BLOG TOUR: Private Investigations (Lara Arden Crime Series Book 2) - Rob Gittins

A young girl is in a coma after a tragic road accident. Another young girl has washed up on a remote beach, her identity unknown. An old man is murdered and hastily buried in a makeshift grave. A tormented pastor is unable to erase old misdeeds.

Different souls, but with one common link – the past.

Detective Inspector Lara Arden has her own demons to deal with. But as she investigates this raft of seemingly disparate crimes, she begins to suspect there’s a further common link at work here – her own past.

When all roads lead back to a former children’s home called Kenwood – and a macabre half-size windmill sited in its grounds – suspicion hardens into conviction.

Lara always believed that Kenwood had to be destroyed. Its old stories haunted it too strongly, like spirits yet to find their voice.

But do the tendrils of its past cling to everyone associated with it, too?

And do they need to be destroyed as well?

 

What did I think?

Wow! I really enjoyed this fantastic book.  Private Investigations is the second book in the Lara Arden crime series but you can read it as a standalone as it has its own contained storyline.  I was introduced to DI Lara Arden in the first book of the series, I'm Not There, and I absolutely loved it, so I was looking forward to virtually visiting the Isle of Wight once again.

The bodies are mounting up for DI Lara Arden and her team and Lara thinks she sees a link, one that is very personal to her.  This is where it is beneficial to have read the first book in the series, but enough of the story is recounted for anyone who hasn't read it.

As well as the gripping storyline of the former children's home and anyone with links to it, I was completely hooked by the intriguing story of Amy Waite who was involved in a hit and run and left in a coma.  Amy has a special link with her brother Aaron and my heart totally went out to Aaron as he felt the severing of that link so severely.  The big question is what or who was Amy running away from?

There are so many layers of intrigue in this story that keep the pages turning so rapidly it's a wonder I didn't end up with a million paper cuts.  Even though it's only the second book in a series, the characters of Lara and her team are so wonderfully developed that I feel as if I know them well.  They all have their own demons to contend with whilst fighting crime on the Isle of Wight.

Incredibly intriguing, blisteringly fast-paced and completely unpredictable, Private Investigations is a stunning crime thriller that had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish.  I absolutely loved it and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

I received an ARC to read and review for the blog tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

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BLOG TOUR: Can I Trust You? - Rob Gittins

Twenty years ago, his daughter vanished.

He was the last person to see her.

Twenty years to the day, a second girl vanishes.

He’s the last person to see her too.

Axel Petersen’s life implodes as his teenage daughter disappears. For twenty years, there’s no clue as to where she is, or what’s happened to her.

Exactly twenty years later, Axel meets a girl of around the same age his daughter was on the day she disappeared on a train. On jointly alighting at the final stop on the small rural line, he offers her a lift to her holiday cottage. Then that girl disappears too.

Axel plunges into the search for this second missing girl. Along the way he becomes increasingly convinced there’s a strong connection between the present-day disappearance and the twenty-year-old mystery – and he’s right, although in ways he can hardly begin to imagine.

 

What did I think?

Oh this book is SO good; there are so many tangled threads to untangle that you simply can't trust anyone.  With two missing girls, 20 years apart, the pacing is electric as they're clearly linked but I had no idea how.

It's 20 years since Axel's daughter Cara went missing and not a day goes by where he doesn't think about her, so imagine his surprise when he sees Cara on his train.  Only it's not Cara, but a young girl around the age Cara was when she disappeared.  The girl is stranded at the station and Axel offers her a lift to ensure that she gets to her destination safely, but after he drops her off, she disappears...leaving Axel as the prime suspect.

The two-fold mystery had me on the edge of my seat and my eyes were zipping down the page as fast as lightning.  It's so tense, dramatic and completely riveting and I had no idea what had happened to either girl but I pretty much suspected everyone in the book at one point or another.  I loved how it all came together at the end when everything is revealed.

Axel owns a bookshop so there are some lovely passages about books, particularly one where Axel explains to Cara about books having a soul, but not just one soul as it has the soul of the author as well as the souls every person who has read it.  This is a stunningly beautiful thought and one I completely agree with.

With more WTF moments than Gordon Ramsay's kitchen, Can I Trust You? is a superb psychological thriller that really got under my skin and inside my mind.  I absolutely devoured it and loved every second of it.  A highly recommended read.

I received an ARC to read and review for the blog tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

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BLOG TOUR: The Devil's Bridge Affair - Rob Gittins

Lightning splits the sky, night somersaulting into day

And in that moment, a life is lost…

The name of the Devil’s Bridge derives from a local legend, telling the story behind a bridge that was built centuries before for the town, built by the devil himself. But there was a price. The devil vowed to return at different times and in different guises with dark consequences for those who live in the bridge’s shadow.

Most in the town believe it to be just a colourful local story; a flight of fancy. Dark deeds can happen anywhere – and there’s no such thing as the devil.

Then a massive scandal, involving a schoolboy and his English teacher, hits the community, and even the most die-hard of sceptics begin to wonder if a devil-like figure is walking in their midst.

 

What did I think?

I was completely blown away by this outstanding novel from Rob Gittins; it's absolutely brilliant.  It's a thriller with a tiny element of the supernatural about it; it's really left up to the reader's imagination whether you think there's something otherworldly about it or not.

'I couldn't put it down' is a phrase I often use when reviewing books but it has never fitted a book more than The Devil's Bridge Affair.  I read it in two sittings and the world could have ended on my second sitting and I wouldn't have noticed.  I couldn't move my eyes fast enough to reach the jawdropping conclusion; the light was fading so I was holding the book up to the window rather than stopping to close the blinds and put the light on - I didn't have time for that!

I loved the story about the legend of Devil's Bridge - it would make small children have nightmares but naturally becomes a favourite hangout place for teens.  It's a focal point of the town that is about to be rocked by scandal as a teenage boy makes allegations about his teacher.  In a case of he said/she said, who is telling the truth?  The respected wife, mother and teacher or the hormone-addled teenager?

Absolutely fantastic and completely original, Rob Gittins has written an absolute blockbuster of a novel in The Devil's Bridge Affair.  It's one of the best books I've read this year and I don't just recommend it, I urge you to read it.  A well-deserved five stars and more!

I received an ARC to read and review for the blog tour; this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

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BLOG TOUR: I'm Not There - Rob Gittins

Two sisters abandoned

It was a treat, she said. An adventure. A train journey to the mainland. Six-year-old Lara Arden and her older sister Georgia happily fill in their colouring books as their mum pops to the buffet in search of crisps. She never returns. Two little girls abandoned. Alone.

Present day 

Twenty years later, and Lara is now a detective inspector on her native Isle of Wight, still searching for answers to her mother's disappearance.

A call comes in. A small child, a boy, has been left abandoned on a train. Like Lara, he has no relatives to look after him. It feels as if history is being repeated - but surely this is a coincidence?

A series of murders

Before Lara can focus on the boy's plight, she's faced with a series of murders. They feature different victims in very different circumstances, but they all have one thing in common: they all leave children - alone - behind.

So who is targeting Lara? What do these abandoned souls have in common? And how does this connect to the mystery of Lara's missing mother? 

What did I think?

This book is massively intriguing.  It got its hooks into me from the start with the mysterious disappearance of Lara's mother twenty years earlier and now a similar case in the present day.  

Not only are there two intriguing missing persons, but there is also a series of brutal murders that are leaving children orphaned.  It all seems to link back to Lara who is now a police detective and she has a race against time to stop the killer before someone she knows becomes the next victim.

There are some amazing characters in this book and they are so very well developed that they virtually leap out from the page.  I loved Lara but I also really liked Lara's colleague Jordan; his personal life is falling apart but he still manages to keep a close eye on his family.  I'm Not There is the first book in a new series set on the Isle of Wight, so I do hope to catch up with these characters again in the future.

The writing is flawless; it's vivid, descriptive and very easy to imagine the scenes in your head.  I really couldn't tell which direction the story was going in as there are so many different threads weaving through the novel, but they all get tied up perfectly at the end.  

Unpredictable and gripping, I'm Not There is a hugely enjoyable police procedural with an intriguing mystery at its heart.  You can't go wrong with a Hobeck Books novel and I'm Not There is no exception.  Recommended.

I received an ARC to read and review for the blog tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

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