Sergeant Belinda ‘Billy’ Kidd is on her way home from a sabbatical in Australia, having lost quite a bit of her confidence both due to a police incident and the menopause. However, not long after she lands, she finds herself on a gridlocked motorway with a dead body in a nearby car. Not only is the person dead, they have clearly been murdered shortly after the cars came to a standstill. With no way off the motorway Billy knows the murderer must be close but who is it and why?! Everyone and no one seems suspect at the same time. Who is it? Can Billy find her confidence and crack this?

This thriller is a great locked room style mystery and keeps you hooked all the way through as Billy tries to piece the puzzles together. I really enjoyed the unusual setup of the book being set on a motorway. The characters are well developed and the story contained some good twists and turns. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys a thriller, a mystery to be solved.

My first book by the author but won’t be the last!

What an original and gripping thriller!
When off duty police officer Belinda ‘Billy’ Kidd drives home from the airport after a period of extended leave from work she is thinking of leaving the police force after 30 years of service due to anxiety and a traumatic incident at work. However on her way home, a car bomb in a tunnel brings the motorway to a standstill and when a dead body is discovered in a car Billy is back on duty.
Dead Mile is such an original take on the locked room mystery novel. It’s an intense and compelling read with excellent characterisation and a plot that throws in plenty of red herrings and twists. I raced through it desperate to know how anyone could have got away with murder in this scenario and found the ending very satisfying. I loved the character of Billy and really hope she returns in a sequel.
Recommended. 4.5 stars
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

I enjoyed this interesting crime thriller set on a motorway. Though a bit slow at times, I liked the main character who was well rounded and believable. Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc.

Jo Furness’ Sergeant Belinda ‘Billy’ Kidd has just arrived back to the UK from a six month trip to Australia and she’s driving from the airport back home - already stressing about the drive due to reasons we find out about later in the book.
Suddenly the traffic stops, and Billy finds out that there’s been a car bomb in the tunnel ahead. When everyone gets out of their cars as there’s no sign of movement - Billy finds a dead man in one of the cars near hers.
Although Billy had been due to retire, she switches into work mode and starts interviewing suspects, checking the crime scene (the car). But there’s more bombs going off on the half hour around London, making London come to a standstill, and unlikely to have any police or recovery coming anytime soon to their location - which means that Billy could be talking to the suspect. But who are they?
Almost all the other drivers around the victim’s car seem to have a secret - and it takes Billy quite a while to try and work them out. Could it be ex-con Pat, the mother and daughter in the minivan, the Pub Landlord Nigel in his RangeRover, the young couple who say that they don’t know each other, the highly strung mother in the Audi SUV or any of the others? And then there’s the suspicious van on the other side of the road…
Stress, heat, lack of food and resources begins to affect all the drivers in the traffic jam.
Can Billy solve the murder? She uses her friend and colleague Superintendent Dominic Day to get more information but the bombs around London have stretched the police forces to the limit.

A good read, especially if you’ve ever been stuck in a traffic jam that hasn’t moved for several hours - what could happen?
Thanks to #Netgallet for the ARC

I have mixed feelings about this book. I really liked the main character and some of the other characters, and I thought the plot was great, very original. However it did ramble a bit, and I lost my enthusiasm .I am an impatient reader and I didn't enjoy it when the pace slowed, Overall not a bad book.

What a brilliant story, with a clever plot that’s certainly different from anything else I’ve read before.
The events take place on the motorway in the middle of a gridlocked situation. ‘Billy’ DS Belinda Kidd is heading home from the airport and is on the verge of resignation. She finds herself the only police officer on the scene when a murder takes place. As she begins to investigate she realises she is racing against time before the gridlock clears and everyone leaves the scene. Can she solve the mystery in time?
A fabulous read, which I definitely will be recommending to all my friends and family.

A clever and entertaining murder mystery.
I did think it was a bit drawn out at times, but I did enjoy it.
It was a good setting for a book, different definitely.
Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the early copy.

I enjoyed this book ,set in a traffic jam of all places !It was an engrossing read ,nice to have a bit of an alternative setting .

Wow this was a different type of book but really good - absolutely brilliant read

This must be the first ever gridlocked murder mystery - literally! It is a very clever and entertaining thriller. The events take place in a motorway jam following a terrorist attack incident.

There's quite a lot of interesting characters and Sergeant Billy Kidd solves the case on her own with phone assistance from her colleagues in the Police Force. She should be made a DI after solving this mystery

Thank you to Netgalley

Billy is heading home from the airport, burnt out and ready to hand in her notice when a series of bombs close off the motorway resulting in everyone being stuck. When a dead body is then found in a nearby car Billy investigates with the help of some others also stuck in the traffic. As secrets all around begin to unravel, can Billy solve this murder?

Told from the POV of Billy and a couple chapters from other motorists, I enjoyed the fast pace of this book. Spanning over the course of the hours of gridlock, there's a lot to unravel!

Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A unique take on a murder mystery.
Billy is returning after a break from policing and finds herself amongst fellow drivers stuck on a section of motorway while the city is undergoing a series of terror attacks. On finding a dead driver- a clear murder victim, Billy has to manage a difficult crime scene and find out what’s happened with only the support of a select few of the trapped drivers.
I found the number of characters and POVs confusing at first with Billy’s nicknames and then actual names, but actually it worked well. Each had their own backstory and played a part in the crime or solving the crime. I need to read more about Billy- to be honest the book had me at “menopausal woman fights crime”

Sergeant Belinda "Billy" Kidd is on her way home from the airport when a bomb goes off on in a tunnel up ahead, halting traffic. Whilst stuck in traffic, a scream alerts her to a man dead inside his car. Billy is on the clock to find out the man's identity, who killed him and why, before the traffic starts moving again.

Billy, close to retirement due a work incident, works with the help of a few fellow stranded drivers to unravel the secrets everyone wants to hide.

I thoroughly enjoyed thay this story is set over the course of 5 hours. It's full of twists just waiting to be uncovered. I found the storyline gripping and really enjoyed the writing style. I'd highly recommend it.

Police officer Belinda (Billy) Kidd returns from a long holiday, and gets stuck in an unmoving traffic jam on a motorway due to a bomb that has gone off in a nearby tunnel. It comes to her attention that one of the other drivers has been murdered, and nobody can move, so.the killer is still in the vicinity, so Billy has to take charge of the crime scene.
It takes a while for the story to get going, Billy had lost confidence in her abilities, but with the support of a group of drivers and her colleague Dom on the phone, she manages to maintain.order. Amongst Billy's helpers, I liked Pat and the taxi driver best. The scenes just before nightfall were my favourite part of the book, with some surprising helpers and new alliances.
After the road opens she goes in pursuit of the killers and the story loses some of the tension.
An interesting plot. Enjoyable.

I would like to thank the author, the publisher and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of this book. I thought it was brilliant, a really unusual story with great characters and loads of twists. I will be recommending it to everyone I know.

My first Jo Furniss was real good fun! My curiosity was piqued by the framing of a locked room mystery on a gridlocked motorway where nobody can leave and tensions are heightened by lack of food and toilet breaks., I became invested in hot, stressed, jetlagged, menopausal off-duty police officer Billy who feels the burden of resolving this murder. I'm all for focusing on the slightly older woman as a protagonist and I enjoyed both Billy and Pat/Pam's character. There was a lot thrown into the mix, but I don't mind that in a thriller.

The premise of this book was much more than was delivered. I found myself getting a little lost at times, and found parts not quite connecting! A shame as I have read previous Jo Furniss books and enjoyed them more - this just wasn’t for me

This was an average book. The plot sounded engaging but the book was disjointed. There was no real depth to the main character and I found myself losing interest very early on.

This so could have been a five star read but it was a bit discombobulated. The premise of the story was great but wasn’t executed in the best way. However I did read it all to find out the ending.
Thank you Net Galley & Jo Furniss

Dead Mile is a very clever and entertaining thriller. In a twist on the classic locked room mystery, the events take place in a motorway traffic jam following a major terrorist incident.

DS Belinda Kidd, known as Billy, is heading home from the airport. Jetlagged, burnt out and about to resign, she just wants her journey to end. But then a series of bombs closes the motorway. And a dead body is found in a nearby car. As the only police officer on scene she has to investigate. But she has no equipment, no means of communication and not even her warrant card.

The cast of characters is very interesting, as Billy gets to know those around the murder victim's car. All seem to have secrets, but can she unravel the mystery? It's a novel puzzle and well told. Billy Kidd is a well described lead character, her sense of duty driving her on when she'd rather be anywhere else.

I think this is a good mystery and it quite fun. I did find myself getting a bit lost halfway through and I have to be honest it isn’t really one that has me gripped. It’s fine and I think that other people might enjoy it, for me it’s a bit too cliched and a bit messy.