Cover Image: DEAD GUILTY

DEAD GUILTY

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Member Reviews

Engrossing and edge of your seat reading, Dead Guilty keeps you guessing until the very end.

This is book 9 in the series and I read it all the way to the end. Now, I can't wait for the next installment.

Synopsis:
Looking for a brilliant best-selling crime mystery with great detectives?

Detective Calladine and Bayliss hunt for a missing child in a mystery with a shocking ending. Sophie Alder is the three-year-old daughter of local factory owner, Richard Alder. Richard and his wife Annie are locals from the rough housing estate who’ve made it big. Plus, there’s a crime wave in Leesworth and the police can’t cope. One thief even dares to break into Calladine’s house. A number of local men have formed a vigilante group. On one of their patrols they catch the burglar and he ends up dead. The investigation is complicated and the detectives keep hearing about a shadowy figure called “Street,” the mastermind behind the increase in drugs and theft. With two more murders and Calladine’s personal life in turmoil, the detectives face against time to find “Street” and the missing child. In an ending with a huge twist, the detectives find everything they believed is turned upside down.

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Missing children cases are the worst. I also don’t like to read about them in books, to be honest. Nevertheless, it is a missing child that forms the spine of Dead Guilty. Of course, there is still a lot of other stuff going on as well.

It was another quick read which I needed, but I thought some of the story lines were spinning a bit out of control now that we have reached this point in the series. I wonder how many more books there will be with Calladine & Bayliss.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

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Fab book wish I had read the others in the series as I think I was missing some pertinent aspects to the history of the characters. I enjoyed it a lot thank you

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This was extremely good and kept me guessing right up to the twist at the end! This author is very good so you can be sure of a good story when you get one of these, this just seemed like it was clear who did it but then it throws other things into the mix to fool you. These characters were good and just how you would imagine them to be. I read this quick as could not put it down. It had me fooled as well as the police, definitely recommend this to everyone.

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Professionally written with great skill to keep you hooked, despite perhaps over lengthy attentions to personal lives of the cops (and it's complex), but characters of wealthy father, skittish, offended mother in this case impact on kidnapped child's safety! Straining to pump up the engagement, sometimes the novel falls short of caring! I know just reading a child has been kidnapped should be enough but you need to ramp it up to convey that. Otherwise really well done!

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Dead Guilty is another gripping page tuner by Helen Durrant. Intertwining stories keep you on the edge of your seat with an unexpected twist. DI Tom Calladine and DS Ruth Bayliss are investigating missing 3 year old Sophie Alder. Meanwhile in Leesowrth, a string of break-ins are occurring, all linked to a mysterious character named “Street”. Calladine and Bayliss are against the clock to find missing Sophie, discover who “Street” really is, along with 2 murders to solve.
Another great Calladine and Bayliss thriller and looking forward to the next instalment.

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This is book 9 in the series, so it would be advisable to have read at least a couple of the previous books first to understand the dynamics of the team. Saying this the book can be read as a standalone as it doesn't take long to work out what is happening and has happened in the past.
Before I get onto the main storyline in this book I have to congratulate Helen on the way she has developed the characters and built them up so strongly, ensuring the series is still fresh and improving with each new book.
The book starts off with Calladine's house being broken into at night, whilst he is asleep upstairs. When he confronts the burglar he is given the name of the mastermind, Street. Armed with this information Calladine and Bayliss have to investigate the spate of burglaries, but there is also a vigilante group out doing the same thing.
Along with this story line there is another one revolving around the missing child of a wealthy couple who have made it big despite of their upbringings.
The missing child case takes priority for a while, until the vigilante group catch a thief, who then turns up dead. With this murder the police attention switches back and forth between the two cases as they are both as important as each other.
The way the book switches between each case ensures you never know what is going to happen next and kept me hooked trying to work it all out. The plot is very well written and the way the two stories intermingle made it a very captivating and enjoyable read.

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Reading about DI Calladine and Bayliss is always a pleasure. I usually read them in less than a day, the pages just turn. I look forward to the next in the series as always.

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You always know you’ll get a good read from this author. This book is no exception.

The team’s expertise are called on when a young child of a local businessman goes missing from her back garden and reports of local youths taking over vulnerable or elderly people’s houses for drug dens. Pressure mounts to solve both crimes both from high ranking officers and a local vigilante group fed up of criminal activity in their local area only too willing to take matters into their own hands.

Many thanks to the publishers and netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

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As usual another great read from Helen H Durrant. Really enjoyed this book. Great story, well produced characters, lots of twists and turns to keep you guessing

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'I love HELEN DURRANT novels, I feel like I'm actually there, with people in her nail bitting thrillers She has a rare gift for writing suspense filled crime thrillers!

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This is a mystery book. Where's the yspese, where's the drama, where's the book'?. At 15% read, I had a total lack of interest. I had rea some of this series before and had originally enjoyed them. But I lost interest in Durrant's books after awhile. However, the publicity for this book made it seem like this was a tense thriller. and I thought Durrant had found her mojo again. But she has not. A mystery novel needs to give the reader the sense of MYSTERY that keeps you wanting to find out who is doing what to whom and want to get to the end to solve the case. This is so h-hum, I don't care if I find out or not. This is another case of an author who writes well initially, but once he/she is a success, then the author just keeps churning out one after the other because the author is making a lot of money.

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If you like crime thrillers this is definitely for you. It gripped me from the start. I couldn’t put it down. Helen Durrant has tough competition in the crime thriller sphere with so many excellent writers in the market but she is creating some very stiff competition. Sophie, the daughter of a local factory owner goes missing and a vigilante hunt ensues. In small towns people become caught up in the action and accidents happen. The innocent are punished. The guilty often go unnoticed. This is a thriller with a remarkable twist. I’ll definitely return to Durrant’s writing again and again after this wonderful introduction to her work.

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Fantastic read, Helen H Durrant at her best. Such an awesome twisty plot that keeps you guessing. I started this book and straight away I was totally sucked in and couldn’t put it down, reading late in to the night. Love the characters, their relationships to each other and the way they interact through the story. This book is definitely a 5 star read I loved it.

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I’ve been in hospital a while and I requested this book absolutely brilliant well written good little page turner I actually lent my iPad to a fellow patient so we could discuss it brilliant thank you for letting me read it

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I seem to keep making a mistake by requesting detective fiction. I keep hoping it'll give me something more, something interesting that changes my opinion, but I'm really struggling to find something that I love.
Dead Guilty was... ok. It wasn't the worst detective fiction I've read, but it didn't convert me to being a lover of the genre. The best part of the book was the well developed characters and I really enjoyed the detective team, Calladine and Bayliss, which is usually something I don't care too much about.
I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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Enjoyed this book. Kept me interested all the way through. Would recommend to a fellow reader. Love the cover.

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Another fantastic instalment in the brilliant Calladine and Bayliss series. The shocking case of a 3 year old child, of wealthy parents, being abducted makes for tense reading. The characters of Calladine and Bayliss compliment each other so well , it is like meeting old friends. During the investigation to find the missing child, they sense there is something they are not being told.. A great plot which also involves murder and drugs, had me gripped from start to finish. Looking forward to the next book in series.

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The plot of Dead Guilty was complex and had plenty of twists and turns which made me guess till the very end. The characters were well developed and realistic, in addition Calladine and Bayliss were a likeable detective team. I would highly recommend this one.

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Wow, what a fantastic and exciting instalment in a series featuring DS Ruth Bayliss and DI Tom Calladine!

Written by best-selling author Helen H. Durrant, this was a fast-paced crime thriller that had me hooked, even before I had swiped my e-reader to take me to the second page.

Helen H. Durrant has drawn some marvellous characters in this novel. I loved DI Tom Calladine as he was portrayed to have immense strength of the character. He loved his job and gave it his all, but his personal life was not running as smoothly. In this story, he was attempting to find love again with his new girlfriend Layla, after a failed marriage. I also liked the ordinariness of the characters. Calladine and Bayliss were friends as well as colleagues so their interactions were both pleasing to read about and honest.

Dead Guilty was complex and well plotted with enough twists in the tale to keep me guessing. Although challenging, there was never any point that I was confused or lost. The easy and highly readable writing style of Helen H. Durrant meant there was no putting this one down to go and do something else!. Towards the end, the two distinct threads of the plot merged, creating an exciting conclusion. This was an incredibly riveting read with an addictive plot and a believable, if flawed, cast.

This is a must read, very highly recommended and I absolutely loved it. It would be great for any lover of police procedural novels and it is a five-star read!

Thanks to NetGalley, Joffe books and the author, Helen H. Durrant for the complimentary advanced copy. This is my honest and totally voluntary review.

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