It’s been a long time since I read the first book in this series but starting at book 2 after so long made no difference. This small but mighty team of coppers comprise Natalie, Lucy, Ian and Murray. They are faced with solving the murder of a young mother Charlotte Brannon. It’s a grisly scene and even more disturbing is the writing on the wall and the fact that her young baby is perfectly unharmed in the other room.

This book got me straight back into this small team and really get a feel for all of the individual characters. The storyline surrounding the murder is well plotted and fast paced and certainly kept me interested. I also loved the fact that we got to see into Natalie’s personal life and I have to be honest and say I loathe her husband David. I read this in a few days and thoroughly enjoyed it. So much so that I decided to continue my binge read of this series and totally catch up.

I still believe that the Robyn Carter series has the edge over this one as I absolutely LOVE that series but think this could become just as good given time!

Carol has done it again. I love the in-depth exploration of the criminal mind. The books all include a background of life difficulties that the victim is having. This flowed really well and I like the fact the detective has her own issues but she concentrates on the crimes.

Great read! Looking forward to reading more from this author! I highly recommend this book and author to all!

Actual rating: 3.5 out of 5

Last Lullaby is the 2nd book in the Detective Natalie Ward series. I am really enjoying this series so far. I was hooked from the beginning. This book is well-written with an intricate storyline. I like the main character Natalie Ward. She struggles with finding the balance between being a detective, mother and wife. I just wish there was more. You had "why" and "who". What about "what", "when" and "where"? And throw in a random old case where there was no link besides a mother getting killed in front of her child? That just muddies the water and made it confusing.

Overall, I still enjoyed the book and look forward to reading the next one in the series.

Thank you to NetGalley, Bookouture and Carol Wyer for a copy of "Last Lullaby" in exchange of a fair and honest review.

Such a great book. Makes for a wonderful read. I can not wait to read more from this author. I love books like this.

Charlotte, the mother of 6 month old Alfie is brutally murdered in her own house. Her husband, Adam, who has found the body, is the prime suspect, but has an airtight alibi.
DI Natalie Ward and her team are doing everything to find a glitch in Adam’s narrative and eventually they discover not only his alibi is not as strong as he claimed, but also he is hiding too many secrets.
But when a second body is found with unnerving similarities to the first one, the police realize they may have a brutal serial killer on their hands.

Dark and disturbing, brilliantly paced and extremely compelling, Last Lullaby will have you flipping or swiping the pages faster as you go, keeping you on the edge of your seat throughout. On top of that, we are left with a bit of a cliffhanger that has me rather impatiently awaiting the next instalment.

When I requested this book I was not aware this is book 2, and since it has been ages and still haven’t gotten around to reading the first book I think I will let this book go

I really enjoyed this book. I will have to start at number 1 in the series though and read the rest. I liked the authors style of writing it kept my interest the whole way through. I loved the fast pace and I cant wait to read more of her books.

Ouch, what a story, one that I can safely say flummoxed me. Yes, I did steal that right from the end of the book! I could not figure out for the life of me who was behind the murders. There was a LOT of red herrings, which is just….fabulous!!

Every page I was suspecting the same people Natalie and her team were. All coming back to the same links she did and everything surrounding the one seemingly logical explanation. However, nothing is ever what it seems in one of Carol’s books!

Last Lullaby is not only taxing on Natalie and her team, but it is starting to seep further into Natalie’s personal life, tensions and frustrations are running high. Rows are sparking with David at home, as tempers flare, dates are cancelled and then the final tipping point for Natalie is exposed in the final pages. God, this fall out is going to be destructive and completely explosive!! As wrong as this sounds, I can’t wait to witness this.

Lucy was given more focus on this book, probably to amplify something foreboding in the future….god I hope not. I like her! We get a glimpse into her life and how Bethany is coping with the pregnancy. It gives Lucy more of a pivotal role in our eyes as we have another character to watch grow but also to worry about.

This case, wow, it was horrific, I mean who kills a mother while their baby/child is in the wrong next door. These deaths are brutal, Charlotte has literally been battered to death, the pain of it all. This killer is not only completely messed up but he is a clever so and so. Some of the “tricks” were ingenious, again Carol’s imagination is just Woah! The team have their work cut out for them, we have so many different leads, it is like we are trying to find the middle of a labyrinth before the killer gets there, hitting every dead end on our journey. There is no respite for the team and I feel tired just reading the book! I need a lie-down.

One thing I really did like about this story, we have about 50% of the book just focusing on Charlotte and her last few hours. Revelations, secrets and shocks galore, questioning the wrong people, and then the last 50% the story ramps up. It makes you race through the book, although it does not matter how quickly you read this book we can’t change the outcome unfortunately, this is not a choose your destiny book. This book is final. The words have been written and we are just on the ride to hope Natalie and her team can stop the killer before we lose any more women.

Thoroughly enjoyed other Carol Wyer books and as anticipated this did not disappoint.
Love the ongoing storyline of Natalie and the team.
Plenty of twists to keep you engrossed.
Looking forward to the next instalment.

Charlotte Brannon was brutally murdered  in her own bedroom and was found by her husband Adam with their son Alfie screaming in the next room. Adam who is an ex-con  and an owner of a gym for troubled teenagers is the primary suspect . But when a second victim is found dead in her home Natalie and her team know they have to race against time to find and stop the murderer before he or she strikes again.

Last Lullaby is the second book  in the Detective Natalie Ward series .It is another fast paced,  gripping police procedural thriller with relatable characters and lots of twists and turns that keeps you guessing till the end. Looking  forward to reading the next one in the series 

I would like to thank Bookouture & NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest and fair review

Again, i didnt fully review this at the time - i loved this, it was full of twists and turns and i couldnt guess it at all. I rated it 4/5 and i am such a fan of this author!

Another cracking read from Carol Wyer! I was completely gripped and kept changing my mind on who might be responsible. I didn't guess the true culprit before it was revealed and had suspected pretty much everyone else prior to it. Can't wait for her next read!

Wow, and wow again. This is the second book in the DI Natalie Ward series, and they just keep getting better!
In this book Natalie has to investigate the apparently senseless death of a young mom, and then another mother gets murdered. Why, what links these deaths together. Meanwhile she also has to deal with her husband and his secrets. Well done, now I'm off to book number 3!

Last Lullaby – Carol Wyer

Carol Wyer is one of my favourite authors she delivers every single time be it her police procedurals or her chick lit. All the novels have more than enough twists, turns and red herrings to keep you guessing throughout. I love that the pace and slick writing style keeps the reader turning the pages at a rapid pace. The other bonus is that the author never makes us wait too long for the next books.

DI Natalie Ward is the first police officer to arrive on the scene of a woman found brutally beaten to death in her own home. Her husband dropped her off then too the babysitter, Inge home, returning to find his wife beaten to death Natalie and her team now on the trail of a brutal murderer who is preying on young mums with children specifically boys they are leaving one-word messages on the walls.

There was no sign of forced entry broken windows or locks that leads us to believe that either the killer had keys or that Charlotte let them in. Adam the husband of the first victim Charlotte soon becomes the prime suspect in her murder as the secrets of his past that he’s kept for years become unravelled.

Then we have Samantha found viciously stabbed to death in front of her son with a word written in her blood on the fridge. Natalie and the team are soon wondering if there is a serial killer on the loose in Samford.

I loved that we are given a little more insight into the dynamics of both Natalie and the team also a little more personal information about their personal lives. I also really enjoyed the fact that there are plenty of suspects to be thoroughly investigated and discarded. There’s lies and secrets to be discovered and people to be called out on both and it makes for interesting reading.

Read for an honest review. Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture

A brutal killer is on the loose, going round murdering young mothers with their Children present. Natalie Ward is juggling the case and a home life, with a recovering gambling addict, two children and a father-in-law with a new girlfriend. The police is running in circles not finding much evidence and the leads they can find, doesn't pan out. In the end one of their owns life is in danger.
I really loved this new installment in the Natalie Ward series and just like all books by Carol Wyer, I highly recommend this series.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture!

Last Lullaby by Carol Wyer this is the 2nd book with DI Natalie Ward and I have got to say that with each new book we are getting more background information about the team and Natalies family. I am looking forward to book 3 to find out what DI Wards husband is getting up to! Good storyline and fleshier characters in this book, it was a little slow in some places but all in all I was satisfied with the mystery and progression of how 2 mothers were brutally murdered while their young toddlers were in the home and DI Ward and her team track down the serial killer before he got to his next victim. Thank you Netgalley and the Publishers Bookouture for the ARC and leaving my review!

Last Lullaby is the second in the Natalie Ward series and is a marked improvement on the first, The Birthday which had an obvious killer and a lacklustre plot throughout. This time around I felt all of the characters really came into their own. I especially liked Lucy and Natalie was more interesting this time round and I found myself actually taking an interest in her personal life with her husband and family. The whole team working on this case in fact was enjoyable to read about.

The plot starts off incredibly well and contains for the most part a really strong mystery. There’s nothing over the top about this storyline, in fact it’s quite basic in terms of here’s a suspect let’s look into him, and then repeat that with another suspect. There’s no theatrics or explosive scenes and I suppose that’s why I got bored after a while. This book is at least 20% longer than it needed to be. There’s a point in the story where it’s blatantly obvious some of the suspects aren’t going to be the killer and yet 15% later they are still in the frame. When we meet one of the characters this is the one I chose as the killer and it turned out to be right. But by the point of the reveal I was already starting to skim read because I felt like the story should have finished ages ago. With so many exciting crime thrillers around it takes something special these days to hold my attention and unfortunately Last Lullaby failed to do that after about 60% into the story.

Adam finds his wife, Charlottes, body with the word Why written in blood on the wall. Luckily her baby is left unharmed. Everyone is Charlotte's life seems to be hiding something but every suspect Natalie finds has an alibi. When another murder happens they end up with even fewer answers.

I don’t know what it was about this book but I didn’t really enjoy it. I found it was a tad too long and some parts just seemed to drag. The ending was then rushed and over in a flash. I did enjoy the story and I was kept guessing with all the shady suspects. A lot of people loved it and I can’t put my finger on why I didn’t but I found reading it a bit of a chore and I didn’t look forward to picking it up. It picked up towards the end though and I did like DI Natalie Ward and her team.

This is the first book I've read by Carol Wyer and I'm not sure if I'd be tempted to pick up another of her books.

The second book in the DI Natalie Ward series definitely won’t put you to sleep. There is something comforting about a detective series as you get to know all the main players and watch their lives ride the ebb and flow called life. The Last Lullaby lets you do this all while you get to follow the detectives try to solve a fantastic murder case.

This book is a page turner and as DI Ward and her team follow the leads through this story the perfect amount of detail is used to keep you interested which is something I appreciate it in a novel. The book keeps you guessing on who did it and the plot twist when you find out is brilliantly done!

An excellent detective series for you murder mystery fans out there! Get reading!