I read the author’s debut, In Cold Blood, for the blog tour last year and really enjoyed it so was keen to read this book when I heard about it!

Without a Trace is set in the fictional Derbyshire town of Bainbridge and the novel’s main protagonist is Detective Inspector (DI) Isabel Blood (56), wife of Nathan and mum to Kate, who lives in nearby Wirksworth, Ellie (14) and son, Bailey (who’s not mentioned in this novel).

Ruth Prendergast has only recently moved to the area after a divorce and getting a new job as an HR manager at a telecommunications company and one January evening, after a hard day at work, she’s shocked to discover the dead body of an unknown man in her bed. She’s got no idea who he is and the police are confused about how he got into the house as there is no sign of forced entry.

The timing of the murder investigation is particularly difficult for DI Isabel Blood who is on her way to the airport – and due to start two-weeks’ leave – when she’s phoned by her colleague, Detective Sergeant (DS) Dan Fairfax. She’s back in touch with her father, Donald Corrington, who she hasn’t seen for over forty years, after he left when she was 14 years old, and he’s visiting from France for a couple of weeks.

The case gets off to a slow start as the murder took place in a quiet cul-de-sac of only five houses called Hollybrook Close in the north side of Bainbridge and there are few witnesses to question. The victim, who was stabbed with a kitchen knife, is eventually identified as a 47-year-old local car mechanic who has a criminal record and is an alcoholic with a difficult past but doesn’t appear to have any particular enemies who would want him dead.

DI Blood delegates all the various tasks of the case well to her colleagues but she struggles to give the investigation her full attention with her dad and half-brother, Fabien, visiting. They’re staying at a local hotel and she’s desperate to spend time together to get to know them both but can’t with a murder to solve. When Ruth goes missing, the police are even more confused and desperately try to put all the pieces of the jigsaw together, but struggle with a complete lack of evidence all round.

This was another gripping and well-paced police procedural from the author and I really enjoyed the way the cleverly plotted investigation slowly unfolded, with its frustrations and dead ends, before things eventually came together and the case was solved. It’s a satisfying, engaging read and I raced through it in a few hours.

The story was very entertaining, with some intriguing and surprising revelations. I had several theories about the identity of the killer as we met various suspects and learnt more about their connections to others but didn’t predict how it would all turn out.

I really like Isabel Blood – she dedicated to her job, methodical and thorough, and seems quite normal for a police detective with a lovely husband and children but has an interesting past, which adds another dimension to her character’s story.

Overall, I’m really enjoying this series with its good old-fashioned police work and I hope it won’t be too long before there’s another case in Bainbridge to solve! I’m looking forward to seeing how Isabel’s relationships with her father and half-brother develop and it would be good to get to know her colleagues, DS Fairfax and DC Piper, better too.

Having not read the first in this series, I didn’t think I missed anything by starting from book two. However, I enjoyed this story so much, I’ll go and download the first book to play catch up and hope there’s more to follow in this series.
The B story involving DI Blood’s father is an excellent blend with the main story as it provides real character to our lead detective and gives her a background involving more conflict, as if her day job does not provide enough already! The twist within the family was also much appreciated as a reader.
The setting and tour around Derbyshire brought the area to life with this writer’s careful description.
This variation of the traditional locked room mystery is extremely difficult to breakdown without the knowledge that is drip fed to the reader after the investigations by the detective team. I was pleased to see a full team in action, rather than relying on the lead detective to do all the work as this latter method used by some writers can become quite boring.
This is one of those novels where you are almost certainly not going to guess who did it and you will probably worry for at least 200 pages about the outcome for the girl who had just moved into the property.
The killer worked well by ensuring they left no traces at the scene of the crime; this certainly kept me turning pages to find out what was going on.
A free copy of this book doesn't change my review, I'll have to purchase the first in this series as soon as I finish typing my review on this excellent story.

This title is part of a series and although I haven’t read any of the others it did not spoil my enjoyment of it.

It is a really easy and fast read. There is no blood and gore even though there has been a murder. The story follows the trail in finding out whodunnit!

Thank you to #NetGalley for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. #WithoutATrace

Although I have found out that this was the second in the series of DI Blood, I found that it did not affect my enjoyment of the book.
It was very cleverly written and I had no idea "whodunnit" until it became unravelling towards the end. I enjoyed meeting the characters in the book, especially the police team who had to solve this crime with so little to go on.

Thank you to NetGalley and HQ Digital for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

A woman returns home to the house where she lives alone and there’s a man on her bed. She doesn’t know him, there’s a knife in his chest and he is dead. How could any reader not be seduced by this. I normally read books in a series strictly in order but I couldn’t resist this despite not having read book one. While it worked as a standalone I did feel it would probably have been better if I had read the first book in terms of the personal story of DI Blood. I thought it made a nice change from the majority of crime books I read that the main character was a female DI in her 50s but on the flip side it will perhaps limit the longevity of the series. This is a good read but I’d recommend reading book 1 first.

What would you do if you found a man murdered in your own house? Well, that was the nightmare Ruth had to face after arriving home with a murder scene in her hands. Oh my, this book! Unbelievably gripping and thrilling! So good it hurt my head. A case of who dun it, who was the culprit? It took me for a ride and did a good job in doing so. I just love it. The characters were deep and strong and the storyline was very interesting. It has the right balance for an effective murder-mystery. So so good! Brilliant, indeed!

What a great storyline this book has - all the right ingredients including aón intriguing mystery and good characters. The plot has lots of twists and turns but never reached the ridiculous stage. I would definitely recommend this book to a wide readership.

Hmm, standard whodunit with only a select few suspects to choose from so all pretty obvious.
The back story of the main characters was more interesting but I felt like I should have read previous books with Isabel Blood in as I felt I was missing alot of her back story.

The second book in the DI Isabel Blood series fulfils the potential of the first book. This story set in the East Midlands is a variation of a locked room murder. A newly divorced woman returns home on a wintry night and finds a dead man in her bed. She claims he is a stranger, but there is no sign of forced entry to the property. The investigative team led by Isabel have little evidence to go on, and when the woman who found the body disappears, the situation becomes complex and urgent.

The investigation is well-written and plausible, with a satisfying conclusion. There is a good balance of personal and professional interfaces in the story, adding authenticity and depth. This promises to be a series to follow.

I received a copy of this book from HQ via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Really enjoyed this. I like the main character and her family, and her colleagues have a little sass about them. Interesting story line and in no way did I guess who the killler was!

This is the first book I have read in the DI Blood/Jane Bettany series, but not having read the previous one wasn't too detrimental to the story.

Ruth Prendergast, recently divorced and now with a fresh start in a new home. Been a long day at work, and with having to go shopping after work is tired by the time she gets home. All she wants is an easy evening relaxing. Ruth goes to her bedroom where she finds a man's dead body in her bed......

This is a straightforward police procedural book, which was mostly enjoyable, but I have to be honest I didn't like the lead character at all. There is a back story regarding her personal relationship with her father, I didn't mind that element so much, but more with how she acted both personally and professionally.

On the whole a solid read, slightly predictable at the end, but when there aren't many characters you will always be limited.

Thank you to NetGalley and HQ Digital for allowing me to read the book in exchange for an honest review.

I read the first book in the series, In Cold Blood, last year and absolutely loved it, so I was very excited to pick up the next book in the DI Isabel Blood series.

Without A Trace is another in-depth police procedural centred around strong characters and an interesting crime. While the case itself isn’t as striking as the mystery in the first book, it’s still a complex and well-developed investigation that will keep you guessing throughout.

However, your enjoyment of this book will depend on how you like your thrillers. If you like heavy detail, then you will be impressed by Bettany’s knowledge of how to investigate a murder. Some readers, however, may find the pace a little slow to begin with, but you soon become more and more engaged as the answers begin to emerge.

While I enjoyed getting to learn more about DI Isabel Blood’s life, you don’t get to know her very personally in this book as she’s so focused on the case, so I would recommend that you read the first book before to get to really like the characters. Without A Trace can definitely still be read as a standalone, though, but In Cold Blood is not a book that you want to miss out on.

This is the first book in the series that I’ve read but it worked as a standalone.

The story starts from the point of view of Ruth Prendergast, who has recently relocated to a new area after her divorce but when she arrives home after work one evening, she finds a man that she has never seen before, dead in her bed, with a knife in his chest. Detective Isabel Blood has her leave cancelled, which was booked to spend time with her father, whom she hasn’t seen since she was young and is called in to go to the crime scene and take charge of the investigation.

I found Without A Trace a well plotted police procedural with an interesting side plot of Isabel blood meeting up with her father and half-brother and although the ending wasn’t a surprise, I liked the ending and how things tied up.

I thoroughly enjoyed Jane’s previous book ‘In Cold Blood’, which was the first book in the series featuring Detective Inspector Isabel Blood. So when I heard that Jane was due to release another book in the series I knew that I had to read it as soon as I possibly could. Well the wait is over as the second book in the series featuring DI Isabel Blood, ‘Without A Trace’ is due to be released in e-book on 29th October 2021 and in paperback format on 6th January 2022. I was lucky enough to have a sneaky peek at an early review copy and blimey, it’s another corker of a story. I thoroughly enjoyed every single second of ‘Without A Trace’ but more about that in a bit.
As soon as I read the synopsis for ‘Without A Trace’ that was it, I knew that I wasn’t going to be doing much else other than reading for the rest of the afternoon. I was drawn into the actual story from the very first word on the very first page. It seemed as though ‘Without A Trace’ developed a hold over me and it was a hold that I wasn’t willing to break. This ‘hold’ lasted from the very first word on the very first page until the very last word on the very last page. To say that reading ‘Without A Trace’ became addictive is a huge understatement. I would pick the book up only intending to read a chapter or two to fill in a spare half hour but I would become so wrapped up in the story that I would still be sat there reading over half a dozen chapters and an hour later. The more of the book I read, the more I wanted to read and the quicker the pages seemed to turn. All too quickly I reached the end of ‘Without A Trace’ and I had to say farewell to Isabel and her team. I found ‘Without A Trace’ to be a gripping, tense and dramatic read, which kept me guessing and which kept me on the edge of my seat throughout.
‘Without A Trace’ is superbly written but that was also true of ‘In Cold Blood’ too. Jane has one of those writing styles that is easy to get used to and easy to get along with. For me, the story hit the ground running and maintained a fast pace throughout. In Isabel Blood, Jane has created one hell of a strong, memorable and feisty young lady. Jane clearly cares about her characters and she describes them so vividly and realistically that they seem just as real as you and I. Reading ‘Without A Trace’ felt like being on an at times scary and unpredictable rollercoaster ride with several twists and turns along the way. I felt as though I was part of the story and that’s thanks to Jane’s very vivid and realistic storytelling.
In short, I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘Without A Trace’ and I would definitely recommend this book to other readers. I can’t wait to read more of Jane’s work in the future. The score on the Ginger Book Geek’s board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.

This is the second in the DI Isabel Blood series I haven't personally read the first book but it didn't effect my enjoyment of this story.

Was nice to meet a more mature female character as the leading lady.

An engaging crime novel with fantastic police procedural will defiantly be looking out for book three.

I would like to thank Netgalley and HQ for an advance copy of Without a Trace, the second novel set in the fictional Derbyshire town of Bainbridge to feature DI Isabel Blood.

Ruth Prendergast returns home to find a man dead in her bed. She swears she doesn’t recognise him, but when she disappears a few days later Isabel and the team wonder.

I thoroughly enjoyed Without a Trace, which is a straightforward police procedural with a bit of Isabel’s tangled home life thrown in as a bonus. It is not a profound novel but it satisfies my liking for puzzles and attempts to guess along with the detectives. I got a few things right ahead of them, but the perpetrator’s identity and motive had me beaten until all the information was revealed. I loved the final twist as a cautionary tale.

I liked that the novel is told entirely from the investigative point of view, highlighting the efforts the team go to to dredge up small amounts of information and push the investigation forward. Obviously as it is crime lite everything falls into place more readily than is realistic, but I was going with the mystery of who, what, why etc. and I liked what I got. The novel held my attention throughout.

Isabel has a complicated domestic situation. She is 56 with a loving and supportive husband and children, but has been estranged from her father for over 40 years. They have recently got back in touch and it’s been fraught. Again this is not explored in any depth and is there to give a bit of backstory to the rather two dimensional Isabel.

Without a Trace is an easy, undemanding read that I can recommend as such.

This is an easy to read police procedural which I would probably class as cosy crime. It is apparently the second in a series but not having read the first was not a problem. Although the team are investigating a murder there are no gory details and the everyday, mundane tasks of checking alibis and CCTV comes across rather than edge of the seat car chases.
D.I. Blood's home life adds another strand to the story but the backstory of the other characters is not explored.
Many thanks to Netgalley/Jane Bettany/HQ Digital for a digital copy of this title. All opinions expressed are my own.

We are in the fictional Derbyshire town of Bainbridge. Recently divorced Ruth Prendergast has finished work for the day, done her shopping, and is keen to be inside her new house in Hollywell Close, warm, snug and out of the icy winter rain. She fancies a night in, with a pizza and a glass or two of wine. What she gets, however, is a ghastly shock. Turning on the bedroom light she finds a man apparently asleep under her duvet. When she plucks up the courage to wake him, she finds she cannot. Because he is dead. Stone dead, with a knife embedded in his body.

WAT coverThe team investigating the murder is led by Detective Inspector Isabel Blood, her Sergeant and a brace of DCs. They soon learn that the dead man is Kevin Spriggs, a middle-aged car mechanic, with a failed marriage behind him, an estranged son – and an argumentative temperament often fueled by drink. The murder raises many questions for Blood and her people. How did Spriggs and the person who killed him gain access to a locked house? Who hated Spriggs – admittedly not one of life’s natural charmers – enough to kill him? After all, he was something of a nobody, tolerated rather than loved by most people who knew him, but why this brutal – and mysterious – death?

The investigation – code named Operation Jackdaw – has achieved precisely three-fifths of five-eighths of diddly-squat, when it is rocked by the discovery that Ruth Prendergast, who discovered the corpse of the unfortunate Spriggs has herself disappeared. She was due to go on a walking trip with a lady friend, but she failed to make the rendezvous and, to borrow from The Bard, she has “melted into air, into thin air ….. leaving not a rack behind.“

There are enough fictional Detective Inspectors out there in the world of crime fiction to run a large county police force, so what makes Isabel Blood – to steal a sporting cliché – achieve a podium finish? Refreshingly, she is middle-aged, comfortable in her skin and appears to have no hidden demons. She is happily married with two teenage daughters, and the only kink in this domestic bliss is that her father was apparently bigamously involved with Isabel’s mother, and now lives in France where he has two grown up sons with his legal wife. Now, Isabel’s father and her half-brother have arrived in Bainbridge for a visit at precisely the time that the unfortunate Kevin Spriggs is discovered in Ruth Prendergast’s bed. Eventually, the team discover how – and why – the man was murdered, and the solution is complex, but it very neatly echoes Isabel’s own difficulties with her double family and half-siblings.

Without A Trace is a well plotted and nuance police procedural with credible coppers and equally convincing villains. It is published by HQ Digital, and will be out in Kindle on 29th October. A paperback edition will be available in January.

Once again I find myself reading a book that is part of a series without having read the previous books. It wasn't a problem though and I don't feel as though I missed out through this.

Isabel Blood is a DI in her mid-50's and is our protagonist in Derbyshire.

Ruth Prendergast has recently moved into a new home following her divorce. She comes home after work one evening but when she goes to her bedroom she discovers a strange man, dead on her bed with a knife in his chest.
Isobel gets a call to go to the crime scene, except she's on the way to the airport to pick up her father who she hasn't seen for years. Isobel's 2 week leave is quickly cancelled and there is pressure from the bosses to get to the bottom of this case quickly. But there was no sign of a break in and only a partial fingerprint left behind at the scene.
Then Ruth disappears. Is this connected to the case? Is she guilty or perhaps she is going to be the next victim?

There is very little gore in this book and we are shown chunks of Isobel's personal life and the rift with her father.

The plot is quite believable and I found this an enjoyable quick read.

A really original whodunnit with an unsuspecting woman finding the naked body of a stranger in her bed. Without any connection or suspects, the police need to find a nondescript needle in a haystack. Even though the plot is extremely catchy, the characters somewhat lack appeal and do not allow you to become really invested in their personal stories. The rhythm of the story also drastically slows down towards the end and does not allow any room to redeem itself. An imperfect but still worth reading murder mystery.