Published March 12th, 2025 by Bookouture
Thriller, Mystery, Crime Fiction, Police Procedural, Crime Series, Suspense, Noir Fiction
Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for this dark, gritty and addictive thriller. Thank you to Bookouture for the invitation to take part and for sending me an eBook in exchange for my honest review.
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ABOUT THE BOOK:
It’s dark as the young woman leaves work. Crossing the empty car park alone, she thinks about the warmth of her little house. But she doesn’t make it home that night. Or ever again…
Thirty years ago, Ruth Pritchard’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Elissa, went missing. Police were called, neighbours were interviewed, and even Ruth’s own husband was investigated, but the case went unsolved. Elissa disappeared forever.
Now, Ruth watches the local news and hears about another girl gone from the same streets where her beloved daughter was last seen, and her heart races. A distinctive red scarf was found at a crime scene, and she recognises it instantly. It belonged to Elissa.
After Ruth alerts the police, they rush to speak to her, but nobody answers the door. Her small home stands eerily quiet. Just like her daughter before her, Ruth has vanished into thin air.
Friends say that Ruth suspected someone close to home took Elissa. Others say she never trusted her husband again after he was questioned by police. Did she finally discover the truth behind her daughter’s disappearance? And will her friends and family ever see her again?
From bestselling author Carla Kovach, this absolutely unputdownable crime thriller is perfect for fans of Angela Marsons, Cara Hunter and Clare Mackintosh.
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MY REVIEW:
Gina Harte and her team are back. And this time they are investigating a suicide that has links to a kidnapping thirty years ago. It opens with a chilling prologue and then the discovery of a man’s body in his car. The man has clearly taken his own life, but he has left an ominous note talking about a girl he’s tried to keep safe. With no real clues or idea who this girl is, the race is on for the team to identify their John Doe and the girl in the note and then find her before it’s too late. Alongside the case, Gina is going through a lot in her personal life as someone is threatening to expose the secret she’s kept hidden for decades. A secret that will end her career. Can she find the girl, solve the case and stop her secret from being revealed?
Tense, twisty and totally addictive, this heart-stopping thriller had me holding my breath as I read. It might be seventeen books in, but the Gina Harte Series keeps getting better with each installment. Carla Kovach is a thriller queen who delivers stories time and again that are well-written, cleverly plotted, dark, gritty, and nail-bitingly tense. The crimes explored in this series are always hard-hitting and can be difficult to read, but Kovach never makes them feel gratuitously violent and instead amplifies the voices of victims of crime, writing these stories in a way that is raw, honest, but also sensitive to what they have been through.
Ms. Kovach fills her stories with characters that are flawed, relatable and morally complex, exploring how good people can do bad things and making you question what you might do in their shoes. Gina is a fantastic protagonist who is easy to root for, even if I don’t always agree with her. After reading this series for so long, Gina and team feel like old friends and I’m invested not only in the crimes they are solving, but their personal lives too, so I was on tenterhooks as someone threatened to destroy Gina’s life by exposing her secret. Can she keep flying so close to the sun without being burned?
A riveting thriller that kept me guessing, this is another must-read thriller from Ms. Kovach.
Rating: ✮✮✮✮✰
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Carla Kovach is a USA Today bestselling author from the UK and is published by Bookouture, Sphere, Boekerij and Virtualo. Her DI Gina Harte series has been translated into Dutch, German and Polish.
As well as novels, she has also written stage and screenplays.
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BUY THE BOOK:
Amazon*
*This is an affiliate links
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Thanks for reading, Bibliophiles xxxx
Please check out the reviews from the other bloggers taking part in the tour.
Emma's Biblio Treasures 