I absolutely love the Gina Harte series. Carla has created a fab character and this is one of my favourite female detective series.

Gina's life seems to be okay, that is up until she takes on a case that brings back memories of her abusive dead husband.

Her background is brought to the forefront of the case and it is up to Gina to save the day!

It is a great psychological thriller. I love of all the books and this one did not disappoint. I cannot wait for the next instalment.

Their Silent Graves is another bone chilling psychological thriller not to miss. Follow Detective Gina Harte through a mystery that spans 20+ years. A ghost story turns into a real life serial killer. Follow a group of friends that are bonded by an evil act- a group who will do anything to keep their secret all these years later. A heart thumping, page turner. 4 stars.

Wow! A brilliantly gripping thriller. I haven't read the previous books in the serious but definitely will be now.

There is a serial killer at work and their chosen method of killing is a personal dread. Gina Harte and the team are really up against it, they must find the killer before more people go missing. A chilling story.

This is without doubt THE BEST police procedural / crime series EVER. I was therefore delighted to receive an arc of this book.

The whole Gina Harte series just goes from strength to strength and never fails to grip you from the beginning through to the end.

Harte is the lead detective when two girls on the way to a Halloween party, take a short cut through the woods and come accrued a shallow grave. The way it is written really puts you at the scene and you can almost feel spooked like the characters would be! What is found is that victims seem to be tortured and buried alive!

However when more of these shallow graves begin to appear Gina and her team are really under pressure to get to the bottom of what is happening which proves difficult when the perp is covering their tracks very well.

There is a real race against time to stop more of these gruesome deaths and with lots of twists and turns along the way you are gripped all the way through!

It was great to connect with all the usual characters in this series once again!

This book looks great - beautiful cover and interesting description. However, I have just realized that it is the 7th book in a series. I don't like to review books that are so far into a series because even if they can pass as standalone books, you miss a lot of the backstory of the repeating characters and I don't feel as if I am necessarily doing them justice. When I feel like the characters are underdeveloped and I don't care about them, or if many characters are launched at me at the same time...well, it's because all of this was fleshed out in the earlier books and it's my fault I missed it!

It seems like a very interesting series, so I will definitely be looking into the earlier books.

I jumped into the Detective Gina Harte series with the seventh instalment Their Silent Graves. It starts with two teenage girls in Halloween costumes discovering a shallow grave in woodland on the outskirts of town, but Harte and her team soon realise they are on the hunt for a serial killer. For Harte, the case becomes personal when she receives notes that reveal somebody knows her own secrets from the past. Somehow that is connected with what is happening in the small town now. But will she and her team track down the killer before more lives are lost? Their Silent Graves is an enjoyable police procedural. The story will be enhanced for readers who are fans of the series with a deep connection to the central characters and backstory that links into this case.

This series just keeps going from strength to strength, Their Silent Grave is the 7th book in this series and what a belter and no better timing to read it than around Halloween which added to it!

Det Gina Harte is called in when two girls take a short cut through the woods to a Halloween party stumbling upon a shallow grave, what is discovered sends shivers up her spine and those reading it! It appears that there had been a string attached to the coffin in the grave which led to a bell, was the victim buried alive and given a chance at raising the alarm? Gina and her team are up against it with not much to go on and then another shallow grave/coffin is found…. What/who exactly are they dealing with and why? Can they figure it out before more graves are discovered? No pressure eh!!

This book had an eerie nightmarish quality to it, it grips you from the getgo, brings all your worst nightmares to the forefront, a brilliantly twisty thriller that will keep your finger nails bitten to the quick, highly recommend.

A good and interesting read!

I would recommend this to everyone who loves a good story with captivating characters! Definitely a good read!

Two girls decide to take a short cut through the woods but they stumble upon a grave with a piece of string running from the grave to a bell without a clanger.
D.I. Gina Hart and her team are called on to the case.
Gina recognises the man from an alltercation in the cafe she was in.
Gina receives letters off the killer relating to horrible things that happened to her when she was married to Terry.
Then they find a other grave they realise a serial killer is on the loose and must catch them before they kill again.
Another great book
Thanks NetGalley

This book hooked me from the start and i couldn't put it down until i finish it. Absolutely LOVE it!! Amazing psychological thriller!!

I really enjoyed this book all the way through. It had a really good plot, great main characters and really keeps you hooked on the plot. I would highly recommend this book.

A fresh grave is discovered with a bell without a clapper. The man has been buried alive, desperate to escape. But the grave is silent and no one comes to save him...
I remember reading a book as a teenager about the Victorian tradition of attaching a bell to dead people's fingers due to fears of being buried alive. It terrified me then and it does now. We see the perspective of the victims as they experience their last moments of life. There is not a great deal of forensic detail or violence, but the psychological aspect is strong and creates anticipation and fear.
Some chapters feature events from the past and there is obviously a correlation between these and the murders in the present. Victimised in the past, now the killer has a murderous agenda but is also contacting Gina due to the abuse she suffered and a feeling of rapport towards her.
The pace of the book slowed down in the middle which I found frustrating. The ending picks up pace again as Gina's safety is endangered. This brings her to an understanding about the killer, ready for the final showdown. I did not guess the killer and felt that the conclusion brought the strands of plot together including the local and press knowledge about Gina's abusive husband.
Their Silent Graves is the 7th book to feature Gina as the lead detective. The abuse Gina suffered and her cautious relationship with senior officer Briggs continue to have prominence but it is not necessary to have read the preceding books in the series to enjoy this one.

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

This is my second read by this author and I really enjoyed it. Gina Harte as a character is slowly growing on me. She investigates a murder where it appears the victim has been buried alive. There are a lot of plot lines and twists in the book that I really liked. I thought I knew who the murderer was and was wrong. The book captured my attention from the beginning and held it all the way through. I found this book to be one I didn’t want to put down. I love the authors writing style and look forward to the next book.

4 stars

A perfect dark night read . It’s Halloween and there are ghosts and ghouls haunting the streets and the woods, unfortunately for two girls they come across a real life nightmare in the form of a a grave . A grave attached to a broken bell, the who and why behind it will slowly unravel as the book progresses. Can Gina Harte solve the murder or will there be more deaths,. What links the deaths and the bodies only time will tell but that time is running out. A fast paced edge of your seat read that will take you on an adrenaline fuelled journey.dark and suspenseful it is yet another brilliant police procedural novel that you will want to read one chapter more of till it’s finished..

Bravo!! Once again, Carla Kovach writes another outstanding thriller. I couldn’t stop reading, it was an absolute page-turner, It’s everything you want and more in a psychological thriller. I eagerly await the next instalment.

This book took me a while to read, I think it was cause of the topic and it kept freaking me out. I’m really glad that I stuck with it as it’s a great read, I never suspected it was that person and it had so many twists to it. It was the first book of Carla’s that I have read and I know it will not be my last, was very well written and when I got used to the topic of it it was well worth the read.

From my blog: Always With a Book:

This is the seventh book in the Detective Gina Harte series and I definitely think this series gets better and better with each new installment! It's so addicting and compelling...I just love when I find these crime fiction/police procedural series with a strong female lead.

While this book can definitely be read as a stand-alone - something that I am finding most books in series can be done these days - I will say that I highly recommend reading the previous books first. There is quite a lot of backstory on the characters that I think is helpful in really understanding the characters more fully and some threads that deal with the character development are carried over from book to book.

This latest book really takes a toll on Detective Gina Harte and again, if you haven't read the previous books, you might be at a disadvantage. Having said that, you really see how much her past still wreaks havoc on her, and despite her being such a strong person, some days it's a tough battle. And it seems as if there is someone out there that is determined to not let what happened in the past go...someone is determined to settle some scores and is going to use Gina to do so.

I love that we see such a human side to Gina Harte in this book. We see her unsettled by what is happening here as much as she tries not to let it get to her. And even though she wants to trust Briggs, there is a part of her that has to question him and you can't fault her - he is after all the only one that knows exactly what happened that long ago night, he is the only one she has told.

This book is dark and creepy, the Halloween theme makes it the perfect book to pick up right now, but again, I caution you to please consider reading the earlier books first. It really does make for a much more richer reading experience.

A well written, chilling narrative that keeps you gripped from start to finish. Just when you think you may have worked it all out it turned out it was going in a totally different direction. One of my favourite reads this year.

Their Silent Graves by Carla Kovach is the 7th in the Detective Gina Harte series.

First, let me thank NetGalley, the publisher Bookouture, and of course the author, for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.


Series Background: (Warning – May contain spoilers from previous books)

DI Gina Harte works homicides. Her team consists of: DS Jacob Driscoll, DC Harry O’Connor and DC Paula Wyre, with a lot of assistance from PC Smith, and now PC Kapoor. Gina is a stubborn lady, and a determined detective. She has had a rough life, which has led to an uneasy relationship with her daughter and grand-daughter.  It has also led to a lack of real friends, and an on-again/off-again relationship with her boss, DCI Chris Briggs. It is not common knowledge that her husband was abusive, and no one knows that she helped him fall to his death many years ago.


My Synopsis: (No major reveals, but if concerned, skip to My Opinions)

It is the Halloween season, and two teenage girls take a short-cut through a wooded area on the way to a party.  One of the girl trips, and from there the evening goes downhill.   Seeing a bell hanging from the tree above them, they follow the rope down to the ground, where they find a shallow grave, complete with coffin.

Detective Gina Harte and her team must first try to identify the body in this grave, and then try and figure out why someone would want to torture someone by burying them alive.

Meanwhile, Gina is receiving messages from the killer. This killer seems to know Gina, and know her past.  The past that Gina has kept secret for so long, the fact that her husband was abusive.  It almost feels like Terry is back and taunting her.


My Opinions:

I've really enjoyed this series, but I am getting a little tired of the main female character's past coming back to haunt her, or interfere with her work, etc.  I am ready for a strong female character who isn't carrying this big chip on her shoulder.  Okay, done ranting.

First, this could probably be read as a stand-alone novel, but I think you will understand Gina better if you start at the beginning.

I really think this is a good series, and although the plot was a little dark, it is Halloween, so it can be expected.  The plot, even if a little predictable, and the perpetrator obvious, was still good.  Kovach took a look at bullying, and how it can affect a person later in life.  It also looked at when bullying is taken to the extreme.  That was really interesting.

Anyway, bottom line, it was a good addition to the series and I will continue to follow Gina Harte!