I read this and immediately read its sequel! They were so good and I just couldn't put them down or stop reading. Such a great mystery read. Hope he has more books!

This was a brilliant read. As soon as I started reading this book I just knew I was going to love it. Highly recommended

Unfortunately, I did not realise this was the second book in a series by Mark Hill.

I think I should do myself a favour and read the first in this series, His First Lie before I start this one, as DI Ray Drake seems to be a bit more of a complex character than most, I personally think you always have a much better time reading a second book in a detective series if you have read the first.

I have, therefore, shelved the book and will come back to it at a later date.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

I was lucky to get a copy of this authors book that starts off his new series.

I then realised...hey, he’s the author that wrote The two O’clock boy that I’ve still got the proof copy of on my shelf.

I didn’t realise it was book 1, so then, ding ding.....I discovered I had book 2 on my kindle.
So guess what! I read this and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I’m only one YEAR late in reading this ! Yikes.

But again this plot and style of writing shows me the remarkable talent this author has in glueing me, yes, glueing me to his books.

If you’ve not discovered this author yet, try one of his books.

But start the beginning of his series (

This is the second book in the DI Blake series, and wow, it is even better than the first one!
This was another page turner and thrilling read. Recommended!!

This book was the 2nd in a series but also worked as a standalone, I did not read the first but still had no problem getting into this book. The MC is adopted and flawed and this is about her and her family who are being killed one by one. Overall this was wonderful storytelling that kept you wanting to read late through the night. I would love to read book 1 and will definitely look out for more titles by this author.

This was my first introduction to Mark Hill and oh my gosh - what an introduction! I absolutely loved this book from start to finish. I've been in a bit of a reading slump lately and I absolutely devoured this book. I have read so many thrillers etc and started to feel like they were getting a bit repetitive but this one had me gripped, it was definitely unique! I will 100% be checking out the first book in this series next.

Having read the first in this series "His First Lie" (previously named "The Two O'Clock Boy") and thoroughly enjoyed it, I was excited to get my hands on this second outing for the team of DI Ray Drake and DS Flick Crowley and I certainly wasn't disappointed.

I know that sometimes you can dip into a series out of order but not this one. I strongly suggest you read "His First Lie" before "It Was Her" otherwise you could become a little lost as this book builds on the events of that one. In addition, you might feel differently about the characters, especially Ray, without the back story that is so important in understanding his thought processes and actions.

What we have in "It Was Her" is not just your run-of-the-mill crime thriller, it is so much more than that and I can't even begin to describe how much I became totally immersed in the story. I won't go into detailing the plot as it's clearly set out in the blurb but I will say that it is complex, dark, gritty and edgy with suspense and tension but amongst all that, is quite a sad story and the ending ... well, I didn't see that coming until it was on top of me and it left me having to take a few deep breaths and a few minutes to take it all in.

So, would I recommend this book? Absolutely. Would I recommend this author? Without a doubt. Do I want to read the next instalment? Hell yes!!

My thanks go to the publisher, Little, Brown Book Group UK, and NetGalley for my e-copy in return for an honest review.

I am finding this hard to review as the only reason I could not finish it is because I had not read the first book in the series, Drake has history but I am guessing it is explored mostly in the first book. The style of writing and the plot are books I love but all i found myself concentrating on was why I didn't understand Drake and what Flick had seen and was struggling to cope with.

I loved the premises of this book! however once again this is the second in the series and it wasn't listed here. because it is a second book in a series I won't be reading it as I'm not invested enough to buy the first one.

A real page turner. First book I have read by the author. Could not put it down. Definately would reccomend

Excellent story line which was gripping from start to finish. Great characters. I would highly recommend this book.

I really enjoyed this book from Mark Hill, although when I requested it I wasn't aware this was book 2 so I had to find and read that one first ( His first lie /the two o'clock boys) and i'm glad i did as it was a brilliant debut. The story revolves around DI Ray Drake a policeman with a mysterious past, Flick his colleague knows the truth and he is terrified she will tell someone about it, and then his carefully constructed life will collapse. Also while he is worrying about all this he has the Goldilocks killers going around breaking into homes and killing the occupants, Will he be able to hold it all together. Personally I can't wait to read the next instalment

With this page-turner you are in the hands of master of psychological suspense. You can see the strings of Hill’s manipulations of your responses from the start, but you easily submit to his machinery of suspense. We start with a flash of a troubled man’s memory (Joel) of losing his brother Will from a fall off a seaside cliff in England in his childhood 20 years before, then jump to a current tour of the flaky mind of a woman (Tatia) secretly trying on a rich woman’s clothes in her home while she is away, and then step into a third thread of a male-female detective duo (Flick and Ray) investigating the scene of a murder of a couple who returned home sooner than expected from a vacation. Hill gives us just enough information in each vignette and iteration in this tale to forge glimmers of people’s motivations and baggage from their past, and then ever so slowly different versions of the whole picture come into your focus.

That picture has to do with a dysfunctional family and the festering of buried secrets. Lots of fiction deals with the lingering impact of childhood trauma. Without revealing any details, I can say that a tragic accident is one interpretation to the sudden loss of the youngest brother off a cliff but that in their blurred memories of the antecedents to the death each of the three siblings there that day bears a sense of guilt over the loss. Joel has lived his life under frequent care of the mental health system and still is subject to psychotic breaks under stress. His adopted sister Tatia (renamed Sarah) was sent back to Ukraine where she came from by the suspicious parents, but now she has returned to recover a sense of family now that the rejecting parents are gone. For a long time we know little of how she survived, but she is skilled in manipulating her violent but simple boyfriend. A barrier to any bliss from the family reunion lies with the oldest sister, Poppy, who has turned her back on the past and is comfortable ensconced in a comfortable upper middle-class life.

Since Hill won’t dwell in the minds of the siblings enough to let us know if any are truly guilty of Will’s likely homicide, we come to count on Flick and Ray figuring things out and finding some kind connection of that past to the current murders that make one or more of the siblings suspects. But Flick is often sidetracked over a mystery with her own partner. She has learned that for some reason in the past he has taken the identity of another man, and she suspects he may have gone out of control in the violent conclusion of their last big case. Here is where I pay for missing the first one of the series. Regardless, the personal issues of our hero detectives took some away from my reading pleasure. Otherwise, I appreciated Flick’s quirky and obsessive style and her resilience and competence under pressure and danger. As with the twisted perpetrators in series by Jo Nesbo and by James Lee Burke, I came to bear some empathy for the guilty parties in this dark tale and some understanding of how the troubled past of the detectives can contribute to their insight in solving cases.

This book was provided for review by the publisher through the Netgalley program.

I read this book without reading the first in the series but that did not take away from the story. I will definitely go back to read the first Ray Drake book to see his back story. This book centres around home invasions that started as break ins to empty houses where criminals just lived in the houses for a couple of days but have now disintegrated into home invasions with murder. Ray Drake is one of the detectives assigned to these cases.
The story moves between Ray and his team, the criminals including a woman whos' name we are unsure of, her brother who is not well mentally and another man who is the real violent one. But we also see a woman called Poppy, what is her connection to it all?
Eventually all the threads come together and it makes for a very thrilling ride!
Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

The second installment of the mystery series featuring DI Drake. This one takes place months often the first one and Drake is concerned that Flick will tell the secret about him that could destroy is career. Flick is battling with herself whether or not she believes with what she saw or not and whether she should say something. While these internal battles are going on, murders begin piling up. Homeowners are getting murdered while they were supposed to be gone. Something happened twenty years ago that will set forth a series of unfortunate events. Both of these will come to a satisfying conclusion. Once again, I really enjoyed the mystery and the characters. I’m curious to see how Drake changes and what will happen when his lives merge together. I think Mark Hill is a great storyteller and I will be eagerly waiting for the third book.

**Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review. (less)

Thank you to Netgalley, Mark Hill & Little, Brown Book Group UK for my arc of It Was Her. 
This is the second novel in the Ray Drake series which began with The Two O'Clock Boy now renamed His First Lie. I really enjoyed the first book in this series so I had high expectations for book two.
I have very mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand I found it very difficult to put down, it was enthralling, interesting, and gripping. But on the other hand i found it very frustrating.

Ok, so I'll break it down. The storyline centres on the characters of Joel, Poppy & Tatia. As children Tatia was adopted illegally from a terrible orphanage in Eastern Europe & brought into the family of Joel, Poppy & Will. In a terrible accident Will died and Tatia was sent back to the orphanage. Years later when we join the story Joel has some sort of illness where he doesn't sleep and is back with Tatia. Poppy has a perfect life with her husband, big house and little boy.

Meanwhile, Drake and his colleague Flick are investigating a series of break ins gone wrong in which the families who live in the homes are murdered. Soon a link appears between the two stories. As a spin off of the two main plots, Drake has somehow ended up involved in a dodgy situation relating to his past.
This book was great, right up until about 90% of the way through when I realised there wasn't enough book left to bring the story to a satisfactory conclusion. I don't think it will be a spoiler to say that I felt frustrated that Joel's illness was ever explained that felt like a massive hole in the story, while I understood that it was lack of sleep that made him ill there was absolutely no explanation as to why he could no longer sleep or why he had collapsed at work earlier in the story. This was really frustrating for me.

I felt there were a few other minor plot holes too that I found quite frustrating. It felt like it went so well for the first 2/3 of the book but after that the ending felt really rushed. For that reason it loses one star.

Thank you to Netgalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for an advanced copy of 'It Was Her' by Mark Hill in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is the second book in the dark and atmospheric DI Ray Drake series.
Twenty years ago Tatia was adopted by the Bliss family, unfortunately their youngest son dies in an accident and she's to blame. Now Tatia yearns for a place to call home, so when she sees families go away, leaving their beautiful homes unattended she steps into their lives but people keep dying. DI Drake and DS Crowley race against time to try to connect the victims but Drake's past is threatening to destroy everything.

I went into this book without reading the first in the series; 'The Two O'clock Boy' but that didn't spoil it for me. I would however, recommend reading the first book in order to know about the back story between DI Drake and DS Crowley and why their relationship is strained.

There are two storylines throughout; one in present time and the other told via flashbacks by the Bliss siblings. Mark Hill's writing is smooth so there's no discord or confusion of what has or is happening.

This is a book that will keep you invested, and needing to know more. There were one or two revelations that took me by surprise and I didn't see them coming.

I'm extremely interested to learn what lies in wait for DI Drake and will be eagerly awaiting the next installment in the series.

I would like to thank Little, Brown Book Group UK and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘It Was Her’ written by Mark Hill, in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.
When Tatia sees beautiful homes whose owners have gone away she moves in and takes over in their absence. When the owners return and are found murdered, DI Ray Drake and DS Flick Crowley are called in to investigate, but can they find the link between the victims?
This is the second of Mark Hill’s novels featuring DI Ray Drake. I must admit to finding it difficult to get involved in the story, partly because I haven’t read the first book and feel I’ve missed the beginning, but also because it’s a bit far-fetched and not true to life. I couldn’t empathise with the characters who didn’t seem real and I didn’t enjoy the plot. I’m sure that a lot of readers who read ‘His First Lie’ will also enjoy this novel but I’m sorry, this book just wasn't for me.