Dead and gone is the sequel to Trust me I'm dead by Sherryl Clark. It follows Judi Westerholme's life, and in this instalment Judi is left as guardian to her young niece Mia, following the tragic death of her parents. 
This situation is far from ideal for Judi as she has to navigate between not only what is best for her, but best for Mia too. As she is reluctant to sell her late brother's house, Judi finds herself taking on a job at the local pub, and everything seems to run smoothly - that is until her new boss Macca is found dead. 
When Heath is sent to investigate the murder, things start to spiral, and Judi finds herself being named as a suspect.

This is an incredible read and really had me guessing right until the end. I loved the pace in which the suspense built up throughout the book, and the way in which the writing style really draws you in and fully immerses you in this story. A definite must read for lovers of crime/thriller fiction.

*Thank you to Verve Books and Netgalley for my copy of this book in return for my honest review.*

🅜🅨 🅡🅔🅥🅘🅔🅦 🅞🅕
DEAD AND GONE
by Sherryl Clark
⭐⭐⭐⭐

My thanks to @Netgalley for sending me this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Judi is making ends meet by managing the Candlebark Hotel. On one of their busiest days a body is found in the skip behind the hotel. It's identified as Big Macca, the owner. Murdered. 
What follows is a roller coaster ride for Judi, who has to deal with the aftermath of the murder, frightening incidents which seem to indicate things are far from over, and the sudden appearance of a woman claiming she was Big Macca's long lost daughter and that the hotel is now her property. Despite being warned by police to stay out of the investigation, Judi keeps looking for answers, and finds far more than she bargained for. 

I enjoyed Dead and Gone immensely. Now, it is the second in the Judi Westerholme series, and while it performed admirably as a standalone book, I'm glad I had already read the first book Trust Me, I'm Dead. I found the characters easier to understand and empathise with because I knew their history and this enriched the whole book.

The characters are well thought out and I felt warmth, or occasionally sheer loathing, when appropriate. I think Judi could do with some counselling to help deal with her past, and her anger management issues. Sherryl Clark has written Judi's difficult past into her personality perfectly, and I'd like to see how she develops her in future books. I wasn't expecting the ending that came, and it neatly closed the story. 

I think one or two incidents stretched my suspension of disbelief somewhat, but I'll leave that to you to agree or disagree as you encounter them. 

Overall, Dead and Gone is a skilled piece of wordcraft that was a pleasure to read, and I recommend it to any crime fiction reader, although I would suggest reading Trust Me, I'm Dead first.

This is a brilliant read.
Wonderful well written plot and story line that had me engaged from the start.
Love the well fleshed out characters and found them believable.
Great suspense and action with wonderful world building.
Can't wait to read what the author brings out next.
Recommend reading.

I read a complimentary advance copy of the book; this is my voluntary and honest review.

I very much enjoyed this book.  It has a good story and excellent main characters.  I would definately recommend this book.

What an amazing crime thriller. 

The story centres around Judi who finds herself wrapped up in another murder mystery, (turns out there's a first book that I need to read) after her boss Macca is murdered. Macca is a well loved memory of the community local pub owner and all round good guy which makes his murder all the more confusing. Alot unfolds as Judi has a feeling the police are missing something, ignoring all advice to stay out of it she starts her own investigation which sends her down many dangerous paths. 

The story is told by Judi in first person, she is adjusting to life as a single paren,t after her brothers murder (apparently in book one), to the lovely Mia. They seem to have a good relationship but its great to see the real struggles of adjusting to motherhood. Judi seems to be unaware of how much she fiercely loves Mia. Their bound is so sweet and obvious throughout the story. 

Her other love do it seems is a detective from Melbourne called Heath who she met during the investigation into her brothers murder. He's called up to candlebark to handle the murder of Macca and their paths cross again. Another well written relationship. It's not all sunsets and sex but rather real hard struggles. Honestly the love story was hit or miss for me but I can see the reason for building it into the storyline. 

The other main characters; Andre, Suzie, Connor and Carl all have their own roles to play. Each character has a depth to them which is brought across well even with Judi narrating. Andre probably being my favourite with his obsessions around his home from home the pub bistro and it's menu. 

Dead and gone is extremely suspenseful and other than the one link to the murder Judi discovers early on I honestly had no clue how it was going to end. I am normally really good at guessing killers and their reasons but I didn't have the foggiest and I think thats what got me turning the pages even faster. I honestly enjoyed the book from the begining even though its not full with action throughout, it still manages to build enough tension to keep you invested. 

So it was an easy 5 stars and I have already purchased the first book to catch up on before hopefully the third book..... 
If you enjoy a crime thriller this book will not let you down. Crime thrillers are my favourite and most read and this is up there with some of the best I've read. The story may be simple but that's what is so endearing about it! Highly recommend. 
  

Thank you netgalley, old castles books and Sherryl Clark for the APC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I’ve read both Dead and Gone and the first book in the series, Trust Me, I’m Dead this week. They are addictive and offer something new in the crime genre - a 40-something woman drawn reluctantly into murder investigations when people connected to her are killed. While she is out of her comfort zone in every way, she has skills she brings that make her a really great protagonist.

If you havent read the first book you are better reading that before this as it gives you buts and bobs in this but its better to read the first one first.

I have read the first one so i was excited to read this and i loved it the twists and turns in this were fab and just her relationship with the policeman, mia and andre is just so fab too read i really go through the emotions with jude and feel i understand exactly whats going on which is great.

Cant wait to see if theres another one really want to know what happens next.

Fantastic read. Highly recommended. Kept me hooked, didn't want to put it down. Passed it to my sister to read and she was the same! Now recommending it to all her friends who read 🤣

'Dead & Gone' is the second book in the series featuring Judi Westerholme.  The first book in the series is called 'Trust Me, I'm Dead'.  I do have the first book on my ever increasing 'to be read' mountain, I haven't actually read it yet.  What a mistake to make.  I thoroughly enjoyed reading 'Dead & Gone' but more about that in a bit.
 I liked the character of Judi Westerholme and took to her from the start.  She is a young woman, who works in a bar where she does the books.  Judi is a single parent to her niece.  Judi had a brother but he was killed and Judi took in his daughter.  She has a good relationship with her niece and there is a tight bond there.  As I mention Judi works at a bar and her boss is found dead in the bin.  Judi is certainly in the thick of it and she ends up doing her own little investigation.  She talks to a lot of people and ends up finding out far more than she had ever expected to.  
It didn't take me long at all to get into 'Dead & Gone'.  In fact by the end of the first page or two, I knew that I would find it increasingly difficult to put the book to one side for any length of time.  I think I took to Judi so well that I cared about what happened to her and I was desperate to find out who killed Macca and why.   The pages turned over increasingly quickly as my desperation to find out what happened just grew and grew.  If I wasn't reading the book, I was thinking about the book.  If I had to put the book down then I would immediately look forward to being able to pick the book up again.  I soon got to the end of the story and I thoroughly enjoyed every single minute of the story.
'Dead & Gone' is well written.  I was completely under this book's spell from the moment I first picked the book up until the moment I read the last word on the last page.  Sherryl certainly grabbed my attention from the start and drew me into the story.  This was one of those books that kept me guessing, kept me gripped and kept me on the edge of my seat throughout.  I felt as though I was part of the story myself and that's thanks to Sherryl's very vivid and realistic writing style.
In short, I really enjoyed reading 'Dead & Gone' and I would recommend it to other readers.  I will be reading more of Sherryl's work in the future.  The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.

I struggled with the plot and the story didn't keep my attention. Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Thank you to Netgalley and Oldcastle books for the arc of Dead and Gone by Sherryl Clark.

This follows Judi whom is a very strong and brave lady whom is coping and adjusting to being a foster parent to a relative of her niece whom unfortunately is an orphan... She's working in her local pub in which helps her to manage with her earnings and makes ends meet with what she has..  Peter whom is the pub landlord is an Army Veteran but sadly has been murdered... So she is determined to find whom it may but the police tell her not too as it may become dangerous whom she may deal with and it did .. 

This is a 4 star read I throughly enjoyed this was such an amazing and gripping book I read this within one day ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Recommend highly ❤️

Judi Westerholme is brave, strong willed and just about coping as a foster parent to her orphaned niece. She's working in the local pub to help make ends meet. But the pub landlord, army veteran Peter Macca" Maccasfield has been murdered.  The police warn Judi not to get involved but she has to try and help find Macca's killer. It's not long before she's dealing with ruthlessly dangerous men.

The story is set in Australia. I liked the main protagonist, Judi. She doesn't hold back when trying to find out who had murdered her boss. I like the authors writing style. Thenoace was steady with plenty of twists. I found this a gripping read. 5his is my first book by the author but it won't be my last.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Verve Books and the author Sherryl Clark for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a nice easy read by this author. I loved the small town Australian setting and the interesting characters. Judi, the main character, has an interesting background and has custody of her niece. When her boss at the local hotel is murdered, she just can't stop herself from trying to find the killer. i liked the writing style, the pacey plot and the twists in the tale. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

Secrets have a way of coming to the fore and in this tautly written read, that’s exactly what happens. When Judi’s friend Pete is murdered, life doesn’t feel like it’ll ever get back to normal. Just about managing being a foster parent and a new job – done so to have enough money to live on – Judi wants to find out the truth about who killed Pete. But not everyone’s delighted that she’ poking her nose in. It felt like a different sort of crime read to me from an author I’d like to read again.

I received an advanced reader’s copy in exchange for an honest review 

I agree with other reviewers that this book is fair to middling compared to other thrillers out there you can get through NetGalley or cheap online, you could probably pass on this because it never quits satisfies in anyway

Thanks to Netgalley for the preview of this book.  Unfortunately it was not for me. I struggled with it & found the plot weak & characters unlikeable.  The storyline was all over the place and hard to follow.

Dead and gone by Sherryl Clark gets going without wasting any time. I did feel that I’d missed key points as I hadn’t read the previous book and there were so many references to it and links to the characters/storyline. Despite that, I was able to pick enough up to get into the storyline and enjoy the whodunnit nature of the book. I did keep expecting some of those close to Judi to have a dark bent....No spoilers. There were lots of missed (maybe just postponed?) opportunities to develop characters and their storylines more fully. Overall a decent read, leaving the door wide open for an ongoing series.?

Gritty mystery surrounding the death of a pub landlord. Interesting characters who bring the story to life.

This is the first book I have read by author Sherryl Clark and I have to be honest I struggled with it.
The story begins with the discovery of a body. The body is Macca, who is the landlord of a pub where our main character Judi works, to make end meet, whilst she is fostering her niece after her brother died. 
I think I struggled with it because as a reader I didn’t get to know anything about Macca before he died. Even when Judi discovered that her friend and boss had been found murdered and dumped in a bin at his own pub she didn’t seem to be that upset! As a result it was hard for me, as the reader, to carry on with the book to find out what had happened to him. 
As the publisher had been so kind as to send me an advanced digital copy of this book to review I finished the book but had it been a book I paid for I don’t think I would have.