5 star powerful and page turning read from the fabulous author Angela Marsons and book number 15 in the unputdownable DI Kim Stone series.

In this novel we find Kim pitted against Steven Harte, a wealthy attractive man who she fears responsible for the kidnapping of more than one child. Twenty five years ago Melody disappeared and since then others have been taken and only some returned. Time is ticking as Grace has now vanished into thin air. Stone and her team work tirelessly to unpick the clues that Harte is leaving and we gain more insight into the workings of the squad as they race to beat the time Harte can be detained. At the same time Kim’s nemesis Dr Alex Thorne contacts Kim with a huge revelation about Kim’s very private life in an attempt to get Kim to recommend her early release from prison.

As with all of this series we learn more about Kim and the team as people and as professionals. As an avid fan of this series I love to discover more about all the characters, especially Kim and as with previous books we find out a little more each time. The plot is fascinating and I literally couldn’t stop turning the pages to find out what was going to happen. Kim is an enormously complex character and also her foil Alex, who we meet again here and discover a little more about are hugely interesting to read about. The ending of this was completely unexpected and very clever.

Highly recommend and thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

What can you say. It’s Angela Marsons. Brilliant. It’s Kim Stone. Brilliant.

It’s hard to believe this is no 15 in this series. As a reader I am still fully engrossed with the world of Kim Stone.

Each novel is better than the last. Devoured the book. Can’t wait till the next one

Loved this creepy thriller! Hooked me from the very beginning and just never let go. Wow did not see that coming! Twists and turns totally caught me off guard. Rich cast of characters that made me feel totally invested in this book. Another great read that I highly recommend.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this book

Angela Marson's continues her tightly plotted DI Kim Stone series with another humdinger.

In 'Stolen Ones', the 15th of the series, DI Stone has tables turned on her when tech millionaire and philanthropist Steven Harte walks into Halesowen police station and confesses to having information that will lead the team to find Melody Jones, a girl who went missing from a playground 25 years previously.

Meabwhile the team have to find Grace Lennard who vanished from her childcare centre. Are they related? What is off about Harte?

Meanwhile old nemisis Alexandra Thorne is up to her usual tricks.

Yet again the team race around the clock to find the culprit/s. Of course there's a twist, and while I did see it coming I didn't get the final part of it which made me go 'WOAH, how the hell did Marsons do that?'

As always the strength of this series, and why this series is an auto-buy, is the found family Kim has with her team, especially Bryant who is like a surrogate big brother type. The banter between Kim and Bryant has me laughing, and provides a contrast to the heaviness of the murders they're investigating.

If I had one niggle about this book its Marsons bring back Alex Thorne. I found those chapters boring and I think her use-by date is long overdue. Time to drop this storyline I think. I prefer the focus on her cases, plus Kim has suffered enough with her childhood!

If you're looking for a police procedural series that is tightly plotted with twists galore, along with the banter and fun of a 'found family' of police detectives, this is a series not to be missed.

Well I have to say, this is a cracking book, and the twist at the end left me shocked! I’m a massive fan of Kim and her team, having read each and every one of the series, and I was thrilled to be offered this book as an ARC. Kim and her officers are dedicated, hard working police officers and even her boss, although I’m sure he has to grit his teeth sometimes, all work well together.

This is a different kind of crime though, in that, a man comes into the police station and informs Kim about the missing girls, and that he has information for her. Kim, at first doesn’t believe him but as time goes on, things happen to make it seem more credible.

Coupled with the fact, that awful woman, Alex Thorne, who is serving time is mithering Kim about getting out for good behaviour. I ask you, these folk should be locked up and the key thrown away! She is one nasty piece of work, and very manipulative, a true sociopath.

As the case continues, more missing vunerable girls come to light, and it’s a race against time to find out the truth.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I love Kim and all her workmates, Stace, Penn and Bryant are the stalwarts of the team, each with their own gifts to help find the truth.

My thanks to Angela, Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.

Stolen Ones (Detective Kim Stone Crime Thriller Book 15) by Angela Marsons Couldn't put it down, am in awe of Ms Marsons ability to keep you on the edge of your seat and throw out surprises when least expected. Always look forward to a Kim Stone Thriller and haven't been disappointed. An expected twisty ending and an arch villain will be back to create havoc in the next case. Highly recommended

Thank you to the author, Bookouture and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

My biggest worry about picking up an Angela Marson’s book is never about what lies beneath the cover, but always about how can I write a review that will do her work any justice! This might be the 15th in the Kim Stone series but the anticipation felt as I opened the first page is as palpable as always. I just knew I was about to lose myself in Kim Stone’s world. And I have to say in Stolen Ones, once again, Angela Marsons exceeded all of my expectations and then some! I’ll leave you to read the blurb for the overview of the storyline but let me tell you the opening prologue will chill you to the bone! As always I’ll give you a warning before you read – cancel all plans, forget about sleep, call into work dead – once you pick this up, you will NOT want to put it down!
Fans of the series are in for a massive treat as the psychopathic psychiatrist, Alexandra Thorne is back in town and she has Kim set firmly in her sights. Alexandra Thorne has been under lock and key for a long time but she still has the power to rattle Kim and rattle her she does. She is probably the evilest villain in all of the crime fiction books I’ve read, talk about manipulative, it’s her middle name! I love her! What skill this author has to create a character so loathsome but one who has the power to attract readers around her like bees around a honeypot! Deliciously dark!
Past and present collide in this latest instalment and with missing children at the core of the storyline, the tension is quickly ramped up as we watch Kim and her team race to find out who is behind it all! This plot is full to the brim with tension, and there is a very real sense of a ticking bomb as you turn each page! Honestly, the tension literally oozes out of every page. Tantalising twists kept my heart racing throughout and with perfect precision she manages to wrap it all up at the end and yet leave you begging for more!
I feel as though I have grown up with Kim Stone and her team; they are as real to me as the people I see around me every single day. The dynamics, tensions, trust and support between them all brings an authenticity to the series, they become real, multi-layered individuals who step out of the pages and into your life.
I have definitely got a wee soft spot for Penn, his love and concern for his brother Jasper shines through in this novel, as Jasper starts to push the boundaries in his quest for some independence while Penn wants to wrap him up in cotton wool and protect him from the world. I can’t wait to see how this plays out.
Angela Marsons never shies away from tackling the most difficult, delicate themes and always does so with sensitivity and a hefty dose of realism. Addictive as any street drug, this one will have your brain spinning and your jaw banging off the ground with a ticking time bomb just waiting to explode. She pulls the rug out from under your feet every single time.
Do NOT miss it!

would like to thank netgalley and the publishers for letting me read this great book

a little girl goes missing
its a race against time for kim and her team to find this little girl

but before they can get to far in their investigations steven harte walks into their station demands to see kim and hints that he knows things about melody, a girl that has been missing for 25 years....but could he also have abducted this recent little girl

could he be the perp....

as they investigate more missing girls come to light that have been returned after a year...with some very startling results

oh my word this book gets your pulse racing in oh so many ways....
its a case of is it or isnt it...and it keeps you guessing right to the end of the last chapter..

challenging times ahead for kim and her team

well worth a read and you wont be able to put the book down until the end

OK, Angela Marsons' books are great. I've said so a squillion times and, judging by the fact that every single one of the 15 (so far) books in the Kim Stone series has an average star rating on Amazon of 4.5 or higher, it seems that almost everyone else agrees. So when I received my ARC of the latest instalment, I had no worry or fear about reading it. I knew before even starting that it would be brilliant and that I'd love it.

My worry was in writing about it afterwards. Because, whilst Angie Marsons' writing shows no sign at all of becoming tired, I fear mine might be. What, I wondered, given that this is the sixteenth book in a series in which the best novels have been epic, most of the rest have been fabulous and even the few I've liked least have still been really, really good, could I possibly say in a review that I haven't said already?

"The characterisation is so well done and so engrossing that the book almost doesn't need a plot. But it's got one, and it's gripping"? Done that.

"It pulls you all the way to the edge of your seat, then lets you go just for a minute to enjoy a bit of banter and humour, before dragging you right back to the edge and holding you there"? Said that.

"There is no greater comfort than snuggling up in a blanket with snacks and diving head first into a DI Kim Stone novel"? Chloe Jordan (of the 'Chloe's Reading Room' Facebook page) said that, and she's absolutely nailed it. Over the series, the characters have become so real, so likeable and so relatable that reading about them again is a bit like meeting that old friend who doesn't live close to you any more, or enjoying a meal at your favourite restaurant. Not an everyday event, but when it happens you welcome it back into your life.

The plot this time round is a little different to what we've become used to. For once, there is no dead body discovered in the first few pages with several more rapidly following it. Instead, successful local businessman and philanthropist Steven Harte walks into Halesowen police station to tell DI Kim Stone that he has information regarding the disappearance of seven-year-old Melody Jones, who vanished without trace 25 years ago. Hours later, another little girl of a similar age disappears. And a bracelet that belonged to Melody Jones is found at the scene ... Can Kim Stone and her team find enough evidence to charge Steven Harte before having to release him?

This lays the foundation perfectly - there's no other word - for each of the characters to do what they do best in the now familiar race against time. Stacey gathers and evaluates data at superhuman speed. Penn sets his brain to working out puzzles. Kim flies between visiting crime scenes and interviewing witnesses before returning to the station to grill her chief suspect. Bryant, well he's just Bryant: the decent, honest and reliable supporter. But not only do they all play to their strengths, they also all behave in exactly the way we just know they would. The assistance of a former MI5 negotiator goes down exactly as well can be expected, and it takes the return of profiler Alison to make any headway. And to enlighten and annoy Kim in almost equal measure.

As ever, the tension mounts superbly and yet, as ever, there is light relief in just the right places. Angie, I'm not suggesting for a second that Bryant needs to die. But if you do decide to make this happen, please make sure that the words "knight in a shining Astra" are engraved onto his headstone.

Then there's the final solution, in which a single sentence uttered by Kim caused me to quite literally gasp, as I realised a split second after she did that the truth had been screaming in both our faces all along. It's an Agatha Christie-esque moment, and I can pay no greater compliment than that.

It sounds, I'm sure, as if this should have been enough. And yet Angie clearly wasn't satisfied, because she's somehow managed to include a sub-story featuring the sociopathic Dr Alex Thorne. Even though you despise yourself for doing so, it's impossible not to quietly admire the way she manipulates others, identifying and preying on their vulnerabilities for her own personal gain. She's not so much a 'love to hate' character as a 'hate to love' one.

There is just a tiny bit of nit-picking to be done. I still don't like the depiction of the woman, who I assume is supposed to be Kim, on the cover and I still don't understand how a book can claim to be a "million copy bestseller" before it's even gone on sale. But I've said this before, too.

My other bugbear concerns some of the characters names, which are shared with fellow Bookouture authors. I suspect it's no coincidence that the main suspect, Steven Harte, shares a surname with the main character created by Carla Kovach. Sharon Bairden makes an appearance as a land registry officer, and if the readers are too dense to spot the significance of a prisoner named Noelle Holten, the description given is so obviously that of the real author that I wondered what she had done for Angie to be upset by her. The trouble was that the character of Noelle in particular appeared just as the main plot was nearing its climax, which meant that the name became a distraction right at the time when I least wanted one.

Let's be honest, though: who cares? The simple truth is that Queen Angie has done it again. As a mere mortal, I salute you once more, your Highness. And if there really is anyone out there who might be put off from reading the book by quibbles so trivial as those I have raised, the only thing to say is: off with your head.

My thanks to the author, Bookouture and Netgalley for an ARC of this book, which it has been a privilege to review voluntarily and honestly. I will post my review to Goodreads now and on Amazon on publication day.

For those who follow this series and dote on the demented Dr. Alex Thorne, you are in for a treat. Her evil machinations have not been squelched simply because she is behind bars. She is a master manipulator and her fellow inmates are ripe for the picking. Alex is busily spinning an idea that is sure to gain her early release from prison, but she will need to lure DI Kim Stone into her sticky web for it to succeed. Unfortunately, Alex knows exactly how to push the prickly DI's buttons.

Allison, behavior specialist and ace profiler, is in the mix again. Her astute observations are right on task, and her odd vocabulary tends to lend a bit of humor. Penn's prowess with puzzles comes into play, and Stace's computer savvy has never been more important. As for DI Kim, she has a better idea of how to play the game, but that doesn't mean she will always do it.

#StolenOnesDetectiveKimStoneCrimeThrillerBook15 #NetGalley. Another gripping installment in the DI Kim Stone series. I love these books, there is so much suspense and action. I enjoyed the different perspective in the book - it is clear from the beginning who the culprit is but this is about how Kim and the team prove this whilst at the same time race against time to find the latest victim. A nice little twist at the end and I enjoyed the side story of the continuing relationship between Kim and Dr Alex Thorne, which is obviously to be continued! Can't wait for the next installment - a well deserved 5 stars!!

I would like to thank Netgalley and Bookouture for an advance copy of Stolen Ones, the fifteenth novel to feature DI Kim Stone of the West Midland Police.

Steven Harte walks into the police station, promising information about Melody Jones, who disappeared as a seven year old tenty five years ago and also hinting. that something else is about to happen. That something else is the disappearance of seven year old Grace Lennard. To find Grace Kim and the team must play Steven's games, on her terms and find out what happened to Melody and the other missing girls they find out about in their investigation. In the meantime Dr Alex Thorne is still trying to mess with Kim's head and drops a bombshell.

I enjoyed Stolen Ones which is a psychological thriller in the guise of a police procedural. It's all about mind games, be it Steven Harte trying to game Kim or Dr Alex Thorne trying to game the system. The novel is eminently readable with an easy style and a dash of humour, but I feel that the plot has a slightly contrived feel to it. There is no need for the Alex Thorne narrative in the current case and it's only there as an ongoing thread of her being out to destroy Kim. I'm not a big fan of ongoing threads and, to be honest, I've forgotten what they both did to provoke the enmity.

The main plot, Steven Harte and his psychological machinations, is engrossing. It starts with Kim questioning his motives, knowing something isn't right, but what? That draws the reader in and all the reveals, developments and frustrations force the reader to keep going through curiosity and a desire for a positive result in finding Grace and Melody. I think the author does a great job of building the tension, mostly through time constraints, and developing the story, through strategic developments. This part does not feel contrived or forced, it's just a good story. As for the ending. Wow! I wasn't expecting what I got. It's a great twist

Kim Stone is never going to build a rapport with her suspects, but she seems more measured in her responses and reactions, keeping her eye on the main prize, a successful conviction. I like growth in a character, and as she's become a familiar figure, I can't say friend because she doesn't do friendship, it's nice to see, although I'd be surprised if she has much tongue left, the amount of biting she does.It is a pleasure to read about the warmth and camerarderie in her team.

Stolen Ones is a good read that I have no hesitation in recommending.

“Psychopaths like to play games and they like to win.”

Stolen Ones , book #15 in the Kim Stone series, centers on a creepy philanthropist who claims to know the whereabouts of a missing girl, but he won’t share the details unless DI Kim Stone plays his game. Will she play along or beat him at his own game?

The plot is a departure from the usual. It isn’t about trying to find the kidnapper, as it’s clear from the beginning who the guilty party is. Rather, this is about the psychology behind the guilty party’s motives. Much time is spent on analyzing behavior and body language, Kim’s included. She must learn to modify her behavior to win this sick and twisted cat and mouse game. At the same time, her arch-nemesis, Alexandra Thorne, is cooking up a scheme of her own.

This installment revolves mostly around Kim. We get pieces of the team, here and there, and, of course, a few scenes with Barney, but Kim is the star of Stolen Ones.

Stolen Ones is fast-paced and intriguing. There was also a major twist that I didn’t see coming. This can be read as a standalone, but you will appreciate the characters more if you read the series in order. I can’t believe we have reached book #15 in this series. It is as exciting and fresh as ever, and I am excited to see what is up next for DI Kim Stone and the team!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Bookouture in exchange for an honest review.

When Steven Harte walks into the station and tells DI Kim Stone that he has information regarding the case of Melody Jones, missing for 25 years, she initially dismisses him. When he intimates that another girl will soon go missing she still doesn’t believe, until she returns to the squad room and hears that a young girl, Grace Lennard has disappeared from her childcare centre.
While Kim and Bryant look into what happened to Grace Stacey and Penn look into Steven Harte and any possible connection he could have to the two girls. They soon find links to other missing girls but they have no solid evidence. With the clock ticking Kim and the team need to break Steven's composure and work out what game he is playing if they are to save Grace.
Meanwhile Dr Alex Thorne, Kim's old nemesis, is hopeful that she will soon be released on parole and is intent on messing with Kim’s life. This distraction is the last thing Kim needs but can she resist the pull of Alex's assertion that she knows something Kim will want to hear?
Fast, gripping and totally addictive this book has some brilliant twists that you won't see coming and you won't want to put it down.
I remember reading the first Kim Stone book and loving every second. Every book since has had me totally gripped and this, the 15th in the series, shows they are just getting better and better.

Absolutely brilliant. The 15th book in the Kim Stone series and they just keep getting better and better.

It’s the 25th anniversary since seven year old Melody Stone disappeared and all the crazies have come out of the woodwork, and one of them appears to know something. When another child goes missing, can Kim and her team discover what happened to her? Could her disappearance be connected to the missing girl from all those years ago?

Great storyline. Fast paced and gripping. Excellent twist.

It is difficult to find anything new to say about this series. As always the writing is excellent, the plotting is exemplary and the sense of menace is spot on. Kim Stone is a great character and it is a pleasure to encounter a lead cop who gets on with her team. A very good read indeed.

I mean, it's a Kim Stone book. If you've been here before, then you know it's going to whip. And if you haven't read a book in the series before, then you should. They whip.

I get very excited when a new Kim Stone novel comes out because I know the storyline is always going to be interesting and well thought out. Stolen Ones did not disappoint with Kim this time dealing with a child abductor and possible murderer as well as her arch nemesis Alexandra Thorne. Very enjoyable, I look forward to the next instalment.

This is a brilliant addition to the Kim Stone series. When an 8 year old girl goes missing from a children's centre, Kim and her team are called to investigate. The story is filled with tension and suspense, as well as having plenty twists and great character development. We still have arch enemy Alexandra Thorne in prison but attempting to control Kim from inside. A really interesting plot which kept me guessing right up until the end and another 5* read from Angela Marsons.

A fantastic thrilling read, a unique storyline that sent shivers down my spine and kept me awake into the early hours. As if Kim hasn't enough to contend with she is once again faced with her nemesis Dr. Alexander Thorne who is due for a parole hearing. The last thing Kim wants is for this monster to be back out on the streets, she causes enough mayhem in prison but will Kim be able to stop the release. Although the story is about historic and up to date child abduction it is dealt with sensitively by the author with no over-the-top descriptions of abuse. That is the crux of the case the abductor treats the girls well while he holds them captive. and even approaches the police to offer advice.. They soon realise that he could be the prime suspect but proving it isn't going to be easy.. Some crime thriller series wilt a bit with time but not the books by Angela Marsons, they just get better and better.