3.5 stars rounded up to 4

DC Maggie Jamieson #3

A young womans body is found in a park. She has been disfigured and her outfit has been changed to make her look like someone else. Someone DC Maggie Jamieson knows only too well, her close friend Dr Kate Moloney. Maggie will do anything to keep her friend safe. Kate is already struggling with a threatening stalker. Maggie fears Katie's life is in real danger.

This is a fast paced read that's full of twists and suspense. I did guess early on who the villian was. The lengths he goes to to catch his victim is quite disturbineg. There were parts of the story that were utterly unbelievable. Overall, this is an interesting read with a cliffhangers at the end.

I would like to thank #NetGalley, #HarperCollinsUK #OneMoreChapter and the author #NoelleHolten for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first story by Noelle Holten but it definitely won’t be my last. I really enjoyed the way the tension steadily built to its thrilling climax.
I must admit, I had a throw-away notion, quite early on, as to the identity of the murderer but I had no basis other than them being a random character.
The whole construction of the back story was excellently designed and left me wondering whether it was possible for a positive outcome.
In particular, I enjoyed Maggie’s character. She is clearly flawed but her loyalty to her friends and family is clear despite her obviously complicated past.
Whilst the killer’s obsession was seemingly clear, the twist which put Kate in the frame was a complete surprise. I really enjoy psychological thrillers and this one put Noelle Holten on to my top authors list.

I’ll start this review with a PHEW!! If you’ve read book two in the series (Dead Wrong) you’ll know exactly why I’m so relieved and if you haven’t..shame on you ;)

Every October I try to read horror fitting for the spooky season, now Dead Perfect isn’t exactly a horror but the idea of someone stalking and abducting women to turn them into “Living Dolls” is quite macabre and you’re welcome to that earworm I’ve probably left you with! DC Maggie Jamieson is placed in a difficult position and her feelings for Dr Kate Moloney are in danger of clouding her judgement about this recent case especially as the killer appears to be choosing victims who look just like her friend. Maggie does not take well to criticism about this being a possible conflict of interest and is adamant that Kate needs her protection but will she prove as a help or a hindrance?

The tension creeps up as we are given snippets of the killer and his interactions with his “princesses” – this is one creepy dude! For me there could have been some more explicit/gruesome details but that’s the kind of sick puppy I am.

If you’re looking for a new police procedural series to read then I’d highly recommend this one, and start at the beginning with Dead Inside!

Dead Perfect by Noelle Holten
This is book 3 in the series, and yes I've read all 3!
I read book one and two in recent weeks, and enjoyed both so much I just had to dive straight into book 3. I really enjoyed this book too, I am loving the character development. I love Maggie and Lucy, and have a soft spot for Kate, maybe its the Irish connection.
I really enjoyed the storyline, and felt there was a great level of tension all the way through, I just couldn't work out who the culprit was!
Really loving this series, and very much looking forward to book 4, and really hoping I won't have too long to wait.

The third in the series and I enjoyed as much as I did the first.

Maggie is a strong main character and I like her, although she annoys me when she slaps her thighs.

I enjoyed the story, lots of twists abs turns and an ending that has left me desperate to read the next book.

Great read

DC Maggie Jamieson is struggling trying to determine if her friend is the subject of a stalker, now murderer. Likewise, I struggled with this book. Maggie is a very strong character and many times I felt like she needed to step back and chill. Sure, because of the type of book it is, the reader is pretty darn certain that it will turn out that her friend, Kate, is the focus of the stalker. But, in real life, it wouldn't start off that way. I also struggled with the way Maggie dealt with several of her coworkers. Her strong character was a bit too brisk and she is called on it several times, but with no real repercussions. And while I like strong female characters, she was a bit too in your face. If I were like that in my job, I would have been written up and eventually fired. Besides my bristling at Maggie's attitude, the story itself was a really good one. It was interesting and well nuanced. I really like the series and hope Maggie was just being so forceful out of concern for her friend.

Omg this is how you start a book! My heart was in my mouth!

Don't make the mistake I did by starting this at bedtime. I guarantee you won't get much sleep.

It's sick. It's dark. It's gruesome. It's totally brilliant.

An easy 5 stars from me and I can't wait for the next one.

To start, this is the first book I've read in the series, so I do feel I was missing quite a good bit of backstory, especially around the stalking.

All in, this book did not blow me away. I love thrillers and I love crime, so Dead Perfect seemed like the perfect read! However, since I love crime, I also have to believe it. A colleague calls our lead character, Kate, within the first few pages of the book to tell her a body has been found and the description sounds like Kate's friend. The colleague apologizes, insinuating that it is indeed the friend and that friend is dead.

This book kept me reading and creeped me out in a fairly decent way. However, I don't love when books leave you on a cliffhanger. It's not like TV episodes where you have to wait a week to find out what happened. You have to wait until the author and the publisher deem it acceptable and profitable to publish the next book.

Strewth what an ending! What a story! What a book!

I love being back with Maggie and the team, although it’s not her team. Nathan is the boss man and I loved the change of dynamics between the two, plus how it is not Maggie in charge in the story. Following on from the shocks in book 2 Dead Wrong, it all got cranked up a complete notch in Dead Perfect. When it’s one of your own in trouble, things just get real!

Dead Perfect is a book that will keep you hooked, Noelle’s writing is an enticing one. She keeps you enthralled with her words, she kept me thinking about the book when I couldn’t read it. I was itching to get back to it when I wasn’t reading it!

I never like to talk about the story, but this was a story I never expect. It was shocking and cruel but with an innocence about it and I have never read anything like this before! It was so creative and fresh and I enjoyed it, although I probably shouldn’t have!! Packing a punch the entire way through, it goes without saying that Noelle took the wind out of me with the end! I am now having to wait for book 4 – which is April!!!!!

I love this series! I love Maggie, although she doesn’t always get it right, she is a woman who is fiercely loyal and wears her heart on her sleeve. I did feel for her in this book, but as the saying goes, as one door closes another opens. In this case, it is such a tease!

I can’t wait for the next chapter in this series, I know whatever comes for Maggie and the Team, Noelle will make sure that it’s a journey no one will forget!

Maggie Jameison was back in a book which was taut with suspense where the killer played too close to home. Author Noelle Holten raised the stakes in this book when she made the killer bold as brass, taunting Maggie with his kills.

Maggie was called to investigate a murder where the body was made to resemble her friend and colleague, Kate. Fear gripped and she opened up her home for Kate’s protection.

A darn good police procedural where Maggie’s determination shone through. Her loyalty and dedication and love for her friends brought out the clear facets of her character. Though book 3 in the series and can be read as a standalone, reading it in series would add to the pleasure.

The writing was clear and uncanny in its plot line with a killer who loved to stay one step ahead. Character were etched well as seen from the first book where the relationships that Maggie had felt real. There was genuine caring from her.

Twists were woven in, false leads turned me to a different direction. There was a vibe of cat and mouse games happening in the entire book. A few things niggled me, the main being the way her boss declared body to be Kate’s without really identifying it. But the rest was enjoyable. Easy to guess the killer. I wanted to see if I was right.

Overall, a solid investigation with a hardworking main characters, twists and relationships made this an enjoyable read.

I've been so looking forward to this one - the third book in an absolutely terrific series!

When Maggie is called to the latest crime scene where a body has been found in the local park, she is appalled to see the deceased has been made to resemble her good friend, Dr Kate Moloney. As if things weren't bad enough with Kate having acquired a stalker, the latest developments put Maggie and the rest of the team on high alert. But why Kate? And why the strange look-alikes?

As with the previous novels, this is a well-planned thriller with a great mix of personal and professional making it a very appealing read. Plenty of twists, turns and unexpected developments plus an insight into what comes next at the very end - very cleverly done. Maggie Jamieson is a beautifully developed, multi-faceted character and her gut feeling is never to be ignored. This one is everything I hoped it would be but it was rather spoiled by the clues as to the perpetrator's identity which I picked up on very quickly as I began reading. From then on it was just a matter of reading until he was caught. Perhaps my detective instincts were just particularly alert today, but it did rather take the shine off the book for me. It's still a good crime thriller though, and one I'm happy to give four stars.

My thanks to the publisher for my copy via NetGalley and to Book on The Bright Side for my spot on this tour; this is - as always - my honest, original and unbiased review.

This is fast becoming THE crime fiction series to get stuck into. Perfect Dead gives us a glimpse of a particularly gruesome set of murders, and takes us into the mind of the killer as well as giving us a hair raising ride while he closes in on Maggie's friend Kate. Meanwhile, Maggie is struggling with her feelings, which conflict her somewhat in her investigation. This is a tightly-plotted book, full of tension right to the end. It's got everything!

One of the things I love about this series is the authentic insight into the probation service, which gives it a little extra on the standard police procedural, and I can't wait to see more from Noelle.

You don't have to have read the first two books in the series to enjoy this one, but why would you not? They're great - I'd thoroughly recommend you treat yourself (and the lockdown evenings will fly by)!

Dead Perfect is the perfect thrill-ride from beginning to end.

What I Loved

I loved that the pace stays fast throughout the novel, keeping the thrills coming turn after turn. The highs are enhanced periodically by little segments written from the point-of-view of the serial kidnapper/killer. These are creepy and scary, and I loved the atmosphere they provide in an otherwise police procedural.

I also love the attention to small details. Maggie, the main character and a police detective, has a little problem that has caused her to be reprimanded at work. Her temper becomes focused and fierce, intimidating her coworkers and friends alike. At various points in the story, this detail helps flesh out the character by rearing its ugly head. The effect can be seen subtly and realistically in the body language of the character it is directed towards.

Another small detail that I loved is when a character realizes that all the victims look like her. She looks in the mirror and goes through the full range of emotions that you would expect from someone who realizes her life has become a horror movie, and she fears that she is the unwilling star of the show. The scene is so finely detailed that I felt like I was looking in the mirror with her experiencing those same emotions.

To Read or Not to Read

If you love never-ending thrills and a character-driven story, Dead Perfect is the novel for you!

This book picks up right where Dead Wrong leaves off with its cliffhanger ending - but don’t worry if you haven’t read that one (though it’s a great book!) because the author gives enough background that you can easily pick up what’s going on and jump right into the story: stalker, dead girls that look like Kate Moloney, and a desperate search for the killer.

And it’s not really an ending that at saw coming at all. It’s one of those stories where all the clues are there, you just have to piece them together, but I did not. Kudos to the author for really creatively using clues and things to lead to a great, unique ending. I liked it.

Maggie was a great character, yet again. She’s figuring out who she is and I enjoy getting to be a part of that journey and I can’t wait to see where that goes. Kate is also left in a bit of limbo and I’ll be interested to see where she ends up ... but I don’t want to give away too much there.

And, yes we have another great cliffhanger ending, setting up another mystery! I look forward to seeing where this next chapter takes us! Looks like it’s going to be quite an intense one!

I never repeat the blurb. This is the third in the series and was just as good as the first two. Only reason it's not 5* is that there's just something about the main protagonist, Maggie, that's not likeable and I still find it hard to warm to her. Perfectly set up for the next one and I look forward to that immensely.

Another storming thriller from this talented author. And what a creepy bad guy! I thoroughly enjoyed the terrifying storyline and although I did guess who he was, that didn't spoil my enjoyment as I wasn't sure I was right until the end, as the author deftly led me down a number of blind alleys. We are really starting to get to know the team, and hot-headed Maggie play a great central role. Oh and that ending... setting us up nicely for the next one!

There aren’t many series that I have on my “must read” list nowadays but this one featuring Maggie Jamieson is one that features very highly and is one of the best around at the moment. If you’ve never read any before then don’t worry, Dead Perfect can be easily read as a standalone book but I guarantee you’ll be hooked after reading it and want to go back and catch up on the relationships that have been built upon in the previous two books.

Maggie is called upon to investigate a case that is a little too close to home for her. The body of a young girl is found and she’s been dressed to resemble Maggies friend and colleague Dr Kate Maloney. She had been turned into a “living doll” before her death and Maggie is determined to catch the killer. Kate is still struggling with her stalker-could this be who is targeting young women who look like her? Don’t be fooled into thinking you will know the answer as this is Noelle Holtens most twisted and disturbing crime thriller so far!

This has to be my favourite book so far in the DC Maggie Jamieson series! I read it in one session as I physically couldn’t leave it alone! Noelle Holten has managed to “beat the blogger” 3 times now as I find it absolutely impossible to work out who the murderer is and why in her books! And I love that! She builds the perfect tension by slowly building her storyline and introducing a cast of carefully crafted characters for us to study before hitting us right between the eyes with the most powerful denouement as she brings all her threads to a shocking conclusion.

Dead Perfect is a brilliantly written book that has been well researched by an author who knows their subject matter better than most! If you love the Kim Stone series by Angela Marsons then this is a must buy for you. Highly recommended by me!

I would like to thank NetGalley, One More Chapter, and author Noelle Holten for providing me a free copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
First of all, this is the third book in the series. I have not read the other previous books in this series. With that being said, I really enjoyed this book and will be reading the other books within this series. The characters and the story line of a creepy living doll serial killer were really great. The author did a great job of providing each character enough "page time" throughout the story, in order to keep the investigations and the scenes with the serial killer equally balanced. DC Maggie Jamieson was a very intriguing character. She seemed to dedicated to her job as well as protecting those she views as her close friends and colleagues She would definitely be the one I would want on the trail of my stalker. The author put a lot of great detail centering around police procedures when tracking down the serial killer before he claimed his next victim. I also liked how the chapters usually ended in a cliffhanger, which kept me motivated to keep reading this book to find out what would happen next. There were a few questionable parts that arose throughout the book that were not realistic or possible in the real world. For example, Maggie seemed to have a "close" friendship with Kate, who was being stalked, and yet was able to stay on the investigation as well as let Kate stay at her house with no other additional protection. This book had a really cat and mouse feel to it as they got closer to identity of the stalker/serial killer. The ending was well satisfying! Overall, I would recommend this book to those who like true crime novels.

Another great instalment to the D.C. Maggie Jamieson series.
After reading the previous book I was intrigued to see what happened in this one as the cliffhanger was such a tease as to where this would go and I wasn’t disappointed.
I felt like as soon as I picked this book up I was up and running with the story as the action started immediately from where the last book ended, and the solving of the crimes began.
I really enjoyed the storyline on this one, and the pace, and yet again Noelle has ended it on another fantastic cliffhanger for the next book to kick off from so I will look forward to the next instalment.

Noelle’s debut novel ‘Dead Wrong’ introduced us to DC Maggie Jamieson and an exciting new Noir Crime / Police Procedural / Thriller author. Within 17 months this prolific and hugely talented writer has had two further books added to the DC Maggie Jamieson series of novels, and let’s hope there will be more. My best guess is that there will be others and I have deduced this prediction by using patterning just like Noelle does. Each novel has had an explosive finale with the last few sentences yielding an enticing and teasing cliff-hanger, definitely suggesting another sequel.
The story begins with two youths discovering a body in the park. When Maggie arrives at the scene of the crime, she is shocked to the core. The victim is an exact doppelganger of her close friend Dr Kate Moloney. It soon emerges that the victim has had her looks and clothing changed to resemble a Goth and this makes Maggie’s spine tingle with fear, especially as Kate is currently being stalked by an unknown shady character who is sending strange anonymous gifts and distractingly weird letters. Maggie comes to the conclusion that Kate may be the ultimate stranger’s victim and so investigatory action is ramped up.
The investigation is painstaking, every avenue and clue methodically investigated by Maggie’s Stafford MOCD (Major and Organised Crime Department) unit, under the close management of DS Nathan Wright. The team are on high alert as Kate moves in with Maggie and her brother as an extra security measurement. Then a second body is discovered. The press interest is phenomenal and invasive with the perpetrator being called ‘The Living Doll Murderer’. Can The MOCD and other multi-faceted agencies, willing partners of the investigation, stop the rollercoaster of slaughter and keep Kate safe or is it curtains for Kate?
This story is electrifyingly dark and twisty. I enjoyed the complexity of the storyboard and the pacey action and dialogue. I loved the familiarity of characters I had met in Noelle’s first two novels and I liked the depth and development of the new characters. I had no idea of the identity of the dangerously deranged murderer, who was all the time hidden within his obscurity but in clear sight, a master of determination and disguise to mask and ultimately achieve his purpose. One aspect I found very frustrating was the lack of coherent ordering of the different phases of the story as, without any spacing or new chapters, characters carried on their story threads merging with totally different and unnamed threads of the story.
I received a complimentary copy of this novel from publisher One More Chapter through my membership of NetGalley. Thank you for my copy sent in return for an honest and unbiased review. This novel is an exciting read that will keep you turning the pages, wondering what will happen next, hooked in from the very first few pages until the last few words.
Dark and disturbing story, full of action and menace