This book is part of a series featuring Imogene, a dedicated detective and her former police officer boyfriend, Adrian. While Imogene tries to solve the kidnapping of a five year old boy, Adrian tries to keep a brutal sexual attack perpetuated on him a year ago, a secret. The identity of the kidnapper involves someone close to the boy who is one of the most deceitful characters in recent British fiction.Be ready for twists and turns galore along with a character dealing with severe trauma of a victim of sexual assault.

4-5 rounded up.

It’s Halloween and Jason Hitchin is still annoyed with Amanda’s betrayal for dumping him and in revenge he breaks into her parents empty house where from a bedroom window he witnesses a kidnapping of a little boy. This proves to be six year old Marcus Carlyle and his mother Sara soon receives a ransom demand. Thus starts the latest instalment in the excellent DS Imogen Gray and Adrian Miles series. This proves to be a very tough case on several levels as the police team come up against an elusive, ruthless, scheming master manipulator with chameleon qualities.

I love this series and this is yet another very good addition to it. This case is a complex one, there are several strands in the storyline and you wonder how or if they are connected and you are gripped and glued to the pages to find out! One storyline is extremely moving and emotional, there’s major trauma and suffering involved which this character is struggling alone. This is done very sensitively and though it’s a tough read I applaud how well the author handles this aspect of the novel. All characters are well portrayed, especially Imogen and Adrian, the addition of DC Gabriel Webb is a good one and DC Jarvis seems to be emerging as the character that makes your flesh crawl. DCI Kapoor is a diamond, everyone should have a boss like her. Jason’s storyline is a good one and you see a young boy caught between his home circumstances and his desire to do the right thing. The kidnapping storyline is excellent, it’s dangerous, scary and full of drama with tension rising and falling in a way that keeps you hooked. There’s one scene that is gritty if not gruesome but it does serve to show just how ruthless, cold hearted and terrifying the perpetrator is and it’s downright chilling as it seems they’re always one step ahead. The plot twists are good, the story flows well and it’s edge of your seat, white knuckle reading. The twist just before the end is a corker and as for the ending, yes of course I’m all in for number eight and here’s hoping the author is well on her way with it so we don’t have to wait too long.

Overall, a fantastic read. Although it’s part of a series it can easily be read as a stand-alone.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Avon Books UK for the much appreciated arc in return for an honest review.

Oh my gosh this is book is a MUST READ

If you love detective thrillers with excellent characters and story, this is the one for you!
I could not put this away, cannot wait to read more!

They’re back!

I’ll start by saying I haven’t forgiven you Katerina. What happened to Adrian in the last book still haunts me! ....but sadly not as much as it’s haunting him. :(

An emotional thriller and an absolute must read. In fact the whole series is a must read! If you love well written intelligent crime thrillers then grab this one next!
5/5 (10/5 if I could!)

Holy smokes, this was a rollercoaster of a read. I was unsure with the first few chapters if I was going to like this one, but then it grabbed a hold of me and didn’t slow down for a moment. Missing child, a unlikely witness and suspicious behaviour from those closest to the case. This book was horrifying and delved into sensitive subjects with tact and straightforwardness that I appreciated. It was so well done I could not put it down. This was a new author for me and I will absolutely be purchasing her other books. Well done!

Totally immersive thriller. I love everything by this author and this was no exception .

Trick or Treat by Katerina Diamond

Synopsis
When six-year-old Marcus is taken from outside his house on Halloween it shakes his quiet neighbourhood to the core.
Everyone was ready for a night of trick-or-treating. Now the unthinkable has happened.
As Detective Imogen Grey arrives to question Marcus’s parents, they tell her there has been a mistake. Their son is just fine.
But if that’s true, where is Marcus?
Imogen becomes locked in a race against time to find the missing child and uncover the truth. Can she discover what’s happened to Marcus before it’s too late?

Review
This is the 7th book in the DS Grey/Miles series. I really enjoyed it and read it very quickly.
I love the characters and really enjoyed the story, this is a great series of books.
Highly recommend.

Rated 4/5

Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced copy in return for an honest review (this book is out October 14th)

Not the best book in the series but always good to return to familiar characters. It's still good but enjoyed the others more

Wow! Wow! Wow! what a fantastic read, kept me captivated from beginning to end. if you haven't read any of Katerina Diamonds books firstly where have you been, secondly you won't be disappointed i recommend them to everyone, they are gripping reads with very likeable characters Trick or Treat is no exception, you could read this as a stand alone but i would highly recommend reading them in order, there will be plenty of late nights and lack of sleep but well worth it.
Thank you NetGalley for sending this to my kindle.

Good Suspense/thriller. Seemed to have two plots that eventually go together.
Marcus, a six year old boy is abducted in front of his house. Unbeknownst to the kidnappers, a teenager, who is breaking and entering at the time, witnesses the crime and calls the police. Detective Imogen Jarvis responds to the call. In her own life, her longtime boyfriend, Adrien, is dealing with his own trauma, but keeping it from her.
Some twists and turns, some I didn't follow right away. Overall a good read.
I received an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I looked forward to reading this. The premise sounded interesting and the cover art lured me in. Six year old Marcus has been kidnapped off the street he was playing on. All that was left was his fancy bike. Little did the kidnappers know it was witnessed by a teenager, who although not where he's supposed to be, does the right thing and alerts the police to the kidnapping. DS Imogen Grey is one of the responding officers and her instincts tell her there's something off about the family. All's not right in Imogen's world either. Her long time boyfriend is trying to recover from a trauma all the while keeping it secret from Imogen. The two story lines are on a path to collide. Sadly this wasn't the great read I thought it would be. I think it should have come with a trigger warning as her boyfriend's trauma could easily be difficult for some to deal with. I found Imogen's lack of awareness towards her boyfriend's issues difficult to believe. In the end it just wasn't an enjoyable read for me.

Marcus carlyle, a6 year old boy, who is out riding his bike, is suddenly kidnapped by 2 men in a white. The only witness to this appears to be Jason, who has broken into the house opposite as a revenge act against his ex girlfriend. Jason annonymously fed orwards his evidence to the police although is suprised when the case does not appear to hit the news.

Sara and peter, marcus s parents receive a ransom demand of money they are absolutly unable to raise. However with help from Saras father, sara has the money to take to the planned drop off. However en route she is seriously injured and hospitalised, alongside no return of marcus.

DS imogen is assigned this case. As her suspicions unfold, we learn of multiple identities and a twisted web of lies surrounding peters life. The race is on to try and find marcus alive which as the days pass, feels very unlikely.

Imogen also has to battle with her own relationship with Adrain as he shares a hidden secret....do the 2 cases link in some way?.

Although this is book 7 featuring Imogen, and i have not read the previous ones, this in no way spoilt the storyline. Fast paced with twists throughout, i would highly recommend a read.

I adore Katerina Diamond, and I have read all of her books - and I really love the Imogen Grey series.
I have to say, I think this is my favourite so far!! I was gripped from the very beginning, and I was hooked to this page-turner.
Such an interesting premise, so many twists and turns. It also has so much heart - not something you usually get from a thriller. You really feel for the characters and whether you have read all of the previous books in the series you immediately will feel connected.

I think this book should have some trigger warnings for sexual assault as it is very hard to read at times - I think this would be super triggering for anyone who has experienced this - something to bear in mind before going into this book.

I cannot recommend this book enough!! Brilliant. Gripping! Everything you want in a thriller!

I wish to express my sincere thanks to NetGalley and Avon Books UK for this ARC in return for an honest review. I greatly appreciate being introduced to authors previously unfamiliar to me. This was a gritty, emotional, psychological thriller and police procedural by Katerina Diamond, with strongly developed, memorable characters, twists and turns, and surprising revelations. While reading Trick or Treat, I immediately purchased and downloaded the previous book in the series and one of the author's standalones.

There are several threads in this complex crime story and many intriguing characters, but it works with brilliantly connected elements in this compelling, well-structured plot.

A six-year-old boy, Marcus, is kidnapped on Halloween day while riding his bike near his home. The crime is observed by a teenaged boy, Jason while committing the crime of vandalizing a nearby house. Disguising his voice, he uses a burner phone to alert the police and takes a picture of the crime in progress.

This puts the determined and tenacious detective, Imogen Grey, on the case with a new team. She is obsessed with finding Marcus before he is harmed. She is also preoccupied with thoughts of her work and life partner, Adrian Miles. He is a broken man, distant in their relationship for the past year. He has quit police work and is in anguish from a trauma he will not reveal.

On a visit to the boy's parents, they first deny anything is wrong. When faced with the fact of the kidnapping, the mother is distraught. The father's reactions cause Imogen to suspect he knows something he is not telling. He is too cool and rigid. There is a call demanding a ransom of a huge amount of money for the safe return of Marcus. The grandfather supplies the money. Marcus's mother, Sara, is to drop the ransom money in a suitcase at a spot designated by the kidnappers. The police are watching, but everything goes wrong. Sara is severely injured, and the ransom money disappears. The criminals express anger at the loss of the money and demand a similar sum, or Marcus will die.

Jason is feeling some remorse for trashing the house and worries about Marcus. He fears going to the police with the photo he took that clearly shows one of the kidnappers and the van. His older brother is soon due for release from prison while his single mother moves from one unsuitable man to the next. Jason's father, absent for many years, shows up at home. At first, Jason is delighted for his father's company and reunited with his brother home from prison, but things go horribly wrong.

As the days pass, Imogen's fear grows for Marcus's safety. The search for suspects leads them to a hardened group of ex-prisoners who may know something about the crime. Rumours are circulating that Marcus may be trafficked and sold to predators to compensate for the loss of the ransom money. Time is of the essence. Their leading suspect is a master of stolen identities and seems impossible to track down.

Miles has been employed with a private security/surveillance firm that also comes into the investigation.
One former prisoner is believed to know about the kidnapping, but he is brutally murdered right after Miles visited him for a secret, personal reason. Miles has an airtight alibi that he was elsewhere at the killing, but he refuses to reveal it. He prefers to go to prison on a murder charge, knowing that he will be targeted as an ex-policeman once inside.

The storyline comes together in a shocking, tension-filled conclusion. I definitely intend to catch up
on previous books in this series that I missed.

DS Imogen Grey is an interesting character. She is tasked with finding a little boy Marcus who has been kidnapped from outside his house. His parents receive a call from kidnappers demanding a ransom and warning them not to contact the police however someone saw it happen and phone the police.
Imogen’s life gets more complicated when she hears shocking news from her boyfriend Adrian.
Good storyline with lots of twists and turns, a few I struggled with as they seemed unlikely and weren’t needed.
Thanks to #Netgalley for allowing me to read this book in return for a fair review .
3.5 stars ⭐️

Thankyou to NetGalley and the author, Katerina Diamond, for the opportunity to read Trick Or Treat in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion.
Such a good read.
Action packed with plenty of intrigue, it keeps you guessing.
Well worth a read.

This is the first book I have read in this series and look forward to catching up on the previous ones.

How do you find a six year old boy who has been kidnapped when constant obstacles are put in your way? That is the dilemma for DS Imogen Grey and her team. When the prime suspect suddenly goes missing, they are in a race against time to discover where they are before it’s too late.

A great fast paced story with a good plot and a shocking secret. I look forward to the next book in this series.

Wow! Well what can I say? I loved this book. Katerina Diamond is a go to author for me I have read all of her books. So I have been eagerly awaiting the release of this book and for me to have received an ARC of it completely blew me away.

This book is #7 in the DS Imogen Grey series. Each book follows a different crime so they can be read as a stand alone but there are references to previous books so it is probably better to read them all to have a better understanding.

This book had me gripped from the beginning as has been the same for all Katerina’s books.
This books follows Grey as she tries to find out who is behind the kidnapping of a child on Halloween. Will she find the child before it is too late?

There is lots going on in the book with lots of twists and turns to keep you guessing!

Former DS Adrian Miles is again featured in the book. For me he is my favourite character I love his charm and wit.

Although the story is difficult to read in places it is very well handled by the author.

Please, please say there is a book #8 🙏🏻
If you haven’t read one of Katerina Diamonds books I highly recommend that you do, you will not be disappointed.

Thank you to Avon Books and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For me, this book was much anticipated and did not disappoint. Deserves a 5 star in my opinion as I really love this detective series about Imogen and Adrian. We're onto book 7 in the series and we are all settled in well getting to know them both and following their own personal lives as well as a different police case each time.

Adrian has drifted off on another path away from being a detective (which I won't reveal why) but still his new line of work gets him in the radar of Imogen's team and so the race is on to get Adrian out of prison and get the real culprits in prison.

Genius to bring back a much loved character into the storyline and sounds like he'll return in book 8. Yay

The case for Imogen this time is an abduction and the ransom goes missing and involves a different family with their own troubles.

If you haven't tried this series, I really highly recommend that you do! Katerina Diamond is my absolute clear favourite author and the suspense is already killing me on where book 8 will take us.

This book has everything! It is well written, a brilliant multi-stranded plot and subtle characterization that creates empathy for all the characters particularly the main ones. I had read the early books in the Miles/ Grey series but somehow missed the last couple (too many good books to read!) While it didn’t matter as this works well as a stand alone, I have to read them, particularly the previous one where a difficult subject is probably treated with as much sensitivity as it is here. Love the way Katerina writes and the way the story flows. It is a police procedural but so much more. I recommend highly.
Thanks to Avon Books and NetGalley for an ARC in return for an honest review.