Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

I did not see the ending coming.
DI Kate Hamlin was on a stakeout in a van with two colleagues when she leaves for a moment, seeing a Land Rover pull along side the van, then leave, she runs towards it only to be thrown back as the van explodes.
Her troubles are compounded when she is blamed for leaving her fellow officers, and put on leave. I enjoyed Kate’s honest feelings about different situations and people that arise in both her personal and professional life. Kate tries to find the killer, doubting that it is the obvious suspect. The story takes a number of twists, with the ending setting us up for the next book. I’ll be reading it!
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy, in exchange for my honest opinion.

I really enjoyed this nicely written mystery. It was well plotted, with likeable characters, and enough going on to hold my interest.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me to read a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed this book! A great story line that kept me hooked and excellent main characters. I would highly recommend this book.

This is a good mystery, with two intertwining plots (a kidnapping and a poison pen writer) which finally become one. There are lots of twists and false leads, and a very exciting ending.

Tammy Logan is kidnapped on her way home from the Glastonbury Festival. Meanwhile, Peter Jackson has received a letter with pictures of him having sex with another man in his barn. He rips the letter, goes out in his barn, and shoots himself in the mouth with his double barreled shot gun.
Later, Tammy's boyfriend, Tony, comes to the police station and reports to Sargent Kate Hamlin that his girlfriend is missing. DCI Roscoe gives Kate a hard time most of the time. He doesn't want her bothering with the missing girl, and then asks her to see a friend of the super, Winston, who has received a letter. Kate and her husband/partner Hayden don't learn anything when they interview Colonel Winston, a wealthy man, who says he burned the letter, and it was full of lies. They first meet Winston's sexy and spoiled daughter Gabriella at this interview. It soon turns out that many people in town have received letters pointing out what they've done wrong.

Meanwhile, the kidnapper has Tammy in a locked room and is trying to get her to read the bible and seems to be confusing her with his daughter. Kate is beginning to think that someone is following her, and the kidnapper may be someone in the police. Somehow, the kidnapper is learning things that have been talked about in the police station.

After three more deaths, Kate knows she has to work hard and fast to prevent more deaths. In the process, she is in grave danger.

Thanks to Joffe Publishers and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced digital read copy in exchange for an honest review. POISON ON THE LEVELS by David Hodges is the seventh book in the series featuring Police Detective Kate Hamblin, assisted by her Police Sergeant husband Hayden and her supervisor, Detective Inspector Ted Roscoe who is almost always at odds with Kate’s decisions and methods. In this novel a young woman disappears while she is hitchhiking home from the Glastonbury rock concert. The story is told primarily from Kate’s point of view with a few inserts from the young woman being held captive and the kidnapper.
The characters are well drawn and somewhat complex. The mystery is well crafted and moves at a good speed. I had no problem identifying the kidnapper early in the story, so the reveal was a bit of a let-down for me. Also, while the characters are well drawn, they all have more flaws than apparent positive aspects to their personalities, making the book somewhat dark. While I wanted the young woman to be rescued, it was mostly because I don’t want wrong-doing to triumph, not because she was particularly sympathetic.
The same could be said for Kate, Hayden and DI Roscoe. They were not particularly engaging people, with more emphasis on their flaws than on anything positive. The strained relationship between Kate and DI Roscoe fell flat for me, coming across as a relationship added to increase tension, not because there was serious underlying issues between the two. This may be because their relationship was more fully developed in the earlier books, but the emotion didn’t carry over into this novel.
The final result was also somewhat unbelievable to me. It’s hard for me to accept that Kate, a purportedly astute police officer, could be unaware of being followed by a civilian as she went about her job. There were some in-depth police procedural actions that gave credence to the story, although Kate seemed to go out of her way to break the rules a little too often.
This book is probably best enjoyed by readers who prefer police procedurals that highlight more of the gritty side of the job than finding positive personality aspects to draw them into the book. As the book drew to a close, I just wanted it to end more than I wanted one person or another to be victorious.

Poison on the Levels is part of a series featuring Kate Lewis and her partner and husband Hayden. They both work for the Somerset Police, Kate as sergeant and Hayden as her detective constable.

The book starts with a girl sat in a café. Tammy Logan is waiting for her boyfriend to arrive, yet as usual he’s late. An altercation with a young man makes her leave by the backdoor. That was the last anyone sees of her. Kate is given the mispers case. At first, she suspects the boyfriend has something to do with it.

Running side by side with a poison pen letter writer, she tries to balance both cases. Her husband, who appears to care more about his stomach than the cases, helps her out. However soon the village resembles Midsummer, than a sleepy backwater on the levels.

This book is well written. Being part of a series I wondered if it’d suffer from not reading any of the others, but it stands alone. We find out enough about Kate and Hayden to understand their chemistry. They’re a likeable pair, not just wooden characters that you don’t care about.

The writing at times is humorous, without being so funny that it’s a spoof. At times the writer grips you with his suspenseful writing style. I have to admit to not guessing the main killer or the poison pen writer, which is a nice surprise. Looking back, the clues were there so kudos to the author for the writing.

I enjoyed the book. it was a pleasant read and gives me a new series to explore in more detail.

I don't think I've read any of the previous books in this series so can say it works well as a stand alone novel.
The premise of poison pen letters seems really old fashioned but effective though for me the plot was too obvious.

A interesting storyline about girl’s disappearing from Glastonbury over a number of years. Detective Inspector Ted Roscoe and Detective Sergeant Kate Lewis diligently work through the case to track down the culprit who is lead by his overzealous religious beliefs. A good read from this author

A fantastic series of books of which Poison on the levels is number seven, featuring DS Kate Lewis or Hamblin as she was before she married DC Hayden Lewis. This book shows her still working in the same team. The book begins with a callout to an apparent suicide but it soon becomes clear that there is someone sending nasty poison pen letters to a number of people and his drove this particular recipient do kill himself, there seems to be no motive apart from the malicious pleasure the writer seems to derive from sending them. at the same time as the letter being investigated Kate has to report a missing woman who attended a music festival and never returns home. To Kate, it seems like a woman just evading her unfaithful husband initially, but as time goes by and she doesn't resurface Kate has to rethink her strategy and comes to the conclusion it is maybe something more sinister. There are more deaths that cannot be explained and eventually Kate and her husband wonder if the two cases could be connected at all. It becomes clear they are struggling with who can be trusted or not and Kate being Kate, ends up diving in to a perilous situation!
I enjoyed reading this and although I have not read any of the others, got the characters, I loved the way the team are all different but each ones weakness is complented by a strength in another member. I will be finding the other six at some point! I liked this story that much and I can only say, I bet it's even better after reading the rest.

As A girl disappears on her way home from Glastonbury a local village is getting poison pen letters. DS Kate Lewis is given the task to find out who the writer of the letters are but also tries to find out what happened to the missing girl. As the investigation continues a number of fatal accidents in as many days seem to hit the village. Are the two investigations connected or is it just coincidence.
A very enjoyable mystery with many twists and definitely worth a read.

I enjoyed this novel, easy to read, great characters and a plot that kept me guessing until the end..
I loved the english village setting and the relationships between the characters which resonated with me.
O will certainly go back to read others by David Hodges

A Catalogue Of Troubling Events...
A catalogue of troubling events cause Kate great concern and her investigations are annoyingly curtailed by DI Roscoe in this seventh book in the Kate Hamblin series. Well written mystery, an engrossing plot with a solid cast of characters. Can be read as a standalone although much pleasure is to be had in reading from the start of the series. Enjoyable reading.

This is book number seven in the excellent series featuring DS Kate Lewis (formerly Kate Hamblin before her marriage to DC Hayden Lewis, overweight and slightly lazy public schoolboy type but who makes up for this with his sharp mind and unwavering devotion to her). She is still working for the chauvinistic and bad tempered DI Ted Roscoe who seems to delight in putting her down but they have strange grudging mutual respect for each other and they do achieve results between them. At the start of this story the police at Highbridge station in the Somerset Levels are called to the apparent suicide of a middle aged man in a peaceful village. It would seem that the arrival of a particularly nasty poison pen letter drove him to it. What's more, the detectives learn that many more people have received similar letters. There have been no blackmail threats and it looks like the only motive is the malicious pleasure of the writer. At the same time as investigating the letter writing, Kate also takes down the report of the disappearance of a woman on her way home from a music festival. At first it looks like the woman is merely avoiding her unfaithful boyfriend but as time passes with no sightings of her Kate starts to think they may be something sinister going on after all. Kate and Hayden certainly have their hands full as more suspicious deaths are discovered and they wonder whether their two cases could actually be linked in some strange way. It becomes much harder for them to decide who they can trust and as once again Kate rushes in without no thought for herself, it's a good job her husband is there at times to exact a more calming influence. I like the way the author gives the reader an insight into what is going through the mind of the killer, and it's a terrific and engrossing read all the way to the end as the reader watches the detectives finally make the connections. Some of the characters like Hayden and Roscoe are certainly a bit eccentric although both seem more sensible and grown up than in the previous story, but this makes the books more fun and distinctive, and together they all grow on the reader and compliment each other, forming a great team of detectives. Well written with a clever plot, this books works fine as a stand alone but it is definitely worth reading all the others in the series as they are all highly enjoyable. This series gets better with each new story and I am looking forward to the next one already! 5*

A young woman disappears after attending a music festival. She's taken in the light of day ...and no one witnesses anything. Was she abducted? Or did she decide to disappear on her own?

While DS Kate Lewis and her team are following up on that case, her boss sends her to talk to an older man in their village. It seems the gentleman has received a poison pen letter... threatening to reveal something that will cause him a great deal of stress, and ruin his marriage and his reputation. He later commits suicide.

And he's not the only victim of someone who seems to have a vendetta against a lot of the village residents. Someone seems to be watching her every move and is prepared do everything he can to cover his tracks — even commit murder.

Kate is married to one of her team ... Hadyn Lewis. He loves to eat and he's overweight. He's rather sloppy, with usually tangled blonde hair and wears shabby clothes. She's just about given up on changing him, but he also has a highly intelligent, analytical brain that balances Kate's rather headstrong instincts. He's also loving, kind, would do anything for Kate. In spite of the multiple insults she throws at him, she does love him and they work well together.

This is an excellent addition to this crime fiction series. Although 7th in the series, this is easily read as a stand alone. It's well written by an author with a history of 30 years of police service, bringing a great deal of credibility to the plot. The mystery is nicely paced with standout characters. The ending was explosive ... and unpredictable.

Many thanks to the author / Joffe Books / Books n All Book Promotions / Netgalley for the digital copy of this crime fiction. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

This book didn't hold my interest. I don't know if it is because I hadn't read any of the others in the series or if it was because I was able to guess the "twists" before they occurred. I was not a fan of how Kate treated her husband, as shaming him over his relationship with food seemed exceptionally cruel. This made me not feel invested in Kate and since she was the main character that might have a lot to do with why I didn't enjoy this one.

3 stars

This is a compently written book. It has flashes of brilliance, then seems to descend into the zone of fair. I liked the search for the poison pen letter writer. The identity of the person surprised me. I would rather the book spent more time on that subject than on the search for kidnapped Tammy Logan. That was a little more cliché. I had the main suspect sussed out pretty early in the book. It could have only been them. Their behavior gave them away. But, all in all, not a bad book. Well done, Mr. Hodges.

I want to thank NetGalley and Joffe Books for forwarding to me a copy of this book for me to read, enjoy and review.

Thank you NetGalley and Joffe Books for the eARC.
Detective Kate Hamblin is investigating the disappearance of a young woman, while at the same time a man in a nearby village shoots himself.
His suicide was caused by a poison pen letter with enclosed photos of him in very compromising positions.
Unfortunately I could not get into the characters at all and found the story a bit same old, same old. Kate's relationship with her husband/co-worker is odd...she treats him with disdain quite a bit and he can't stop stuffing his face, causing him to be called 'fat man' by Kate. I guessed the identity of the killer about halfway through (that is not meant as a criticism), but the poison pen letter writer was a surprise. On the whole I didn't enjoy the read, it felt
too flat for some reason.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Joffe Books for an advance copy of Poison on The Levels, the seventh novel to feature DS Kate Lewis, set in the Somerset Levels.

When Tammy Logan disappears on her way back from Glastonbury Kate is worried. Technically there’s not much she can do as Tammy is an adult and in a volatile relationship but she still decides to make enquiries. She is diverted from this by a suicide in a local village, where a poison pen letter writer is threatening to reveal intimate secrets.

I quite enjoyed Poison on The Levels which has an interesting mystery. It is the first novel in the series that I have read so I wasn’t sure what to expect. It has all the requisite ingredients - smart detective with stupid boss so a touch of office politics, a touch of humour in the dialogue, a smart, twisted perpetrator who always seems to be one step ahead, plenty of action and a thrilling, dangerous finale. I don’t know why as this seems right up my alley but it didn’t spark any real sense of involvement in me. I think it just seems a little glib and clichéd. Kate’s boss DI Ted Roscoe seems to oppose everything she does - because he’s old school? Her husband seems to think of nothing but food although he’s supposed to be insightful (didn’t see any sign of it in this novel). The perpetrator, whom we hear from frequently, is straight out of central casting. Kate, who is referred to as Maverick, wouldn’t know a procedure if it smacked her on the head.

On the other hand I liked the hunt for the poison pen writer which is a bit more imaginative and perhaps a little old fashioned in this computer age but curiosity inducing. Unfortunately it was over too soon.

Poison on The Levels is a solid read.

Thank to Netgalley and Joffe books for the advance read of Book 7 in the Detective kate hamblin series

A young woman has disappeared after leaving a music festival and after receiving a poison pen letter a man takes his own life... Kate and her partner Haydn who also happens to be her husband must dig deep to find the writer of the letters that are now being sent to several others as well as locating the missing girl

I love this series and the 2 main characters are so likeable you find yourself getting angry with their boss Di Ted Roscoe when he yells and criticises them