CLEVER DETECTIVE SERIES!

     This is a terrific and satisfying stand-alone mystery book which is part of an ongoing series.   The storyline revolves around detective Natalie Ward who is in a shaky marriage right now and her two young teenage children and is also in charge of a puzzling case of three missing teen girls where one of them has just been found and has a devastating effect on her investigative team and herself.   There is a madman on the loose and the pressure is on Natalie to hurry and find this killer before he (or she) harms another girl or kidnaps another child.
     The team discovers a website that has a game challenge called "The Dare" and they find it that all the missing girls have visited this webpage recently and they don't know if th girls have run away or have been kidnapped.   The heat is on to find these girls before anything else happens to them.   There are many suspicious characters in this story and it makes it interesting and fun to try to figure out who the bad guys (or girls) are.   The story is dark and gritty and has some very good twists and turns.

I enjoyed this book very much and I love the Detective Natalie Ward series and will keep reading them over time.   Carol Wyer is a wonderful writer and she knows how to draw you into her stories with realistic problems facing her characters which leaves the reader yearning for more stories involving this interesting group of people in this series.
If any reader enjoys good detective novels, don't hesitate to try one of Carol Wyer's books.
I highly recommend "The Dare" and given a rating of 4 Gritty 🌟🌟🌟🌟 Stars!!

I want to thank the author and the publisher Bookouture and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this terrific book!

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and of course the author for this digital ARC in exchange for my unbiased review.
This book is a twisted psychological thriller and was a very enjoyable read!

Thank you #NetGalley for an advanced copy of #TheDare.

I have to say unfortunately this was not a favorite of mine. I felt like the story dragged on and honestly if i wasn’t 60% through I would’ve quit reading. There just wasn’t anything in this book that shocked me or cause me to binge read, not being able to put the book down. Actually it was quite the opposite. This is probably a minor and irrelevant point but the few chapters that discussed what happened to the mystery boy aka the killer As a child, i had a hard time reading... I can read about or watch something with people dying but when you start explaining, in detail, the gruesome violent ways this kid killed animals I almost had to stop reading... not sure if I’d recommend! I guess if you don’t mind that sort of thing and are ok with a book not having that big “wow” thriller then maybe give this book a shot!

When three girls go missing without any knowing connections Natalie Ward and her colleagues have to race against the clock and find evidence, witnesses or just a clue as to what might have happened to solve the case. But nothing comes to light and time is running out. Loved this nail biting story and couldn’t stop reading.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture!

Carol Wyer has done it again. THE DARE is the third outing for DI Natalie Ward and her team set in Staffordshire, and once again we are drawn into mystery with intrigue and promise.

When Jane Hopkins is late home from work one afternoon, she is surprised to find her 13 year old daughter Savannah is not yet in. Knowing it to be unlike her, she rings around her friends but they haven't seen her since parting ways after school. DI Natalie ward is called in to assist the existing investigation into her disappearance and her team have barely begun when Savannah's body is found the following day, discarded like rubbish in what appears to be refuse behind her house.

Then before their feet can even touch the ground, another teenage girl - Harriet - goes missing. This time the girlfriend of one of the men working on the renovations to Jane Hopkins' house. Is he connected in some way? Then the next day, Harriet too is found dead beside rubbish, not far from her home.

Trawling through CCTV, Natalie's team find that both girls were last seen in the vicinity of the Aldi supermarket car park. And watching them - someone known to police. Worse still, he is a registered sex offender. Is he responsible for the missing girls and their deaths? Was that his MO as a sex offender? Or were they just looking at him BECAUSE he was a sex offender?

Investigations lead them to a phone shop in town where both girls frequented to top up the credit on their phones. There they meet "Duffy" who often chatted to the girls. CCTV, as well as Duffy's admission, revealed both girls had also been in or near the shop on the afternoons of their disappearance. Was he somehow involved? When his alibi doesn't quite check out, Duffy finds himself in the frame again.

A third girl goes missing and the team are racing against time, knowing that they have less than 24 hours to find her before she too befalls the same fate. Amidst the investigations Natalie is faced once again with the troubles in her personal life and that of her husband's gambling. With two dead girls and one missing, she doesn't need this right now.

It was during the search for Harriet that the team learn of some startling new evidence. Someone was challenging teenagers with a dare - to disappear for one, two, even three days..as long as they can. This brings a whole new light on social media and the effect it has on kids today. Harriet was known to rise to a challenge and when a friend of hers discovers a video on the website called Disappear, she is frightened for her friend. The video is simply black but the audio is of Harriet, screaming. Is the person behind "the dare" to disappear also behind the missing girls?

But the game changes for Natalie when her own teenage daughter Leigh goes missing. Has the same person taken her daughter too? The pressure is on for the team to find Leigh before the worst happens.

Tension is constant throughout the story - from the investigation to Natalie's personal life. I found myself on the edge of my seat (or rather, bed, in my case) as I swiftly turned the pages, devouring each chapter. The story is chilling, as is the killer's motivation which comes to light in alternate chapters by an unnamed person.

THE DARE is a thrilling, chilling, compelling read by Carol Wyer, ending in much the same way her previous "Last Lullaby" did. Therfore making her readers eagerly await the fourth installment of this series to see how events will unfold for Natalie in her troubled personal life.

I highly recommend this book. Brilliantly written. Compelling to the end. Get it, read it and enjoy it. I dare you!

I would like to thank #CarolWyer, #NetGalley and #Bookouture for an ARC of #TheDare in exchange for an honest review.

This review appears on my blog at https://stinathebookaholic.blogspot.com/.

Best book in this series so far.  Love Natalie and the way she is developing as a character..The storyline involving the internet is unusual and gripping.  Finding out about Natalie’s home life and family adds to the interest.  Looking forward to the next book in the series.

Wow, what a fantastic series!  After devouring the first two books in this series I couldn’t wait to read book number three and it certainly didn’t disappoint as I couldn’t put it down.  Detective Natalie Ward and her team are given the case to solve of a teenage girl who never came home from school and was later found murdered and her body dumped near a rubbish bin.  But while they are investigating this case another girl goes missing  and her body is also found near rubbish.  Both girls have been strangled so Natalie realises that there may be a serial killer on the loose.  She has very few leads to go on and is struggling to find any other connections.  A third girl disappears and is found strangled and when a fourth girl is reported missing Natalie knows that she has a race against the clock as she discovers that all the girls have been using a certain website called Disappear. As well as struggling with the case Natalie is still having problems with her marriage as her husband doesn’t seem to have got over his gambling addiction.  The case is also troubling Natalie as she has a teenage daughter of her own so when she goes missing Natalie fears the worst.  This is a very tense and gripping read, so many twists and turns and red herrings along the way.  A fabulous read.  Bring on book number four!
Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

Available Now! 
Book three in the chilling, and addictive DI Natalie Ward series!

"The large hand on the wall clock inched closer to the number six. As it did so, he struggled to control the jackhammering in his chest. Soon. He poured the oil into his hands, smoothed it over his chest and shoulders, and stared into the large mirror that allowed him to see the creature in all its glory. The tattooed snake glistened in the light from the window, seemingly alive, with scales refreshed and shining. Its head hung below his right collarbone, its jaws wide open. The scaly, black body disappeared over his shoulder to coil down the length of his back and reappeared on the left-hand side of his ribcage, where it curled around his waist, its tail disappearing under the waistband of his jeans. It had been a while since the snake had been pacified and fed. 
Soon. 
He dragged on his shirt to conceal the dark beast and paced the carpeted floor, halting by the music box, lovingly handcrafted and mounted on a wooden stand. It was astonishing what was sold at car boot sales. One person’s junk could be another person’s treasure. This was his.
He traced the holes and protrusions along the barrel of the music box and ran his fingers along the pieces of metal –the eighteen-note Yunsheng movement, resembling a book of thin, metal matches –that would create the tune. He lifted the music box with care, fingertips lightly grasping the delicate hand crank, and turned it unhurriedly until the drum rotated, the silver strips struck the drum, and the tinny tune –a recognisable nursery rhyme –filled the otherwise silent room. He smiled at the irony. How appropriate that he had chosen this one. 
The clock hands moved again. It was now after 3.30 p.m. School was over for the day and it was finally time. He cranked the handle and hummed along as it played, his hooded eyes scanning the street for his next victim. She’d be passing by soon. Very soon.

Boys and girls come out to play,   
The moon does shine as bright as day;   
Come with a hoop, and come with a call, Come with a good will or not at all."

********
Do not miss out on this series!
The Dare by Carol Wyer is the best in the DI Natalie Ward series thus far! The concept of the storyline is unique and completely plausible, making it unputdownable from beginning to end! 
I was absolutely riveted to the pages and was up into the wee hours reading this book! With each clue, twist and turn, the story gets more chilling and terrifying and the clock is ticking as Natalie and her team race to stop the killer from taking the life of another young girl! By the stunning conclusion I was wound up tighter than a live wire! 
This is my favorite book in this series! To get the most out of the series, it's best to read the books in order. Book one: The Birthday, followed by Last Lullaby. 
Natalie and the characters in her team are genuine and likable, making it easy to be drawn into the story even more. 
I love the eye-catching covers of her books! 
I can't wait to start reading her other series starring DI Robyn Carter! She's a very talented writer, a favorite of mine, and I'm hooked on her books! 

With thanks and appreciation to NetGalley, Bookouture, and Carol Wyer for this advanced digital copy for me to read and review.

When I read the blurb I was so sure that this book would be something similar to the first book of this series - The Birthday. But how wrong I was!
The Dare, is another superb, fast-paced and gritty thriller by Carol Wyer in the DI Natalie Ward series.
The Dare, sees Natalie Ward and her team of officers investigate the disappearances of teenage girls. When the bodies of these girls turn up, Natalie knows that there's a psycho out there targeting young & vulnerable teenagers, but will she move fast enough to save her own daughter Leigh? 
I loved the premise of this book - the threats of online media provoking young kids to take up seemingly silly dares for a few "likes". Succumbing to peer pressure and with websites/brands egging kids on to take something innocuously risky up, is something we see around us and is spreading at an alarming rate. The Dare does well to bring these issues to light and portray it a masterful thriller. The characters as usual were excellent! 
Although I really loved the book, I found certain patterns in the series that made this whodunnit a bit predictable. But if I had to give my final verdict then I would highly recommend not only this book, but the previous two books of this series as well!
Thank you Bookouture, Carol Wyer & Netgalley for an arc!

Three young teenaged girls go missing and are soon found dead near rubbish heaps. DI Natalie Ward and her team are sorting leads and interviewing witnesses. A tip leads them to the notion that the girls were attempting to take part in an online dare that they found on a website called DISAPPEAR. As Natalie, DS Lucy Carmichael, DS Murray Anderson and PC Ian Jarvis, along with the Samford Police bring in potential suspects and examine all the clues, they can't seem to pin down the "Warfield Monster". Will the killer of Savannah Hopkins, Harriet Long and Katy Bywater get away with murder? And then the worst possible thing happens: Natalie's own daughter, 14-year-old Leigh, skips out of school and doesn't come home. NO SPOILERS.

Although a police procedural and solid detective mystery, this is also a character driven series with the reader learning more about the main players with each book. I like the protagonist, Natalie Ward, as she seems to be strong and mostly together without the "hot mess" back story so common in this genre. She has personal problems with her family, but good working relationships at the cop shop. The secondary characters are becoming more well known and fleshed out as well with each subsequent book. The writing is engaging and the pace is fast. Plenty of red herrings that allow the reader to experience the frustration of the police as they keep searching and finding no answers. I like the series and plan to continue reading.

The topic of social media is quite commonly tackled across all genres of reading material these days. Rightfully so as the dangers to the young and immature can't be overemphasized. As parents or as responsible adults, we need to keep a close eye on and monitor the internet activity of those for whom we care. Just as the adolescent naturally tries to gain privacy and draw away from guardians is the main time we need to increase our vigilance. Trust, but verify!  

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for this e-book ARC to read and review. I'd urge you to read the series in order.

This was very well written series with great characters. It was a great page turner . The fact that it is Natalies daughter throws a different perspective it became personal.  It talks about social media so its very relevant to todays society. I really liked this book. I look forward to reading more of her books.

How are we on book number three in this series already? It's gone so quickly!!! Do I think you should read the books in order? That's a tough one to answer because, whilst the main storyline itself can be read as a standalone, there are a lot of hidden agendas between some of the characters which would have been discussed in previous books. It all depends on whether you like to know the history of the characters.

Back to this book - I flew through it like a dog on heat! Plus, considering that there was a certain reptile mentioned once or twice, I managed to not soil my pants in fear. Proud moment? I certainly think so!!! If it was any other author, I would have been all 'nah thanks' but, seeing as this author is one of my top favourites, I tried to ignore the fact that she included one of my ultimate fears in her book. Big of me, I know ;).

#TheDare is brilliant at highlighting the pressures behind, you guessed it, peer pressure between youngsters, and the devastating repercussions which could happen as a result of a bad decision.

Natalie, once again, has her stress levels raised and her patience regarding trust, pushed to the limit. At times I thought she was going to collapse because of everything, yet she showed what a strong and highly stubborn woman she is.

This book had my pulse raising, and the uncertainty of the conclusion left me extremely nervous. I wasn't expecting the path the storyline took, and I thought the teasers and red herrings were brilliantly placed, upping the intensity several notches.

A sublime, atmospheric, twisted novel which gave me 'the fear' and left me wanting more....just without a reptile next time!

Savannah Hopkins has gone missing.  She’s thirteen years old and didn’t come home from school.  She’d never settled in at her new school and she doesn’t like her mum’s new boyfriend so she may have run away.  The following morning her body is discovered a short distance from her home.  DI Natalie Ward and her team are given the case.  The following day another teenage girl goes missing - Harriet went to a different school and it doesn’t seem that Savannah knew her however there are a couple of young men who knew both girls and they become Natalie’s prime suspects.  Harriet’s body is found the following day along with information about another teenage girl who’s gone missing. The team struggle to find any evidence at the crime scenes but do find a connection between the three girls - a website that encourages people to hide from family and friends - could the three girls have been lured by someone through this website.  DI Natalie Ward is shocked to the core when her daughter, Leigh, goes missing - has the killer targeted the detective hunting him?

This is the third book in the DI Natalie Ward series and I couldn’t put it down.  The series just keeps getting better.

Thanks to Netgalley, Bookouture and Carol Wyer for the ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

I loved the premise for this story as it really plays on a parents fear. Our children have access to so much these days and this freedom also means that extra danger could be just around the corner. In The Dare someone is targeting teenagers and let’s just say this case hits a little too close to home for Natalie.

As ever Natalie is strong, determined and willing to go that extra mile to solve the case, I can’t help but admire her spirit! Then add in a turbulent marriage and you get a dose of drama that helps to set the book apart. Let’s just say I think I was as frustrated by the case as I was by Natalie’s husband!

The way Carol Wyer writes both the story and characters is in such a way that you feel as invested as the team at solving the crimes. I felt as if I was right there feeling the frustration, angry at the dead ends and also experiencing the highs as a new clue brings the truth just that little bit closer every time. I loved all the red herrings, twists and turns within this story it easily made for a very tense and gripping experience. Especially as the reader on occasion gets to hear from a very dark and dangerous perspective, I thought that these snippets were perfectly placed to ramp up the already increasing tension.

With this being book three in the series everything just seemed to fall into place in terms of pace. It was so good to catch up with Natalie and her team seeing them work so well together. I loved trying to guess and play detective even if I did fail but this is all goes to show how good this book is. The Dare got under my skin and I just couldn’t wait to see how it would all end!

Dark, tense and addictive!

Rating 4.5 stars!

In case you haven't figured it out, I really enjoy books written by author, Carol Wyer.  The first book I read was The Birthday by Carol Wyer.  At the time, I didn't know that The Birthday was the first book in the Detective Natalie Ward series. Once I realized it was going to be a series, you can bet I wasn't missing out on future books because I loved the first book so much.  Next came the second book in the series, Last Lullaby, and again, it was an awesome book and I loved it! At the time, it was funny because I thought I had guessed the ending but the author, Ms. Wyer, tricked me, and I called her out in the review post.  When she commented to my post, I was FLOORED!! I'm not saying it never happens, but when it does, I'm flattered! Flash forward to the present and I've now become a member of Ms. Wyer's "Smile Team" - a group of folks chatting it up about her books.  I even went out of my normal reading preference and read her recent romantic comedy, Suddenly Single and loved it!  I'll admit it, I'm hooked, I won't even try to lie about it.

The third book in the Detective Natalie Ward series, The Dare, came out yesterday and it is AH-MAZING (of course).  This one was a slow read for me..... but let me explain.  It had nothing to do with the book or Ms. Wyer's writing.  It had everything to do with a brain bleed (subarachnoid hemorrhage) I experienced on March 18. The recovery time had me down, and when I started feeling better, I had a hard time staying focused to finish the book.  I knew what I had read was so good that I wanted to get back to it, but I just couldn't seem to stay gathered long enough to do it.  I'm happy to say I'm finally at that place where I can pick up a book and read, which is exactly what I did this week when I finished reading this book. I picked up right where I left off (Chapter 7), and I was surprised to see that I remembered the whole beginning and plowed through the remainder of the book without even leaving the couch - yes, it's that good.

In a nutshell, teenage girls keep disappearing and then they turn up later dead.  In order to be a Detective Natalie Ward series book, you know she's put on the case. As they gather information, they learn that the girls' disappearances seem to be connected to a series of online social media challenges. All of the missing girls have been on this same website that challenges people to go missing and stay missing. There's a leader board on the site and the longer people are gone missing, the higher they go up on the board. Crazy, right? I know I did that water challenge, but to go missing? Wow!

In case it's not horrible enough that these girls have gone missing and then died, Detective Ward's own teenage daughter, Leigh, doesn't come home from school one day and it seems Leigh is missing too. 

The story is told mostly from Natalie's point of view. The killer shares their point of view - the plans to harm other girls. I suspected everyone and was suspicious of everything. It seemed like there were some people that were known to both of the victims. The story line gave me so much to think about while I was reading - drawing my own conclusions and continuously suspicious!!

Carol Wyer's Detective Natalie Ward books are extremely well paced and full of tension throughout.  Once again, I've found myself finished with another awesome Carol Wyer crime thriller thinking about how amazing the book was.  I love her style of writing, and I absolutely cannot wait for installment number 4!

I was provided with a complimentary electronic advanced reader copy of this book from Carol Wyer and Bookouture through NetGalley in exchange for my post.  I was not required to post a positive review, but have chosen to do so because it was so ah-mazing!

The Dare is the third book in the DI Natalie Ward series and the strongest novel in terms of characterization, in my opinion. Natalie is as busy as ever, mother to two, wife to a husband with issues, and super cop with a good team. I remember how detached I’d felt from our main character during my read of Last Lullaby (review here!). It wasn’t due to Natalie being a simplistic and uninteresting character. On the contrary, I love how Carol did not play the card to make Natalie perfect, or perfectly imperfect, to win people’s heart. Natalie makes mistakes, she can appear cold, and frankly, I had issues getting into her head before. This new installment in the series allowed me to get closer to her, and for this only, The Dare is a winner.

Could the fact teenage girls are involved be the reason why Natalie is growing on me? No. No maternal instinct was involved, although the case had my stomach churning and my head spinning with nightmarish images. No, I think I can finally connect to Natalie because I have enough bits and pieces of her to create a portray of her in my head. Don’t get me wrong, the previous books introduce you to Natalie the right way. But it is a different way that the one we’re used to in this kind of police procedurals. This time, I didn’t only come up with a physical image, but also a good idea of her personality, and a real sense of what she is dealing with. I think Carol Wyer did a wonderful job creating such a female character. It was a risk, of course, but revealing her the way she does, a few crumbs of doughnut at a time, putting Natalie on a pedestal the reader needs to climb to get an idea of who is hiding behind the glassy surface, is simply brilliant. Alternating between professional Nat and personal Nat, I got the full picture of her life for the first time, and the bonds between her and her family, as well as her team, felt genuine, more authentic, and echoed what I believe to be a very close call to real life.

The Dare… Have you ever played Truth or Dare? I know I did. A very very very long time ago. Before my first white hair. But I never was a daring kid. Let alone a daring teenager! However, a small part of me remembered the feeling of doing something others wouldn’t, or didn’t think I could do, and I recalled the thrill of the act. Teens are stupid, we know it. All those hormones, all those reactions to events they can’t control. It reminds me of adults, except we’re better at hiding how clueless we are about life, haha!

Where was I? Yes! Daring… Have you heard about the games kids these days play? Can you keep up with what’s happening in youngsters’ lives? I know I can’t. It frightens me! I think I wouldn’t survive the heavy load of motherhood! I find myself fascinated by parents/children relationships and the gap that growing up creates. One day, you are your kids’ hero, the next you are their worst enemy. Carol Wyer uses it, letting real-life teenagers spring off the page to play their part in a deadly investigation. I failed at not caring! I blame the author’s true understanding of all players, tugging at the heartstrings while never falling for the easy way of bad kids/bad parents. Good kids take bad decisions, it happens all the time. Good parents make mistakes. And some people take advantage of it.

If many crime fiction books play with a certain pace, The Dare is setting new records! One girl disappears, only to be found very quickly, and very dead. Before you know it, another one follows, and the hours pile up, stretching days with a dangerous mix of adrenaline and fatigue. With lives in danger and a team running in circles, I couldn’t help but bite my lips and let my eyes drive as fast as they could on the words’ road, only to witness things get personal for Natalie. I was past the ‘completely addicted’ level at this point!

An abrupt stop. A gasp. And I think this is the exact moment I thought ‘I like her’. I admired Natalie’s way of dealing with every wall of her life cracking down. My heart was racing, and I am absolutely sure I would never have been able to handle things the way she did. I can’t and won’t say much about the investigation because, with every series, I believe you need to discover those things yourself, but believe me, it is entirely worth it to meet Natalie, fight her, and finally fall for her! This time again, the author delights us with a fabulous book! I can’t wait to know what happens next! The Dare is a brilliant and deathly over-the-speed limit ride!

I dared reading, and I put you to the challenge! Will you?

There are so many thrillers on the market and each has a similar, ubiquitous statement made about them, so much so that I've become immune to their claims or pull as many turn out to be anything but thrilling. However, the third in the Detective Natalie Ward series lives up to the thriller label and then some; by far the strongest of this series so far. This is an engrossing read right from the start and I have massive appreciation for Wyer's character building in which she crafts flawed, realistic individuals who you really get behind through this journey.

Despite it being a horrific tale it is beautifully told with all the twists, turns and red herrings required to keep you guessing and off-kilter. The missing child trope is well loved in the genre but Wyer does it very well, I must admit. The emotional is there, the compassionate characters, the evil personified and of course the devasted family awaiting news. There is plenty to get your teeth into in this page-turner. Recommended. Many thanks to Bookouture for an ARC.

Parenting seems so hard. It is harder for the parents in this book because their teenage girls are vanishing then being found dead. Who would want to kill such young girls and why? These are the questions that Detective Natalie and her team have to figure out as they take on one of their most complex cases yet.

I enjoy multifaceted cases even if they do give me headaches at times. In this case, I would never have guessed the perp even if I had read the book upside down. I had to work the case with Natalie, follow the clues and the interviews leading to the culprit. I had many suspects along the way but I totally missed the right one. This person wasn’t even on my radar. That is how complex the case was and yes, despite the sensitivity of the case, I enjoyed working on this one with Natalie.

I love how Carol’s books are realistically portrayed. There are no convenient, easy conclusions. The twists are realistic and logic, you get to understand how the unsub committed the crimes and how Natalie put together the pieces. The investigation is systematic as the author takes readers through each day of the investigation. This made the case stand out for me.

The Dare is book 3 in the Detective Natalie series and I definitely recommend reading the series in order. I am finally warming up to Natalie. Now, I can also keep the names of her team straight and I am curious to know what will happen in their personal lives in the next installment. It is for that reason that I believe that this series is better enjoyed if read in order. Definitely recommended.

Carol Wyer has done it again, raised the bar so high with this book that I wonder how she would top this up with her next.

The main character DI Natalie Ward and her team have slogged hard in this book, worked day and night, looking at miles of footage of CCTV to find the tiniest of clues. Believe me, this was done on absolutely no sleep and junk food from vending machine. Why did this strike me, you ask? Because Carol has personalized them so much that they now feel like people I know, people I work with.

I love books like these where I can don my detective hat, sift through the clues, try to understand the forensics, and give my pointed, accusatory stare at the suspects. I have yet to interrogate them, but reading Carol's book is like looking at the interview through the one way mirror.

The story went thus, girls were disappearing every day and found dead near the dumpster the next. 3 girls, 3 days. And then came Natalie's daughter Leigh, she disappeared when her mom was at work... So it was race against time to get to the murderer. I loved Natalie's fortitude and professionalism in the face of such a crisis. I was in awe of her. I loved the way her personal life unfolded in this. Didn't like the husband much. He was meh!! 

In every book in this series, the author has taken a social aspect and used her magical craftiness and plotted the story. This time too, Carol has used the new craze of a website daring each other to do weird (read this as stupid, every day I hear one such deed) stuff, and that gives evil to hiss and crawl, constrict its coils around the victim slowly one by one, strangulating life and squeezing the breath

Whew!! That was the book in short, sounds fun, doesn't it? Get it, read it, and enjoy it!

This is my first time reading the DI Natalie Ward series, but the story reads perfectly as a standalone. You soon become familiar with the recurrent characters and their motivations and hangups.

The story is easy to read and realistic. There is a killer in the town preying on young girls. The girls have secrets, hidden from their mothers and this duplicity makes them vulnerable and susceptible to the evil that surrounds them.

There are multiple suspects and sketchy alibis and each delay bring the possibility of another innocent life taken closer. DI Natalie Ward is a dedicated officer, trying to balance her demanding career with troubled home life. There are notable parallels between her teenagers and the victims, which leads to a dangerous collision of personal and professional life that could end in tragedy for the detective.

The fast pacing complements the relentless menace of the abductions and killings. There is a good balance of action and detection and the suspense builds with every incident making this an addictive story. The characterisation makes the protagonist and the minor characters come to life. You feel their emotions and empathise with them

This is a contemporary story, the issues raised face each parent of teenagers and pre-teens, the power and anonymity of social media and the internet is explored in a believable and thought-provoking way. There are no stereotypes here.

The clever plot has the killer playing a game of ‘cat and mouse’ with the detective team, with dangerous stakes and a rising body count. Enhanced with an authentic setting and a cast of realistically flawed characters, this is a riveting noir crime thriller.

I received a copy of this book from Bookouture via NetGalley in return for an honest review.