Thank you Netgalley, Joffe books and Greta Mulrooney for the ARC.

When a mummified body is found during the demolition of a old property, it leads to the reopening of the cold case of  Lyn Dimas. Lyn disappeared one evening leaving her son and teenage daughter behind. While there were speculations of her having died by suicide, her body was never found. The list of suspects is long including her daughter, ex-husband, old boyfriends and work colleagues.
This is a 2nd book featuring DI Siv Drummond and her team. The story is a bit long and the ending was pretty flat in comparison.

'A MOTHER NEVER CAME HOME AND NOW THEY’VE FOUND THE BODY!'
Oh, but wait there's more...much, much, more yet to be uncovered.
Lyn has been found dead upon an excavation site in a home about to be demolished.
It appears someone tied up her body and attached it to the back of a fridge.
Six years have passed and now it's up to Siv (detective) to unravel this weird as all holy hell -mystery!
Why would Lyn leave behind her son the day she went missing. Adam was only nine years old.
Could her other family members including her husband Theo and her daughter Lily have anything to add to this complexing horror show?
It seems she was actually separated from Monty after uncovering the other side of the fence if you can call it that because as many know -the grass ain't always greener.
However, it seems there's a host of intrigue belonging to this particular group of individuals and extending well out beyond their inner circle that will need further investigating.
This will have you up late, hanging on the edge, and praying to not fall off the cliff.
It's a remarkable set of circumstances that come together ever so nicely-piece by bloody piece.
Thank you to Gretta, the pub, NetGalley, and Amazon Kindle for this ARC in exchange for this honest review.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC of this book.

I hadn’t realised this was the second in a series but not having read the first one didn’t detract from the story in any way. Liked how it all same together in the end. A good read.

NEVER CAME HOME
by Gretta Mulrooney
 Joffe Books 
 Mystery & Thrillers 
Pub Date 06 Oct 2020


I am reviewing a copy of Never Came Home From Joffe Books and Netgalley:



Lyn Dimas went missing Six years ago.  She had a nine year old son at home, and her daughter was at her prom at school.


Six years later and a mummified corpse has been found tied to the back of a fridge in a building that had become derelict, an old mattress completed the heartbreaking scene.


It is Detective Siv Drummond who is called into solve a case that seems unsolvable it is so baffling.  



It is Siv who discovered that the victim had a complicated life at home.  But why did Lyn just vanish on a quick trip to the shop and will he be able to unearth the truth of family secrets and lies, before anyone else pays the ultimate price?


A cold case has burst into life, and tears a family apart for a second time.



Who wanted Lyn Dimas dead?



I give Never Came Home five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

A woman goes out to the shops one night leaving her young son alone and never returns. When her body is found years later, it’s up to the detectives to piece together what happened to her.

This book is the second in a series, I haven’t read the first one so I think I missed out on a bit of character development with the detective team, it didn’t spoil the story in any way, there was just a vague feeling that I was missing a bit of information at times with some of the subplots. One thing I really liked about this book was that I had no idea who the killer was going to be, it really was a surprise at the end. That can usually make up for a book that was a bit so so and this one was. I didn’t really enjoy the way the red herrings about who the killer was going to be were scattered through the book, I prefer to come up with my own suspicions and theories when I’m reading this type of book and not have it pointed out to me in too much of an obvious way.

DI Siv Drummond #2

Six years ago, Lyn Dimas went missing. She had left her nine year old son home alone while she went to the shop. Her daughter was at her school prom.

Now: builders have found the mummified corpse tied to the back of the fridge in a derelict building. DI Siv Drummond is called in to investigate.

This book will keep you guessing through to the end. Sir is still mourninh the death of her husband.  As she investigates this case, she soon discovers that a lot of secrets and lies were told during the original investigation.  The story starts slowly, setting the scene. It picks up it's pace in the second half. The family is dysfunctional. There is plenty of people with motivrs. Although this is the second book in the series it cwn be rewd as a standalone. 

I would like to thank #NetGalley, #JoffeBooks and the author #GretaMulrooney for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Never Came Home is about a doting mother who suddenly disappears after she sees her daughter off to prom and sets her young son up to watch a movie while she runs to the store. Six years have passed since Lyn Dimas' disappearance and suddenly they've found her body in abandoned building. The odds are stacked against DI Siv Drummond as she seeks to solve this cold case. 

This book was just okay to me. I didn't love it and I felt like there was just too much to untangle that when the hook finally came I was just thankful the web of lies had finally been figured out. The one thing that kept me reading was that I really liked Siv Drummond's character and wanted to see her solve this case. 

Thank you to Gretta Mulroney and #joffebooks for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. 

Rating:. 2.5⭐

Detective Siv Drummond and her team are charged with investigating a body found in an abandoned building. She has been tied to the back of a refrigerator.

The victim is identified as Lyn Dimas ... a mother who went out one evening and never returned ... six years ago.

Immediately, the team starts looking at her family, friends and what she finds is that everyone questioned is either lying or has secrets they are not willing to share. Her ex-husband, a new husband, old boyfriends, even her own daughter are all suspects.

This is second in this series and is easily read as a stand alone, but I highly recommend starting with the first book. Siv is a unique character. She's left her life in London following the death of her husband and moved back to her small hometown. She has to work twice as hard as her male team members to be accepted.

It's well written with an elaborate plot filled with deftly drawn characters. Personal lives of the characters blend well with the professional. The story grabbed me at the very beginning and kept me intrigued until the surprising conclusion.

Many thanks to the author / Joffe Books / Books n All Book Promotion / Netgalley for the digital copy of this crime fiction. Read and reviewed voluntarily, opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.

Never Came Home is the second instalment in the Detective Inspector Siv Drummond series, set in the picture-postcard fictional Sussex market town of Berminster. It isn't necessary to have read the first in the series before diving into this as enough backstory is given to get new readers up to speed. DI Drummond and her partner, Sergeant Ali Carlin, are called to the scene of a dilapidated warehouse at Orford End that was about to be demolished when contractors Ivor Bass and Grant Haddon discover a partially mummified body hung on the back of an old fridge freezer. After identification, they realise they have the cold case of Lyn Dimas on their hands, a woman who disappeared six years ago after leaving the house to walk to the local shops intending to be back at the family home swiftly then was never seen again. The case was investigated at the time when she was reported missing but after tireless work, they found that there were no more solid leads for them to chase and the case went cold. This turns a possible suicide, which is what the police thought could be the case given her husband had just left her for another man, into a full-blown murder investigation. Can they finally solve this case and get justice for Lyn?

This is a riveting and gritty police procedural with enough mystery, intrigue and interesting developments to keep you rapidly turning the pages. It is certainly in the same vein as Mulrooney’s other books with writing that just flows beautifully and a plot that is well constructed and thought out. This is a tough case, like most cold cases, as people have short memories making it difficult to gain any accurate detail due to the passage of time but dogged investigator Siv isn't about to give up now. However, not only does she have innocent lapses in memory to deal with but barefaced lies from witnesses too. Siv is a young widow who has transferred and moved to the small coastal town from London’s Metropolitan Police for a fresh start and I thought the rest of the cast was just as engaging and relatable as she was. The procedural and investigative aspects of the story are lent credence by the fact that Mulrooney seems to have researched these areas thoroughly. Soon secrets and lies are being unravelled and with a few superb twists and a shocking conclusion, this is a highly entertaining read. Many thanks to Joffe Books for an ARC.

Oh my gosh, this was a great story, there many twist and turns. I stayed up till three am, to finish this. This book will sink its teeth into you the first chapter and not let you go. Every time you think you figured it out, something new comes to light. I will recommend this to people wanting a change of pace with their reading or in a reading slump. Great book.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Joffe Books for an advance copy of Never Came Home, the second novel to feature DI Siv Drummond, set in the fictional Sussex town of Bereminster.

Six years ago Lyn Dimas went to the local shop and never came back. Now her body has been found in a building scheduled for demolition. Siv Drummond is given the case but it’s an uphill battle to solve such an old case although a dysfunctional family life means there is no shortage of suspects.

I enjoyed Never Came Home which is an interesting police procedural with plenty of suspects and motives. I feel it is a bit slow to start but once it gets going it is thorough and quite engrossing. It feels longer than many similar novels in the genre but that works well as it gives the author room to develop her characters and motives in a more detailed way. This is the main thrust of the novel because, although there are a couple of highly dubious, in terms of plausibility, forensic discoveries, this is a cold case and relies on people and their recollections, lies and discrepancies for resolution.

I liked the gradual winnowing of suspects, the exposure of secrets and the misdirection the author employs. The novel is told from various points of view and, again, in this case it works well. These characters do not reveal their secrets until forced to later in the novel so the hints they drop about not being entirely truthful immediately bring them to the reader’s attention and suspicion. It is a slow process and may not be to every reader’s taste but I found it fascinating once I got to understand the dynamic. I didn’t guess the perpetrator or motive so that was an added incentive to keep reading.

It’s surprising but Siv Drummond and her team are the lest well developed characters in the novel but I like the focus on the crime and it’s resolution.

Never Came Home is a good read that I have no hesitation in recommending.

After her daughter goes to prom the mother disappears after walking to the local shops and leaving her 9 yr old alone.  Six years later her body is found in a derelict building, D I Siv Drummond  is brought onto the cold case and tries to sort through all the lies witnesses are telling her. Lots of twists with the author taking you one way then just when you think you have the killer it goes another way which keeps you reading till the end..   
will definitely be reading more of her novels.

I received and advance copy of Never Came Home, by Gretta Mulrooney. I thought the book was to slow.  I really wanted to like this book, but I could never get into it.

Thankyou to Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me to have an advanced copy of this book.

I simply really enjoyed it! 
I read a lot of crime books and in this I didn't guess who done it and it left me guessing until the very end which is probably the highest praise I could leave for a book.

If you love a twisty crime with brilliant characters and a shocker of and ending- this is for you

Lyn Dimas disappeared five years ago. She left her young son at home waiting for her. When it got late he ran to the neighbor to try and find her. They didnt find her for five long years.
This is a great story. Expect the unexpected. Fascinating and enjoyable.

Siv and her team have a horribly sad case made more difficult by the passing of time and lots of selfish and downright nasty characters; literally nobody involved has any redeeming features!
It's good to see Siv begin to settle and find her feet in her new team despite her mother

A MOTHER NEVER CAME HOME AND NOW THEY’VE FOUND THE BODY

Six years ago, Lyn Dimas went missing. She had left her nine-year-old son home alone and her daughter was at a school prom.


This book was good. In many ways. 
I liked the story. It was great. Thrilling, suspense.
I enjoyed the characters. They were believable, 
The ending was fantastic.

Thanks NetGalley Publishers and Author for this copy!

I've read several books by Mulrooney and have enjoyed them.  Never Came Home is the second book in her new series featuring DI Siv Drummond.  I read the first one about this time last year and  liked the focus on the investigation while Mulrooney continues building the character studies of Siv, Ali, and Patrick.  
Before moving from London to Berminster, Siv lost her husband in an accident.  He left and never came home, and Siv continues to grieve.

Siv's new case involves a mother who left the house intending to be back quickly, but who never came  home.  Now, six years later, Lyn Dimas' body has been found, and a case that was written off as a possible suicide becomes a murder investigation.

Depending on her small team of Ali and Patrick, Siv attempts to untangle all the lies and misdirection that led to Lyn's murder.  And there are plenty of lies and secrets to be uncovered.

Since it will be another year or so before the next Siv Drummond installment, I may have to go back and check on more of the Tyrone Swift series which I also liked.

NetGalley/Joffe Books 

Police Procedural.  Oct. 6, 2020.

My thanks to Joffe Books, Greta Mulrooney and Netgalley.
This was an engrossing tale. It was all kinds of messed up!
I think my issue is that it was so convoluted and gone on to sideways!
Fortunately, 2 character's kept me wanting more.
Siv and Ali. I need these people. 
Not going to lie, this book had me scratching my head. Twists are great. But, come on! This final one was just nonsense.

Thanks for allowing me ti read this. I really enjoyed it. Kept me in one spot for hours. I loved the story was amazing. Would recommend this to others who love this genre