Don’t Turn Back is the gripping tale of a woman named Karen, that lost her husband and daughter to human traffickers that would kill to hide their secret.
Where the police covered up the details and she didn’t know who she could trust anymore.
Solid four stars

This was an enjoyable police procedural. DS Hart and her colleagues were likable characters with interesting backstories. The book starts out with a murder, but soon delves into modern slavery/human trafficking and exploitation of workers. There is also an undercurrent of possible police corruption. Adding to the tension is that five years ago, DS Hart's husband and daughter died in a car accident. She did not believe it was an accident and raised the possibility of a cover-up, which did not sit well with some of her colleagues on the force, especially her superiors. However, the current investigation required her to talk to a couple she had been investigating for possible exploitation of workers five years ago, right before the accident. During their present-day conversation, the wife commented that DS Hart should have learned her lesson five years ago. This comment caused DS Hart to rethink her prior concerns and colored her approach to the current investigation. The plot was creative and well-crafted. There were some good surprises in the book. I am definitely interested in reading the other books in the DS Hart series.

I received a copy of the e-book from NetGalley in exchange for a review.

4 stars / This review has been posted at BookwormishMe.com.


Here I go again, jumping into a book series midstream! DS Karen Hart #3, otherwise known as “Don’t Turn Back” finds our detective investigating the murder of an unknown man in a public park. Since this is my first book with DS Hart, it was possible I wouldn’t know or understand what was going on, but that was not the case. I was easily able to jump in and follow the story. Butler gives us plenty of background info to pick up the series or read this as a standalone.

A woman and her dog uncover a body in a wooded area of a public park. DS Hart is called to investigate, but then an object is found that could tie the murder to a previous case of hers. DS Hart is called off the murder investigation and put back into the fire with the previous case. The owners of a local pub are the focus of the old case, and DS Hart has always had a feeling that they were involved in the deaths of her husband and daughter.

Organized crime and police corruption abound in this novel. A very well written crime story that also tugs at the heartstrings. There are a lot of characters to follow, but each is unique and makes it a bit easier to keep up with the story. I always find that series are better when started from the beginning. Still, I truly enjoyed this story and would love to read more of Butler’s writing and find out where DS Hart ends up next. Perhaps also read numbers one and two and catch up.

A fantastic & edge of your seat thriller. It is exceptionally well written & the twists and turns are genuinely surprising & shocking . If you are looking to have your mind taken off isolation & the Corona virus then this is the perfect escape

Gripping suspense.

This book had me on the bitting nails edge. Love suspense and mystery and D.S. Butler provided it in spades within this story. Twist and turns that keep you guessing. Amazing book. I am grateful to NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book in advance.

This was a great thriller, I was hooked from the start. I hadn't read any of the preceding books but it didn't matter. I thoroughly enjoyed this real. The slavery ring, the conspiracy, the murders, it all made for a really exciting story. I will definitely seek out more from D.S. Butler in the future. This kind of writing is right up my street. It would incidentally make a great TV detective series also along the lines of Line of Duty which I absolutely adore!!!!

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

This was a very interesting British police procedural. DS Karen Hart is still somewhat shell shocked by the deaths of her husband and daughter in a car crash. She is now the investigator tasked with finding the perpetrator of a brutal murder in the woods near a peaceful community. As this murder case progresses, she is reassigned to a suspicious fire which burned in a nearby bar and grill. She feels strongly that the cases are related. The book keeps the reader's attention as new developments and surprises unfold.

Although this is the third novel in the series, the important characters are fully developed and the book can be enjoyed as a standalone.

Don't Turn Back by D.S. Butler is the third installment of a series focused on DS Karen Hart. I had previously enjoyed the second book of the series, but this one works fine as a standalone novel.

DS Karen Hart is still carrying the grief of losing her husband and daughter five years previously. When a grisly discovery is made, Hart finds herself at the centre of an investigation that rocks the small town of Canwick. As she begins to uncover some dark and shocking truths that lurk underneath the town's benign exterior, Hart is forced to confront her own ghosts in the process.

This is a well executed police procedural that will certainly keep you engaged throughout although, for me, this one didn't have quite the same wow factor of the second book, Where Secrets Lie. The focus is less on DS Hart's personal circumstances, and I did miss some of the in depth characterization . Nonetheless, a strong addition to the series, and I am excited to see that the door remains wide open for a continuation.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Publishing UK for this ARC.

I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, D. S. Butler, and Thomas & Mercer. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this work of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. I am pleased to recommend D. S. Butler to friends and family. She writes a tight tale, British police procedurals based in Nettleham, and they are interesting and unique among their genre.

DS Karen Hart carries a heavy burden of grief as she makes it through the days and years after the death of her husband and daughter. She is tired of sympathy from friends, family, and co-workers, but she cannot accept that the accident that took her family was just that - an accident. She has learned, over time, to keep her suspicions to herself but this latest murder case is covering some of the same ground that she was working back then and brings the accident and the losses all too close to the surface again. When the clues from this new murder take them back to the Red Lion Inn, she finds she cannot separate her suspicions centered on Rod and Patricia Perry, suspects now, and then for the death of her family. It is something she has to try to cover, as her co-workers already think she is a bit daffy when it comes to that period of time. But where do you draw the line between fact and paranoia?

This is the first book I have read in the DS Karen Hart series and I really struggled to get into it, I did preserver to the end but I’m afraid it’s just not for me.

My reaction to Don't Turn Back is generally positive, but I hasten to add that the characters in the novel were not very likable. For whom was I supposed to root? The most likely candidate is the protagonist, Karen Hart, for whom the series is named. But I didn't particularly like her either. The fault may be mine,or perhaps the author needs to work on character development.
Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC.

Read this straight through.
Love the Karen Hart character.
DS Hart is a detective in Lincolnshire. Her husband and daughter died in a car crash and she is still trying to come to terms with it.
She is called to attend the discovery of a body in nearby woods.
The man has been battered to death and they struggle to identify him.
A beer mat from a nearby pub with date and time on it is the only clue.
The story moves at a good pace and soon Karen is involved in people smuggling ring and police corruption.
This is a really enjoyable British crime novel with some good twists and turns and an exciting ending.
Well written characters and plot.
I have read the Jack Mackinnon books and can recommend both these series.

An excellent suspense-filled police procedural. Detective Karen Hart still has nightmares from losing her husband and daughter to an accident that she has always thought was no accident. As she tries to get back in the swing of investigating, she's thrown into a murder mystery and human trafficking cases that take her back to the case she was working on when her family was ripped from her life. When a suspect says to her, "You should have learned your lesson last time," she begins to wonder if the loss of her family is somehow related to these new cases. She seems to be thwarted in her investigations from all sides, and she's frustrated but determined. It's a great read with lots of guilty possibilities. Will she survive this precarious situation or end up losing her career as she pursues her hunches? Danger lurks in every shadow.

This just didn't have enough going on to keep my attention. I was stuck home in quarantine and kept reading hoping the ending would be a good twist, but nothing much happened. If I had known it ended so weakly I would have stopped way before the end.

4.5 Stars
This was a first for me with this author but will not be a last. I was taken on a ride and thoroughly enjoyed it.
We are with a woman who is a detective. She has recently endured the tragic loss of her husband and child in a car crash. This has thrust her into working none stop to block out everything else in her life.

This takes place in a village that seems perfect...charming etc....and maybe too perfect. Because with the discovery of this dead man...all the secrets of this village start to seep out.
Well Done.

Review of eBook

The discovery of a savagely beaten man’s body in the woodland sends shock-waves through the little village of Canwick. Detective Sergeant Karen Hart, still reeling from the deaths of her husband and young daughter some five years earlier, investigates and finds hints of a modern-day slavery ring. As the investigation forges ahead, witnesses begin to disappear and it soon becomes clear that there is a strong conspiracy working to hide the truth. Can Karen trust the information she’s given? And what will the truth reveal?

This, the third in the Karen Hart series, is a quick-read mystery that contains sufficient backstory to work well as a stand-alone for readers new to the series. There are plenty of twists and turns, but, at times, Karen seems far too caught up in the tragedy of the past, a plot point that serves to interrupt any suspense surrounding the story-lines involving the current murder investigation and the probe into a possible human slavery ring. Instead of being well-developed, some characters more closely resemble caricatures and astute readers will figure out everything early in the telling of the tale.

Rather than moving the story forward, the possibility of long-standing corruption within the police department seems to serve only as a convenient explanation for previous events and is certain to be hugely off-putting for many readers.

I received a free copy of this eBook from Amazon Publishing UK and NetGalley
#DontTurnBack #NetGalley

Don't Turn Back is the third in Butler's Detective Karen Hart series. While I probably would've had a better understanding of Karen Hart's background and character if I had read the first two in the series, this also works well as a stand-alone novel. When Karen Hart is called to a murder, she revisits the case that she was working on at the time her husband and daughter died in a car accident. The new case digs up feelings from her past.

I really enjoyed this book. It was well written, and the characters are well developed with just enough background. I loved getting to know Detective Karen Hart and her team. The book was written from multiple viewpoints, which really gave the reader a full picture of the case they were working on. This was my first D.S. Butler novel, but it certainly won't be my last.

Incredibly boring. I couldn’t find anything interesting in this modern-day slavery ring to finish the book.

5 ⭐️
arc provided by netgalley.
So when I requested this arc I didn’t notice it was a series but I was able to read and understand everything, because the author explained the previous things that happened and I really enjoyed that. What can I say?? I fell in love with D. S. writing, with the investigation and the direction the story went, I got stuck in the story since the beginning and loved every second of it. Really glad I got to read this book and met D.S, I’m totally gonna read her other books!

I've received each book in this series from Netgalley since book one. It just continues to get better and better. Hope to see this series continue.