Ruth has just moved into her new home following the break up of her marriage and arrives home one night to find a man dead in her bed. She has never seen this man before.
DI Blood and her team are on the case and trying to solve the mystery of how this man ended up in her home.
Meanwhile DI Blood's estranged father is coming to visit her from France, and he arrives with her half brother who she is meeting for the first time and the relationship is tense from the beginning.
Thoroughly enjoyed this book, well written and the story flows well while they get to the bottom of the mystery.

I didn't realise this was the second book in a series but I'm not sure it mattered, it reads fine as a one off.

The blurb caught my attention, a great premise for a book, I couldn't wait to dive in.

It starts well with a corpse in a divorced woman's bed but for a thriller I would prefer more conflict, a faster paced novel.

The characters were ok but could have been developed more, especially the police procedures.

It is a quick read, not a bad book but not a great one either.

This is a book two in the series but it works well enough as a standalone (I havent read the previous book).

The plot is fairly good, I was interested to see how it all turns out.
The dialogues felt a bit unnatural at times, not cringy but weird. I fond myself thinking, more than once, that this or that line sounds so weird and people do not talk like this.
The secondary characters were not developed enough.
I liked the main character and I enjoyed the parts about her father and brother. I also lived that she wasn't young (youngish) but she was a mature policewoman, with grown up kid. That was cool.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.

This book is the second in a series, but it works as a standalone as well. DI Isabel Blood and her team are trying to catch a brutal murderer who left a man dead in Ruth Pendergast's bed. Meanwhile, Isabel's family is undergoing some growing pains as well.

Overall, this book felt weak and slow. The characters were off-putting and dimensionless and I found that I didn't like any of them enough to really care what happened in the story. The mystery itself was fairly easy to figure out and not as dynamic as it could have been. I felt out of step the entire novel bouncing between this murder and all the family drama. I get trying to layer plots and action, but this was messy and Isabel wasn't a sympathetic enough character for me to get interested in her family life. Overall, the book was okay.

Really good story, it was emotional it was gripping, loved how the story unfolded, i felt myself quietly shouting at the book for Kate to get results.

What seems like a simple murder is anything but with the victim in the bed of a woman who has never seen him before and shortly after reporting the death goes missing herself.
As the plot unfolds and more characters enter the complexity increases. With no stand out suspect the police have a struggle on their hands to first identify the dead man and then the killer.

A great read- hard to second guess and even harder to put down!

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. The opening chapter was brilliant and it certainly set the scene for the plot. The body of a dead man is found in Ruth Pendergast's bed. A complete stranger to her . I was intrigued. . DI Isobel Blood is in charge of the investigation but she also has personal family issues to contend with. A great investigation team. I had no idea who was guilty and certainly didn't guess the outcome. Look forward to reading more by this author .

The second in the DI Blood series, this works perfectly well as a standalone novel as you can pick up on her personal backstory and the plot is self-contained.

I was immediately caught up by the opening when a newly divorced woman heads to the bedroom of her new house only to find a corpse in her bed. Sadly, although it’s a very quick and easy read, none of the characters were developed enough for me to care much about them and there was a bizarre amount of time spent discussing irrelevancies such as someone’s favourite pub starter and whether or not it was still on the menu, the pub snacks, crisp type, etc. There was also a lot of time spent on Blood’s relationship with her father and half-brother, none of which added anything to the novel.

I would love to see the author sideline her protagonist’s personal life and flesh out the police procedural elements and characters if future instalments are planned.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, HQ Stories, Harper Collins, for an arc of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

What an enjoyable book this was to read. At times it did seem very slow with the plot, taking the long route to the end, but when it started to come together it was gripping. I enjoyed the fact that you also had chapters involving the other officers featured in the book, rather than it all being predominantly DI Blood. I liked that there was a side story about DI Blood which helped break things up, although I think if I'd read book 1, I would have known the background to this storyline, although you got enough in it to get the gist of things.

Without a Trace by Jane Bettany
This is the second book to feature Detective Inspector Isabel Blood and although I had not read the first this did not impact on my enjoyment of this novel. The opening, where Ruth Prendergast discovers the body of a man she does not know dead in her bed, is powerful and captures your interest. There is enough detail about the lives of the police team without it detracting from their investigation of the crime.
As the information about the murder is conveyed to Isabel she is on her way to the airport to collect the father she has not seen for many years and is about to begin a two week holiday. All of this is immediately put on hold. Her Sergeant, Dan Fairfax, begins the investigation into the murder competently and she is able to rely on him. The reason for the murder is quite complex and it is difficult to predict how the threads of the case will come together.
The author keeps the reader engaged throughout and Isabel (with only brief breaks to carry out her familial duties and meet her half-brother Fabien) and her team piece together the evidence effectively. I look forward to reading future novels and seeing how the dynamic of the relationship between the characters develops.
Many thanks to the author, the publishers and Net Galley for the opportunity to read the book in return for an honest review.

For once I didn’t guess the ending!!! Woohoo!! Was full of twists and turns that keep you guessing. A new author for me but one I will certainly look out for again!

Imagine moving into a new house, arriving home and finding a stranger dead in your bed. Even worse, he's been murdered! That's exactly what happens to Ruth Prendergast. The case lands in the lap of DI Isabel Blood at a crossroads in her personal.life as the father she has been estranged from her whole life is visiting for the first-time. How can Isabel make progress with her father at such a crucial time when she has such a complicated murder investigation to deal.with? Gradually Isabel begins to make inroads with both the crime and her complex family life but will she be able to bring both to a satisfactory conclusion. A well written novel with just the right amount of clues dropped along the way to help the reader unravel what has happened although it did get a little complicated at times. An enjoyable crime story

I love the D.I. Isabel Blood series by Jane Bettany. This is the second book I’ve read and can’t for the next one in the series.
Ruth Prendergast returns home to find a complete stranger dead in her bed and she hasn’t a clue who he is or how he got there. It’s down to D.I. Blood’s team to solve the mystery of how he managed to wind up dead in a locked house with no signs of forced entry and why that house ?
The book had me enthralled from beginning to end and was full of suspense. It kept me guessing until the end.

Absolutely devoured this in 1 day. Had me guessing the whole way through. Brilliantly written. 5 stars.

I thoroughly enjoyed the 2nd book of DI Isabel Blood and now can’t wait to read the first one. This one is about Ruth who came home from work to find the unimaginable shock of finding a man dead on her bed who she has no idea who it is after reporting it to the police she subsequently vanished. It couldn’t have happened at a worse time as DI Isabel Blood’s father is coming for a visit who she hasn’t seen for 40 years and is supposed to have time off work.
I was hooked from the first page it was so easy to read and loved all the characters and look forward to reading what else happens in their lives.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an early copy,

A murder with little forensics and no sign of disturbance. A cul-de-sac full of empty houses. When Ruth gets home to find a man dead in her bed with only just moving into the property she questions who could this man be and who killed him. The author wrote a well thought out plot and each character had a well developed background. Really looking forward to seeing if this series carries on.

Delighted that I was given an ARC of this book so huge thanks to NetGalley and the publishers.
Imagine coming home and finding someone dead in yoyur bed with a knife sticking out of them.
This book had me hooked from thr first page and I devoured it over the course of two evenings.
Multiple twists along the way, I still didn't see the ending coming.
Would love to read more by Ms Bettany
5/5
Thanks again

D.I Isabel Blood is ready to have some time off to spend with her father , who lives in France , when a girl Ruth Prendergast ,who has recently moved to the area after the death of her mother ,finds a man's body in her bed on returning home from work. The D.I is called in to find out if there are any links to Ruth but none is found . There are very few clues to work from but she starts investigating and questioning the few neighbours who are living in the nearby houses. Two sisters are looking after the house next door whilst it is sold after their mother's death.Is there any link to these 2 apparently innocent ladies? Meanwhile Isabel's father has booked into a local hotel with his son Fabien ( Isabel's half brother),rather than stay at Isabel's home with her husband and children . It seems that her father is keeping secrets from both families which need to be brought to the front to help understand the dynamics between them , Fabien's apparent distrust for example..A really good read .

I am very grateful to HQ Stories at HarperCollins for an advanced reader copy in return for an honest review.
Jane Bettany was a new author to me, and I was delighted to receive my copy. The storyline was intriguing, and the cast of characters was beautifully scripted, though not fully complete until a few chapters from the end. I thought that unusual in what was, otherwise, a brilliant whodunnit crime thriller.
The plot was complex, given the wide range of characters, but believable, and, overall, the book was a good read. At times, I found the mundanity of the conversation, particularly between police colleagues, a little tedious. However, I guess that is real life for all of us and well reflected by Jane.
I also think that if you had time on your hands, you could devour this book in one sitting! It is very engaging, and the twists and turns in the storyline will keep you moving at a pace.
Jane also caused me to reflect on one final interesting question: How many people change the locks on their newly-purchased home?

Good news and bad news - let’s start with the good: ‘Without a Trace’ provides a credible investigation into a murder that teases the reader with a string of clues and false trails, but leads eventually to a reasonably satisfying denouement. So far, so good. Also quite acceptable is the cast of detectives that Ms Bettany assembles to undertake this police procedural investigation. For this reader, however, the lengths that the author felt obliged to go to in order that the lead DI had the seemingly obligatory complicated back story were enough to tip this from a pleasing three dimensional lead character to a distraction from the developing plot.

Don’t get me wrong, though. This is a novel that was read over just a couple of evenings and was put down only reluctantly. A bit more tightness in the narrative would move this into a five star category.