutely loved this introduction to a series that will be every bit as good as Mel’s other books. I will definitely be reading each new book in the series that she releases. Mel Sherratt is one of my must read and go to authors. I can’t wait to read her nest book. Here’s hoping that we don’t have too long to wait. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.