Thank you to NetGalley, the publishing house and the author for the opportunity to read an advance reader copy of this book in return for a review based upon my honest opinion.

This is book 8 in the Detective Gina Harte series. They could all easily be read as standalone books; this one included, I really enjoy this series. The characters are all well written and so enjoyable to get to know, I love how we get to know more about different characters each book. I live Gina’s personal development, such a traumatizing back story but a woman of strength more and more as she learns to cope with her past.

In this book, Amber,  a young woman goes out for a date and didn’t come back, her body is found days later. Our suspect is hunting women with a specific look, when another girl goes missing, has he found his next victim and which of the police officers is he hunting as a possible victim? This had me on the edge of my seat as the multiple suspects were narrowed down; but will he be captured before another woman dies?
Great book; can’t wait for the next one!

My first time reading this author. It was such a good read keeping the reader on the edge of your seat. Such a quick and easy read. Can’t wait to read more from this author

Another brilliant book in this great series. 
The book begins with a missing woman being reported and then shortly after, a woman’s body is found by a lake. 
Gina and the team realise this is the missing woman and she was a local student. 
As they start to ask questions there’s more than one person they’re interested in speaking to but who is the killer?
We also have chapters from the killer’s perspective and he’s clearly very troubled. 
Another woman is left for dead but Gina manages to find her in time so another life is not lost. 
Both women were on the same dating app and after discussing it at the station a few of them are on it too, including Briggs. 
One of the team goes missing and their family know something bad has happened so Gina and the team have to pull out all the stops to find her before it’s too late. 
This is a fast paced crime thriller that I loved reading. It’s great to read a long standing series but you could also read this as a stand-alone. 
Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Hush, don't speak! 🤐 Amazing tension start to finish😲!

This latest DI Gina Harte thriller really kept me guessing.  And, unlike the two previous books I've read in this series, Gina's anxiety-ridden past takes a backstage to the investigation of a kidnapping killer who just won't stop until he finds his dream victim.  And, as happens so often in our age of tech obsession, a dating app is central to the case.

The police chase is filled with numerous suspects and acquaintances of the victims, leading to lots of leads, many red herrings, and a tad of confusion on my part.  I sometimes found it impossible to remember what I'd learned about a character when they cropped up again after dozens of chapters of action and interviews without them mentioned.  Fortunately, Kovach helped jog my memory but not quite soon enough to my liking.  But that was the only issue I had with an otherwise fantastic read.  Having the case take a very personal turn for Gina and her team added a great touch and made the race to stop the criminal just that satisfying bit more urgent.

If you appreciate a police procedural whodunit with strong female protagonists, I think this is one you will enjoy.  And, the strong women are not by any means limited to the police team😉.  Go, Madison!  

I think I am now a convert to this series.  

Thanks to Bookouture and NetGalley for providing a complimentary copy of the book;  this is my voluntary and honest opinion.

I’d like to thank Bookouture and NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read ‘The Broken Ones’ by Carla Kovach in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Amber Slater’s preparing for a date with a man she’s met on AppyDater but she disappears somewhere between her student apartment and the restaurant, found three days later lying in a lake with her lips glued together.  As DI Gina Harte, DS Paula Wyre and the team are investigating another student is attacked in the hospital car park and she survives after fighting for her life.  Gina knows she has to put every effort into finding the man responsible before he can take another victim.    

‘The Broken Ones’ is the eighth in the Detective Gina Harte series and I’ve enjoyed reading each and every one.  I never tire of reading more of Gina and her hard-working and reliable team and learning how her relationship with DCI Chris Briggs is progressing.  This latest thriller has all the drama, suspense and twists and turns I’d expect from a book by Ms Kovach and I’ve been gripped from the very start with the conclusion so exciting I had to keep reading just one more chapter until I’d devoured the book in just over twenty-four hours.  I can’t wait for the next one.

I think this one has the most tension of the entire series. The case is twisted and the killer chapters are interesting and dark. I was completely wrong about who it was. 
My favorite part of this series is the team. The interactions and the way they are a family unit comes through. 
I liked that Gina has developed so much from the first book. I really like that her past with her ex wasn't mentioned much and we didn't have all the daughter drama this go around. My only complaint is Gina and Briggs. The back and forth is getting tired and the longer it goes on, the less I like Briggs. Which is sad because he was one of my favorite characters. I really hope the author gives readers some resolution to the relationship soon, one way or the other.

Sometimes it is what isn't in a story rather than what is in a story that makes you enjoy reading it. With this being the 8th installment in the Gina Harte series, I was very excited to read very little about her ex-husband. Yes, what he did and how she ended it will always be a part of DI Harte but this installment gives me hope that she has stopped letting him continue to control her life. Please! Because other than that, I really enjoy the characters in this series and the crimes that they investigate. The premise of the story isn't new but Ms. Kovach was able to still keep the reader guessing until the end. I am happy to say that I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

The Broken Ones is the eighth book in the DI Gina Harte police procedural series set in Warwickshire. I’ve read them all in order but you really don’t need to, as each one is a separate mystery, and while I have enjoyed them all, they are starting to become a bit formulaic and repetitive, whereas I think new readers will be more impressed. It could be that I read the right book at the wrong time: one of the downsides of reading a lot of ARCs is feeling I must meet deadlines despite not really being in the mood for this genre just now - I’ve just read too many British detective series in the last couple of years. Looking back at my 5 star review of the last one, this has all the same elements and it’s probably just as good a book, I just wasn’t feeling it the same way this time.

A popular student heads out on a blind date on a freezing January night, but never arrives. When her body is found on the shore of a lake, stabbed through the heat with her lips glued together, Gina and her team wonder whether her use of a popular dating app led her killer to her. Then another student is attacked and the suspect pool widens, but everyone they interview seems to have an alibi. Why is the perpetrator targeting dark haired women and who will be next?

The books in this series are all dark, suspenseful crime thrillers, which are very well written, plotted and paced, and this one is no exception. The cover looks great, as ever, although why it features a balloon I have no idea. Gina is a great Detective, and is finally starting to move on from her past trauma, albeit at a snail’s pace, although I wanted to knock her & Briggs’s heads together for being so emotionally incompetent with each other. I like the way her team work together, and the loyalty they show towards one another. There’s a great cast of minor characters, and I was genuinely worried about some of them, and suspected one after another, as I was supposed to, without ever guessing the true villain. 

I do struggle with the premise of the same detective coming up against similar crimes against women in a small town over and over again, sure, they’re not all serial killers, but Gina certainly has investigated a lot of crazy predators within a short space of time! I do highly recommend both this book and the whole series to fans of this genre, even if I didn’t love it like the last one, and I do want to continue the series, but would like to see Gina’s team investigate some different types of murder. I also disagree with the tag-line which promises a “jaw-dropping twist” - it takes more than a cleverly concealed killer to make my jaw drop!
Thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC which allowed me to give an honest review.
The Broken Ones is published on March 1st.

Nail bitting suspense! I read this book in a day - it is that good. 
Please note I have not read previous books in this series - did not hold me back , but maybe become my next obsession. 
Amber's body is found beside a lake. Clearly she had been held captive,  stabbed in the heart. As a young woman attending university,  Amber was living her life. And was murdered. 
Gina is trying to grasp a lead - but everyone is lying. Her philandering lecturer. Over protective father.  Smitten neighbor.  Gina and her team struggle through the stories.  
Fast paced,  amazing suspense.  Did not guess the killer. 
Great book!

Everything I love! Fast paced, likable characters and an unpredictable ending. This is book 8 in a series, but you don’t need to have read the previous books in the series.

Carla Kovach is back with another intense and thrilling instalment in the DI Gina Harte series! With her trademark pace, sensational plot twists and cast of lovable characters, “The Broken Ones” is another excellent crime thriller that is impossible to put down.

After a woman’s body is discovered in the lake at a local park, DI Gina Harte and her team are on the case. Before they’ve managed to find any leads, another girl is attacked. She escapes, but it’s clear that this predator has a plan. When someone close to the team goes missing, it becomes a race against time to find the killer before it’s too late...

I absolutely love Kovach’s series of crime novels and every time I read a new one it’s like slipping on a favourite comfy jumper. I’m immediately drawn into the plot and the police team characters feel like old friends. However, despite the comfort of familiarity with Harte and the gang, Kovach quickly sets the scene for terror and suspense. As with the other books in this series, “The Broken Ones” hooks you in with a gripping prologue and opening sequence. Kovach has a real talent for grabbing readers’ attentions with an explosive opening and not releasing them until the final revelation is laid out. This instalment of the series effortlessly builds a thick, underlying sense of dread that permeates throughout the novel. I read the entirety of this novel on the edge of my seat - it’s relentless in its suspense!

As expected, Kovach creates a rich and vibrant world in her narrative. The cast of characters are diverse and well drawn, but also plausible. This is particularly strong in the characterisation of the perpetrator, who is particularly unsettling as they are so believable. The lead police characters are all back and as enjoyable to read as ever, but “The Broken Ones” is very much Jhanvi Kapoor’s story and I really enjoyed reading more about her life and character. In a police procedural series, it’s really engaging to have a large cast of reappearing characters who are each given their space to develop and come to life. In addition to the regular characters, there is a very well constructed cast of supporting players. Kovach is adept at creating the necessary red herrings and misdirection that makes this an unguessable read and she achieves this in part with her characterisations. There are plenty of logical suspects who keep us on our toes and I genuinely could not work out who the villain was until Kovach wanted me to!

This series is screaming out to be adapted for television, as it has all the hallmarks of an engrossing crime drama. Kovach’s visual storytelling, fast-paced plotting and accessible writing style makes “The Broken Ones” a highly enjoyable and engaging read. I didn’t want to put it down and it is a quintessential page-turner. Kovach is well and truly up there with other crime writing queens of “just one more chapter”. I hope to read many more books in the Harte series and highly recommend them to other fans of police procedural thrillers.

Excellent continuation of a great series.
Carla Kovach is back with another book in the DI Harte series, this time focussing on social media dating apps and the repercussions.  The focus of the plot centres around university shared accommodation and a number of potential characters committing a crime. The plot develops at a good pace but involving the personal lives of DI Harte and her team.I found this book as good as any of her previous instalments and a satisfying and believable outcome.  For those who are fans of this series, book 8 doesn't dissapoint.

This was a solid detective thriller! It was a quick read, very exciting, and kept me guessing throughout. It does a great job of introducing a LOT of potential suspects, and they're all super shady. It was definitely tough to guess who was actually responsible, and there were some really interesting twists in the process. 

I also enjoyed the LGBT representation in the book, I thought those characters were presented in a great, normalized way. 

My only negative was the personal life of the main detective, those parts of the story were not as entertaining and distracting at times. For that, I would not seek out more books in this series, but I enjoyed the mystery aspect of this one!

20-year-old student Amber is ambushed and abducted when she’s leaving her flat to go out on a date she met on a dating app. A few days later, she’s found in a lake stabbed in her chest. She was an outgoing and happy girl with lots of friends and no enemies. Not much later, an attack on another female student goes wrong and she barely escapes. She also had a profile on the same app.

It is up to DI Gina Harte and her team to solve those crimes before another girl falls victim to this creep. But we find out that the perpetrator has his eyes on one of the policewomen that have a profile on the dating app but we don’t know who. Both Jhanvi and Paula (who’s engagement just flopped) were already on it and after she finds out that her boss and lover Briggs also has a profile, Gina makes one herself. For investigative purposes, she claims but the men that send her a smiley look very attractive.

The reader also possesses some knowledge as to the motivation of the killer that the police doesn’t but the full story is only revealed in the last pages of the book. It’s always just a bit more complicated than one thinks.



This is the 8th book in this series, but they can all be read on their own. It’s always better to read the books in the right order for the continuity of the background stories.

This book really focuses on the criminal aspects although we can say that Jahnvi Kapoor gets the main role this time. I hadn’t seen much of this very courageous PC in the last book, but she turns out to be a powerful and brave woman. I don’t know if I could do the same things that she ends up doing if I ended up in similar circumstances but it’s a well-done job! The home life of the other officers, even that of Gina and Paula is only mentioned in passing remarks or where it influences the narrative.

Carla Kovacs knows how to weave an interesting and suspenseful tale. As is customary there are a bunch of people that behave very suspiciously because they harbour secrets that have nothing to do with this investigation. This way, valuable police time gets wasted on non-related matters as ex-marital affairs and drugs that could have been used for real leads.

It was excruciating to watch Maddie and her Nanna in the knowledge that she was destined to be the next victim. She’s such a caring and loving person. I hoped that she could be saved in time. 😊

The investigation focuses mainly on the imaginary dating app that’s intended for mere dating and not for serious relationships. It also shows the inherent dangers of such apps. You never know for sure who you’re talking to and when you meet IRL, things may be different from what you expect. I have been hitched for a very long time and never tried Tinder or other dating apps and I do the pity young people of today. Even before Covid closed down pubs and parties, they seem to have lost their appeal as a meeting place for singles.

As to the culprit, I didn’t guess his identity this time. This person was actually off my radar, so it’s a good surprise. I had my eyes on a different suspect but in retrospect, there are a few, well-concealed hints.

I thank Netgalley and Bookouture for the free ARC they provided and this is my honest, unbiased review of it.

This is the second book I have read by author, Carla Kovach, and I have to say this series is pretty damn good! I want to note that this is the 8th book in a series, but it can read as a stand alone book. I started with my first Detective Gina Harte book last year with "Their Silent Graves" and I loved it! This book was no different. 

This book alternates between perspectives, which I feel gives the feel of a well rounded story, but also an air of mystery.  Sure, you get "first hand" accounts of what is happening, but one particular character is unknown up until the end, which left me guessing and being completely surprised. 

The murder storyline is original and  intriguing in itself. I really enjoyed turning each page as I was left guessing who the murderer could be right up until the end. We also get to follow along with the ongoing saga of Detective Gina Harte I was only recently introduced to but could follow along with no issues of having only read one previous book in this series. The Detective Harte storyline takes a bit of a backseat compared to the other book in the series I've read, but fit in nicely with the overall plot. 

There are quite a few characters in this book, and with the storyline jumping perspectives, I will admit I was a bit lost keeping everyone straight at first. After the first handful of chapters it was easy to follow along. The array of characters made the mystery more exciting and for awhile it seemed that everyone could have a motive for murder and everyone could be suspect. 

This was a fun, quick read and I have plans to read this entire series, as the writing is phenomenal. 

Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for allowing me an e-ARC to read and give my honest review. It was a 4 star read for me!

"The Broken Ones" is set to be released here in the U.S. on March 1, 2021 so pre-order now! 

Happy Reading!

Thankyou to NetGalley,  Bookouture and the author,  Carla Kovach,  for the opportunity to read an advanced readers copy of The Broken Ones in exchange for an honest and unbiased opinion. 
I have read all of the Gina Harte series and have enjoyed them all. This book was no exception.  
The storyline was well thought out and written with compelling characters.  I was hooked from the start. 
Worth a read.

The Broken Ones by Carla Kovach is the eighth installment of an addictive series focused on Detective Gina Harte.  As with previous books in the series, this one can easily be read as a standalone.

The body of Amber Slater is found near a lake and, along with ligature marks, her lips have been glued shut.  DI Gina Harte is on the case, and endeavours to question those in the popular young woman's inner circle.  When a second woman is discovered to be missing, DI Harte faces a race against the clock to stop an assailant who seems to have no intention of abandoning a very sinister agenda.  

I have enjoyed this series from its very beginning, and always look forward to reuniting with Gina and her team.  

Many thanks to NetGalley and Bookouture for this ARC.

Amber Slater heads out to a party but she never comes home. Residing with university roommates, only one of them might have a clue as to where Amber might have gone. So, as far as Detective Gina Harte is concerned, he is a probable suspect. Someone else is on Gina's radar as well. Not only did Amber not turn up at the restaurant she works at, a chef there does not have a strong alibi.

After some searching, Amber's body is found at a local park. One disturbing piece of evidence is that her lips have been sealed shut. When another woman goes missing, Gina gets really concerned. Evidence shows that Amber might not have been killed immediately, so Gina is hopeful that they will find the other missing woman in time.

I have read all but the first two books in the Detective Gina Harte series. I have come to know and respect Gina as a dedicated detective, especially as she came from a disturbing past herself. Each book in the series touches on Gina's past, as well as her expertise, so I think readers could to well with this book as a standalone. However, as much as possible, I do try and read previous series titles when I have a book for review.

One aspect of this book is that the girl who originally went missing used an app called Appydater. It is this app that proves to tie the victims together, but it also plays into other characters in this book. If you like thrilling crime fiction, then I would highly recommend this book, as well as all the previous books in this series. Whether it is the twists and the turns, the occasional surprises or the thrilling conclusion, The Broken Ones proved to be an excellent read.

Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

That was tense!

The body of young woman, Amber Slater, a student, is found on the shores of a lake. She has ligature marks, a stab wound to the chest and, eerily, her lips had been superglued shut! DI Gina Harte and her team catch this disturbing case. From the start though you know the killer stalks his victims, he hides in the bushes and watches them, he stands outside their windows. It pretty creepy behaviour. The more people the police interview, the more question marks there are though. It seems many people have something to hide. The author dropped those little red herrings expertly throughout the book. You were never quite sure which clues were important.

Soon another girl is being stalked and, just for once, I don’t want to say any more about the plot. But I will say that I really, really enjoyed this. The police officers are such a close knit and supportive group without any dark secrets, well not too dark and not relevant in this book! The pace picked up and ramped up and then galloped away - someone’s life was in the balance! Would they be in time? The end was very suspenseful and satisfying. I didn’t guess who the killer was for a long time so well done on the whodunit side of things too.

As with many of the Gina Harte books the outcome is tinged with sadness. So many of the bad things in many of her stories could have been avoided if people had just treated each other better! She often illustrates how bullying or abuse or other neglect or mistreatment causes her perpetrators to succumb to the stresses within their minds  with dire consequences. Random acts of kindness can go a long way! Anyway this particular book was suspenseful, fast paced and well plotted. It will appeal to thriller lovers and those who like a crime mystery. Thanks to Netgalley, Bookouture and Carla Kovach for providing a copy to review. My opinions are my own.

4 strong stars.

This is one series I’m always impatient for! As soon as I see it’s available on NetGalley I request it straight away as there’s no way I can wait any longer for publication day. 

As I dove into the next instalment I pleasantly settled back into the lives of Gina Harte and her team. All the familiar relationships come rushing back and within a couple of chapters I feel like I’m there watching from the sidelines. 

The storyline for this was intriguing. I like to guess the culprit but as I settled in, I naturally fell into super sleuth mode and all my suspicions are activated and alert! Lol 

I can say I was too immersed into the storyline and was totally fooled! It sometimes happens and when it does it’s a nice surprise. 

Another fabulous novel and once again can’t wait for the next!