Cover Image: Dead Wrong

Dead Wrong

Pub Date:   |   Archive Date:

Member Reviews

Dead Wrong by Noelle Holton
DC Maggie Jamieson #2

You know you put the bad guy behind bars where he will rot forever and have tried to forget all about him only to see him front and center in the latest news appealing his conviction. You know he is not innocent but how to prove it...especially when women he says he killed a few years ago start showing up dismembered. That is DC Maggie Jamieson’s job and she is very good at her job!

This was the first book I have read by this author and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I missed out on the first one but was fully able to read and enjoy this one without having that one first even though I have the feeling that in book one she worked with a different police group than she worked with in this book. I believe I have found a new author that will provide thrills and chills and wonderful police procedurals for me to read and look forward to doing so as soon as she has them written.

What I liked:
* Maggie: focused, intelligent, dedicated, good at what she does – she cares about family, friends and those she seeks justice for.
* Andy: her brother – would like to know more about him
* Her teammates – I have a feeling that as the series progresses more will be learned about each one of them.
* Police procedural sussing out of what the truth of the matter in this case really was
* The potential for romance
* Dialogue between characters
* It seemed believable
* The creep-factor of the crime
* That the perpetrators of the crime, most of them, are brought to justice

What I did not like:
* The evil ones – there were a few
* Knowing that crime exists and that no doubt this story is the tip of the iceberg
* Having to wait for book three

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I read more by this author? Yes

Thank you to the author who gifted me a copy of her book through BOTBS Publicity – This is my honest review.

4-5 Stars

Was this review helpful?

I thought Noelle Holten’s debut novel, which I read last year, was brilliant, but I think her second book, Dead Wrong, is even better. Noelle left us on a bit of a cliff hanger at the end of the first book in the series, and when I got to the end of her latest, I couldn’t help but think oh my god, I can’t believe what I’m reading. She is definitely the kind of writer whose books you’ll want to be jumping to the moment they’re released as you’ll want to know what happens next. This can be easily read as a stand-alone, however, so it isn’t necessary to read the first book, but I would highly recommend reading it as well.

The end of the previous book, sees DC Maggie Jamieson being notified that a case from her past is about to come back and haunt her. The resurfacing of an old case does leave Maggie in an uncomfortable position that sees her career put at risk. Maggie takes a much more centre stage in Dead Wrong. In the last book, Noelle focussed the story a lot more on probation officer Lucy Sherwood, and she used her own knowledge of this profession.

In an earlier case in her career, Maggie was responsible for locking up Bill Raven, a man convicted for a string of murders, handing him a life prison sentence. But Maggie’s work on the case is thrown into doubt when the body of one of Bill’s victim’s turns up, and it seems that he couldn’t have killed her as he would have been in prison at the time. Bill launches an appeal to be released, and Maggie is determined to make sure he stays behind bars. But it seems as though she is fighting a losing battle and it is getting ever closer to the dangerous possibility of Bill being released. But is he innocent or is he guilty?

I did not like Bill Raven from the first moment Noelle introduces us to him. He is a cold and calculating individual, and he knows how to mould a situation. It was also the way he spoke to Maggie that gave me shivers, and I was rooting for her to find the evidence to keep him in his place. When I could see what sort of a person he was, I was really hoping that Maggie could succeed, but I also thought that she could be hindered by those who are ranked above her in the police.

I really liked Maggie’s working relationship with police officer, Nathan Wright, and I also liked the growing relationship between her and Dr Kate Moloney. I didn’t particularly get on with DI Rutherford, but I think this was because of the restraints she was trying to put on Maggie when Maggie wanted to speak to Bill Raven. I couldn’t believe that she was trying to distance Maggie from doing this, and this made me gripped to the plot all the more as I waited to see what the outcome was going to be. Noelle Holten cleverly weaves the answers into the story, and I thought it was very well-plotted.

Noelle Holten keeps the pace flying forward which and she does this using short chapters which keep you reading on to the next.

Dead Wrong is an exciting addition to the DC Maggie Jamieson series, and after that final chapter I’m waiting with bated breath for the next one to be released, don’t leave us waiting too long, Noelle.

Was this review helpful?

5/5 Stars - I’m still processing that ending!

(This is the second book in a series, but I was able to read it as a standalone with no problems.)

Wow. I liked the book before I got to the end, but then that last chapter.....Can I read the next one tomorrow PLEASE?! I can’t wait! Take this as a warning: you will be last gasping and clambering for the next in this series!

Anyways, this was a really suspenseful book with a unique twist: the crimes were solved by the police through a detailed confession, or so they thought. Now that the crimes are repeating themselves, there’s a race to find out what the heck is going on and whether the creepy, charismatic guy behind bars is somehow involved. It was a great mystery with some nice twists in there.

I also really liked Maggie as a character. She’s stubborn, dedicated, loving - a very complex character with a good heart that you can root for. It was great to see her work out everything, with a little help from her team, of course, and I really liked them too.

Overall, this is 100 percent a series that I will be looking for as it goes forward and I can’t wait to see where everything goes.

Was this review helpful?

DC Maggie Jamieson is back with Major and Organised Crime after a secondment at the Domestic abuse unit and on a cse that could ruin her career. Parts of a recently killed body have been discovered but they are identified as belonging to a woman who was supposed to have been killed a while ago by Bill Raven, a man who Maggie helped to imprison after he confessed to multiple murders. Even though no bodies were found his confession was detailed enough that he was prosecuted and convicted.
Now Raven is appealing his conviction and after the recent discovery the police are worried he could be set free. Maggie is still convinced he was involved and has a race against the clock to find out if he did kill the women or if he was working with someone else.
Working with criminal profiler Kate and under the ever watchful eye of DI Rutherford Maggie has to try to forget what she feels and concentrate on the evidence.

Was this review helpful?

I really struggled with this book, it took me weeks to finish! I didn't like how ever chapter ended with a short statement and the story seemed to take an age to get going.

Maggie was a really unlikable character, and I don't understand the "thing" with the cat...

Was this review helpful?

This is the second in a crime thriller series featuring DC Maggie Jamieson. This installment has her returned to Stafford Police Station after a secondment in the Domestic Abuse and Homicide Team (DEAD INSIDE - BOOK #1) that ended the career of the criminal known as The Chopper -- Bill Raven -- who was convicted and now serving life in prison. Back with the team at the Major and Organized Crime Department, she finds that Raven has suddenly claimed his innocence in the death and dismemberment cases and may now be released. In addition, she's being accused of coercing testimony. Of course she's livid as she knows she had him dead to rights, but his solicitor has filed an appeal. Before that can get off the ground, a bag of body parts is found in a bin and the female is identified as Lorraine Rugman, the woman Bill Raven had claimed killing in what he is now calling a confession drug from him during a drug induced psychosis. Soon, two other body bags are found and, with Raven behind bars, some think that he may be innocent after all. But not Maggie Jamieson who is convinced that he's involved despite forensics showing that the women found were recently killed. So who is killing these women two years after Raven initially claimed he'd done it? It can't be Raven as he's been locked up, coming off heroin, and getting treatment from the prison psychologist. Now, it's up to Maggie and the rest of the team to find the real killer and tie Raven to the crimes. NO SPOILERS.

This was straight-forward police procedural and the narrative moves between different points of view as the case is worked. I didn't find myself becoming particularly attached or interested in any of them as all are fairly one-dimensional. A disconnect occurs because, although Maggie is a DC, it seems like she leads the others around almost taking charge of the case and everyone just lets her. There is very little about anyone's personal lives in the story, but Maggie's bisexuality is mentioned as almost an aside with nothing ever coming of any romance within. The DI allows Maggie a lot of leeway and eventually the case is solved and it's proved that Maggie was right about her theories of course and not much of a surprise. It all ends rather quickly without much explanation of the relationship between Raven and the killer. I'm over him so I hope we're done with all that and can move on to something more interesting hinted at by the cliffhanger ending. All in all, there was just nothing much new here to separate this from the standard detective series so I truly hope that, in future books, Maggie becomes more three-dimensional. I will definitely want to read #3 to see.

Thank you to NetGalley and One More Chapter (HarperCollins Publishers) for this e-book ARC to read and review.

Was this review helpful?

This is the second book in the Maggie James series and was a great read. The character of Maggie is more developed in this one. The case she has in the Domestic Violence Unit deals with a serial killer that has been in jail when two years later, his supposed victims start showing up mutilated in black plastic bags. The suspense was plentiful and kept me engaged.

Was this review helpful?

So glad to see DC Maggie Jamieson back! I liked this book much more so than the first one thanks to the exclusion of the domestic abuse that was so prevalent in the first book. As hoped for, we got to get to know Maggie better while she struggled to make a connection between the serial killer she had put behind bars and the current dead bodies. This party left me a bit at a loss. I can not fathom why she was allowed to go interview Bill Ravens so many times. I felt like I was in a revolving door. And I didn't feel like she learned much with each interaction. It started to feel like a page filler. But the underlying story line was a good one when we got to it. I am still waiting to see more of the other characters in the series. They seem to be interesting and will hopefully add some flavor to the future books.

Was this review helpful?

Another epic read that had me gripped from the first pages.
The story follows an horrific character that has been written about brilliantly showing amazing writing talent by Noelle. DC Maggie Jamieson has her work cut out for her. I do like a good crime book that has returning DCs or policeman as it brings understanding to how they might react to a crime having begun to get to know them in the first book.
You would be Dead Wrong to miss this cracking read.

Was this review helpful?

This is the second book in the DC Maggie Jamieson series and I thought it was great!

I really enjoyed the first book, but this one for me was even better and I loved the plot line! It was fast paced and there was plenty going on in each chapter to keep me engrossed, and engaged with the story. It was gritty where it needed to be and that helped add to the story, it is very well written.

I loved the Raven and I thought he was well developed and a fabulous character – he is one of those people you should really dislike but he holds your attention - I loved the interaction between him and Maggie as she is working with her team to try and crack the case.

I do think that this would read absolutely fine as a stand-alone, but it is a continuation from the previous book if you did want to read them in order.

It is 4.5 stars from me for this one, rounded up to 5 stars for Goodreads and Amazon – after how the book ended I can’t wait for the next in the series now!! Very highly recommended and a thrilling read!

Was this review helpful?

Dead Wrong is Noelle Holten's follow up to her gripping début novel, Dead Inside and heralds the return of DC Maggie Jamieson. This second instalment is every bit as tense and exciting as the first. I was completely hooked by the brilliant plot and the characters – from the very likeable lead, to her terrifyingly creepy nemesis, who gave me the heebie-jeebies.

As I zipped through the pages in my haste to reach the end of the line, I marvelled at the to and fro between the good and evil. I was in awe of the support shown by Maggie's team, especially DI Rutherford, DS Nathan Wright, and PC Bethany Lambert and the ways in which each and every clue were painstakingly examined and deciphered, although it was Maggie with her instincts and her keen eye that eventually came up with the goods.

With an astonishing denouement to an excellently plotted story, I am now waiting with (im)patience to see what Noelle Holten has in store for us crime readers and DC Maggie Jamieson, next!

I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel, at my request, from One More Chapter via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

Was this review helpful?

I knew when I read the first book about DC Maggie Jamieson that we were going to get along - and I was right!

Maggie is back with her original team investigating murders and looking forward to getting on with the job. What she didn't expect was to find herself in the middle of the investigation; Bill Raven confessed previously and was charged and found guilty of several murders despite the bodies never being recovered. However, when the bodies turn up, recently murdered whilst he was incarcerated the media are looking for a fall guy - and Maggie seems to be the most convenient. Did she really make mistakes?

This is most definitely a dark and gripping read! Twisting this way and that, I needed to keep my wits about me to keep up. I love that everything is explained so well, and involves multiple agencies, not just the police force. Maggie Jamieson's character is expanded in this second novel, and I like her a lot better now. Cleverly plotted and well written, this is a very gratifying read and one I was very happy settle down with. There are several surprises along the way, but the biggest one occurs right at the very end! I cannot wait for book three now! Without a doubt, this is a solid five star read and fully earns every single one of them!

My thanks to the publisher for my copy and to Book on the Bright Side for my spot on this tour. This is - as always - my honest, original and unbiased review.

Was this review helpful?

I really enjoyed Noelle Holten’s first book, Dead Inside, so was very keen to read the follow up, Dead Wrong. Easily read as a stand-alone, Dead Wrong certainly does not disappoint.

DC Maggie Jamieson has recently come back to her Staffordshire Police following a secondment to the area’s Domestic Abuse & Homicide Unit, where she made some great friends and contacts and learned the benefits of a multi-agency approach to many of the crimes she has to deal with.

One of the strengths of Holten’s work is that she has adopted a portfolio approach to her writing. That gives her a wide cast of characters to draw from and means that she can focus on different characters at any given time and know that readers will already have met them and know something about them. In the first book, Lucy Sherwood from the Probation Service took centre stage, with Maggie Jamieson playing an important, supporting role.

This time it is D.C. Maggie Jamieson who is at the heart of the story, re-establishing herself in the C.I.D. Unit. Her feet are barely back under the table when she is faced with an enormous challenge. A murderer, Bill Raven, whose confession Maggie had elicited, leading to a lifetime jail sentence, has now recanted and worse – one of the bodies he is supposed to have been responsible for murdering has turned up dismembered and dumped in a bin. It is clear that not only is this murder recent, within the last few days, but Raven was locked up at the time.

Maggie’s professional reputation looks to be in tatters and the Criminal Case Review Board and Professional Standards want to know whether she coerced his confession. Raven is a creepy, tricky character, full of cunning and ready to taunt Maggie at every turn and the press are only too keen to hang her out to dry.

Now the team have to find out who killed this woman and the other murdered women who follow, whilst trying to work out whether they have falsely accused Raven of these crimes. Raven’s appeal will be heard before too long and Maggie is aghast at the thought that this man, whom she is certain is a murderer, could be back on the streets within a month.

Maggie’s boss, D.I. Rutherford tries to keep Maggie at arm’s length from Raven, knowing that her professional career is in jeopardy. Maggie though will not be deflected from her certainty that Raven is guilty.

Working with her former partner, Nathan Wright recently promoted to acting DS, and involving Psychotherapist Dr Kate Moloney as a profiler, she sets out to prove she is not wrong.

Holten does not shirk from the grislier aspects of dealing with a nasty murder case. Here the menace is apparent and the danger creates a tense and fraught atmosphere as the appeal looms nearer and the team seem to be no closer to finding out what has happened.

Alongside the investigation, another creepy and unpleasant set of happenings is occurring. Whether or not they are related to the Raven case is unclear, but this leads to a growing feeling of unease and a very unsettling feeling to the whole investigation.

Short chapters add pace to an already fast moving plot and Holten’s eye for detail shows that she knows her onions when it comes to a police procedural.

Verdict: A tense and thrilling police procedural from a writer whose knowledge of the criminal justice system shines through. Unsettling and disturbing this has a particularly delicious villain and the plot is full of surprises and one enormous shock. Highly recommended.

Was this review helpful?

This is book 2 in the Maggie Jamieson series and I loved it.

It was dark and thrilling with murder and mystery mixed in.

I was gripped from start to finish with all the twists and turns

Was this review helpful?

Noelle Holten is back with a bang with Dead Wrong, the second in the Maggie Jamieson thriller series and feels like it's been a long time coming or maybe I'm just impatient. It is not necessary to have read the series opener prior to picking this up unless you feel so inclined as all pertinent information to help you get on a level playing field with those who did read it is helpfully provided by the author. The story centres around convicted serial killer Bill Raven who simply couldn't keep his mouth shut once he started bragging about his disgusting, brutal exploits during an impromptu confession. He is now appealing against his sentence and citing unlawful imprisonment and that the reason his confession shouldn't have been taken seriously was because he was under the influence of drugs at the time and had also been experiencing a psychotic break. So with his confession retracted, no bodies and only circumstantial evidence Maggie was crucified in the press for putting an innocent man behind bars.

A new investigation is started and Maggie is placed at the helm once again as her superiors trust her instinct that she has been right all along. Then with precision timing, the dismembered bodies of the murdered women reveal themselves one by one but the presumed perpetrator, Bill, was still in prison when one of the times of death was deemed as being only two days ago. Is this an elaborate ruse meant to free Bill or was someone else responsible all along? This is a riveting, intense and twisty thriller and the plot is well written, exciting, action-packed and dramatic from the word go. It's difficult to put down and I must admit I devoured it in a single sitting. The short chapters keep you turning the pages long into the night and the conclusion shocked me to my core. I wasn't sure Ms Holten could surpass her debut but boy was I wrong; the best kind of wrong! You could even say that I was ”Dead Wrong”. Highly recommended. Many thanks to One More Chapter for an ARC.

Was this review helpful?

★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
---
Last year, Noelle Holten blew my socks off with her debut, Dead Inside . It was the first of the Maggie Jamieson novels—although, I mentioned at the time "you'd be excused if you didn't pick that up until the last chapter," because it focused so much on a side character. This time out, the focus is almost exclusively on Maggie—her professional side as well as her personal life.

Before Dead Inside, Maggie had been part of a Homicide investigation team but had been reassigned to help her decompress after a stressful investigation that resulted in Bill Raven, a confessed serial killer, getting a life sentence. It ended with Maggie getting a voice mail from her old boss:

‘Your secondment is over at the DAHU. Raven has appealed his sentence, claimed he’s innocent. Timely I’d say as there has been another murder. Either a copycat or the real killer picking up where they left off. Get your arse in here.’


It turns out that it's a bit more than "another murder." It's actually the murder of the woman Raven claimed was his first victim. Which doesn't seem like a big deal, everyone knew she was dead. The twist comes when the report comes in that she's been dead two days.

Say what you will, being locked up already for someone's murder is a pretty good alibi for their actual murder. Many people—including fellow police officers and detectives--and the Press are outraged. Maggie's previous work is being scrutinized, she's having to defend her actions in the past while investigating the new murder (okay, it soon becomes murders—including more women that Raven claimed to have killed). She's also doing everything she can to keep Raven behind bars—but that's an unofficial goal. Officially, she's supposed to stay away from revisiting the original investigation.

Now, the idea of a detective having to deal with an old investigation being re-opened because the convicted killer is making a case for their release isn't new—Bosch had to deal with it in Two Kinds of Truth , Poe dealt with it in Black Summer , even the great Capt. Raymond Holt had to endure this kind of thing. But none of them had to explain how some of the victims turned out to have been recently alive. There's more to differentiate Maggie's challenge than that, but it's a good start. Whoever is behind these killings is clearly some sort of monster, and sussing out the motive and means may prove as difficult as finding whoever's responsible.

While the brass are inclined to believe Raven's claims that he was delusional from drugs and a psychiatric condition when he confessed, Maggie only has a couple of sympathetic colleagues—an old friend who is now her DS and a psychologist she befriended on her temporary assignment, Kate Moloney.

Kate ends up consulting for the investigation for the new murders, helping the team think of their evidence in new ways, and helping Maggie better understand Raven and who he may have been working with while incarcerated to do the killing.

We see both women at work and at home—their home situations are almost as troublesome and stress-inducing as the hunt for the "real killer." But, relying on each other, and their respective strengths, they're able to muddle through—and even have a little fun. It's an early Tony Hill/Carol Jordan-type relationship (I want to stress the "type," because they're all very different people and Holten isn't trying for a clone in any sense).

I should add quickly that we do get to see Lucy, who is still working through the issues revealed in Dead Inside, but seems to be doing really well (all things considered). We don't spend much time with her, but the way it's done leaves the possibility for her to return to the books.

What about Bill Raven, our potentially falsely-convicted killer? It's pretty late in the book when the reader gets a firm answer about his guilt. But we learn a few things about him right away. He's arrogant, confident, enjoys playing with Maggie (and other detectives), and there's just something about him that's "off" (for lack of a better description). Whether or not he's ultimately found to have committed the crimes he enjoys the attention and is hopeful for what the new murders mean for his release. The source of his derangement, and exactly why he's doing what he's doing is hinted at—and I think he alters his approach during the novel (or maybe I just don't understand him enough).

Unlike most of the British Police Procedurals I've read the last few months, Dead Wrong primarily uses three characters for the Points-of-View (Maggie, Raven and Kate)—making it really easy to keep track of everyone. We do see a little from Maggie's DI, and a couple of the victims in their last moments, too.

Speaking of the victims, and I mention this because I know the tastes of a lot of my readers. I should spend a minute talking about what befalls these women (and they are primarily women). However, and isn't this a pleasant change, there's nothing sexual about what happens to them. There's not a hint, suggestion or implication of any rape or similar abuse. They are held captive—and what happens to them is truly horrifying, make no mistake, but it's not your typical fictional serial killer thing. There's no torture, either. At least not as you normally think about it. (what happens has to be tortuous, I assure you) we get a couple of pages' worth of the female victims point-of-view, but even it isn't as fear-filled as typically portrayed. There is soul-crushing despair, but done in a way I rarely, if ever, see.

I have an idea or three about where Holten is going with this, and if I'm even close to being in the right ballpark, let me say that I'm not a fan. Not that I don't think it'll be gripping reading, I'd just like things to go a little better for Maggie than I think they're going to.

There are a couple of things I'm not crazy about. Once or twice, Maggie's reaction to something feels a little over-dramatic/melodramatic. And there are a few things that I would have preferred given to us with greater detail (for example, someone is arrested for their role related to the investigations—and we're only told that and have to make ill-informed guesses about what their actions have done to alter the police's work).

That said, I really enjoyed this book—it's a real slow boil of a book, things start bubbling pretty soon, but you have to wait and wait and wait for that to become a full-fledged rolling boil. Holten's great at making sure you know there's tension and malfeasance afoot, even if she doesn't allow it to take over the novel. It's well-plotted and well-executed, allowing the momentum to build so the reader is fully hooked before the plot really gets moving. Dead Inside concluded with a sentence or two past that voicemail. Dead Wrong ends on a similar note, propelling the reader on to the next book.

Dead Wrong didn't wow me as much as its predecessor did—for one thing, I now know what Holten is capable of, and expect it—also, the nature of the story was is a bit more traditional than the last one was. While my theories while reading were wrong more often than right with Dead Wrong, I still had a pretty solid idea where the plot was going all along (until the very end, that is)—so it took a little of the luster off. Not much though, I'm still sure this is going to go down as one of the best things I read in 2020. I'll wager the same is true for you.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter via NetGalley in exchange for this post and my honest opinion—thanks to both for this.

Was this review helpful?

Dead Wrong is technically a sequel to last year’s Dead Inside, by well known crime fiction blogger and former probation officer Noelle Holten, but despite being set in the same world, and featuring some of the same characters, it is actually quite a different kind of story with an alternative heroine. It could easily be read as a stand-alone, although you would then be partially spoiled if you went back to the first book. This one is a much more typical police procedural, lacking the originality and dark emotion of Dead Inside, to which I had awarded five stars, and suffers by comparison.

DC Maggie Jamieson is a junior member of Stafford’s Homicide team, although you would not know it from the way she behaves. Two years earlier, she arrested a serial killer called Bill Raven, who was convicted based on his confession despite the lack of any bodies. Now severed limbs have been found belonging to his named victims but forensic evidence proves they died recently, so Raven cannot have committed the crime and has launched an appeal to be released, and the press are quick to attack Maggie for putting a supposedly innocent man in prison. Convinced of his guilt, Maggie, with the help of her friend and potential love interest psychologist Kate Moloney, must find the new killer before he can be released.

So, starting with the good, Holten writes very well, with atmospheric descriptions of creepy crime scenes and easy to follow sequences. The plot wasn’t too predictable - I didn’t guess who the guilty party would be, and I was certainly reeled in to keep reading to find out how it would turn out.
I was forewarned in other reviews of a cliff-hanger ending, which I normally dislike, but this was more of a hook right at the end to lead you into the next book - which is fine with me as it was actually heavily foreshadowed.

Unfortunately, I did have several issues with this book. First the implausibility of a DC being left to investigate such a major investigation, and then carry the can when it goes wrong - when you read this much crime fiction you can get the impression that every police force is investigating serial killers all the time, but they are in fact rare and I don’t believe that such a lowly ranked officer would’ve been the public face of the team. (I have no direct knowledge of the English police system, but have read enough to feel I have a reasonable sense of normal procedure. Admittedly some CF series have their DI as the person on the ground doing all the interviews which is not believable either.)

The pace was slowed down by frequent repetition as Maggie goes round in circles repeatedly visiting and then winding up Raven. The scenes featuring the victims also all seemed to be the same. Then chunks of time would be missed out - Maggie gets dressed up and goes out to a bar, but we don’t see any of this - no it’s not relevant to the plot but would’ve been more interesting to see her outside of work than reading about her drinking wine at home...

There’s a whole minor sub-plot about Maggie’s missing cat which goes nowhere and served only to raise my anxiety and make him lose all sympathy with her: I know I’m a more obsessive cat mother than normal, but for someone who claims to be fond of her pet, she does nothing but put up a few posters and then seems to forget all about him. Minor spoiler, he reappears, without explanation weeks later, with hints that Raven was somehow involved, and rather than being overjoyed, her reaction is sort of “ho-hum, oh there you are”... Not a way to endear a character to me (and a higher than normal proportion of readers seem to like cats - just saying.)

I actually did like that Holten doesn’t make a big deal of Maggie’s bisexuality as it is unimportant to her role and seems normal that she would conceal it from her colleagues. The tension in the developing relationship with Kate felt realistic and not there for titillation. On the other hand, her brother is a shadowy background character who is not well developed - maybe he will be more prominent in the next book - and some of the other supporting characters are also paper thin, like poor PC Bethany who does all the grunt work and we don’t even know what she looks like. I would rather hear less about every single bloomin’ coffee that Maggie drinks, and have more descriptions of her colleagues’ looks, backgrounds, quirks and personalities!

Finally, a minor irritation was the overuse of police titles, and inconsistencies in how they are referred to: a couple of times early on to establish who’s who is fine, but Nathan is referred to as DS Nathan Wright repeatedly well into the book and Maggie’s boss changes from Abigail to DI Rutherford and back. In dialogue it seems right that rank be referred to as this is how they would refer to each other - unlike the American tendency to just use surnames - but you don’t need to patronise us by constantly reminding us who’s who. Conversely, several times there were acronyms for departments used without explanation that we are supposed to just guess at.

For all these criticisms, it’s not a bad book and these problems are readily fixable and, from all the 4 and 5 star reviews here, clearly not issues for other readers. I’m definitely keen to continue the series and find out what happens next (I’m pretty sure it’s not going to be what it looks like!) 3.5 rounded down.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc which allowed me to give an honest review. Dead Wrong is published on March 14th.

Was this review helpful?

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for this ARC.

This is the second in a series featuring DC Maggie Jamieson and the first book I’ve read by this author. It can be read on it’s own, and I’ll definitely be reading the previous book now. I found this book a riveting read from beginning to end. I really liked the main character, she was very likeable, believable, tenacious and relies on her gut instinct. I loved reading of her working rapport and friendship with her DS, and the small glimpses into her personal life. There are many plot twists and turns, one or two I suspected .... most of them I didn’t see coming though ..... I felt like I was on the edge of my seat reading this, literally not knowing what was coming next. For me, this was an incredibly well written and thought out book that had me hooked right from the start. And what an ending. Looking forward to the next book in the series. 5 stars, it’s one cracking read

Was this review helpful?

First, I want to thank Noelle Holten, BOTBSPublicity, One More Chapter and NetGalley for providing this book so I may bring you this review.

Dead Wrong by Noelle Holten is the follow up to her debut novel Dead Inside. These books can be read as a stand-alone or as part of the series. I myself read it as a stand-alone and was able to follow it ok.

I never knew that Noelle had been a Senior/Probation Officer for 18 years. Now I understand why she loves true crime so much. Not to mention is a great true crime writer.

Bill Raven’s story was sick and twisted yet I loved it. However, my heart went out to Maggie who had to deal with this case. Oh boy was he a sick twisted man!!

Love how Noelle uses the same phrase I do- same shit different day!

I liked how well Maggie and Kate worked well together and how much they had to bring to the table.

This was a very interesting book.

Was this review helpful?

I read her first book and was hoping her second would be as good. Well it wasn't. It was better. And I love an author that shows growth in their writing. I adore Maggie. Give me more, Noelle.

Was this review helpful?