For some time now I have noticed that the D.I. Kim Stone series has been highly praised by my fellow book bloggers. Therefore, I decided that despite my lengthy TBR, I would read the series in its entirety, one title every month. What a wise decision I made!

D.I. Kim Stone – An acerbic, brusque, and driven young woman who works as a Detective Inspector for the West Midlands Police, the second largest police force in the country. She is socially inept, and has been known to break the rules, as well as to disregard instructions and protocols in her search for justice. An insomniac, she is fueled by nervous energy and lots of coffee, and is beautiful, but she works hard to hide it. She is 34 years old, brilliant, hot-headed, and damaged. As a child, she suffered horribly, and was shunted from foster home to foster home. Only once did she experience a nurturing, loving relationship – and that was very short lived…. Now, when not working, her favourite thing to do is work at restoring vintage motorbikes. Bikes are her passion, and she uses a Kawasaki Ninja as her regular form of transport.

Other than her second in command, Bryant, she is friendless. Her one real weakness is her fondness for her adopted dog, Barney.

“Barney wasn’t keen on other people and certainly not on other dogs. Kim often wondered what had happened in his early years to make him such a complex little character. She supposed he wondered the same thing about her.”

Her team respect her and are very loyal.

Police team

D.S. Bryant, twelve years her senior, is Kim’s partner and dearest friend. He is married and the father of daughters.
D.S. Kevin Dawson, young, vain, fit, and not yet mature. Yet each book in the series shows his growing potential to be a great police officer. This time he incurs Kim’s wrath.
Constable Stacy Wood, a diligent and hard-working local girl who excels at online research and data-mining which is often invaluable to the team’s success.
D.C.I. Woodward (Woody) is Kim’s long-suffering superior. Like the rest of her team, he is loyal and stands up for her when the higher-ups would have her removed from the case. In this novel, Woody is away on holiday and his superior is Kim’s acting boss.

Keats is the local pathologist. He and Kim Stone have an acerbic but mutually respectful relationship.

In DI Kim Stone’s fifth outing we find her and her team working another murder case. A well-respected, middle-aged woman named Deanna Brightman is found dead in her car. She has been fatally stabbed. Then, shortly thereafter, another woman is found stabbed in the exact same way. There are no commonalities between the two women so Kim and her team have their work cut out for them in trying to solve the case.

“She was still bothered by two key things: the complete disparity in her victims and what appeared to be the complete absence of emotion in the attack.”

The team’s attention turns to a man named Jason Cross who fits bespoke kitchens. He seems to have some connection to both of the murdered women.

The narrative of “Blood Lines” is interspersed with sections which give the reader insight into the mind of the killer. He seems sadistic and deranged, as one might expect.

Meanwhile, Kim is experiencing great angst in her personal life. The evil psychiatrist, Dr. Alexandra Thorne (who we first met in “Evil Games”, the second novel in this series) is back in Kim’s life despite the fact that she is behind bars. Once again sociopath Alex Thorne is trying to manipulate Kim and weaken her already fragile psyche in some kind of power play game. Also, and more importantly, Kim has received a letter stating that her mother is soon to be released from the institution for the criminally insane – where she has been since Kim was six years old. Kim has never forgiven her mother and is horrified that she might be freed.

This fifth novel in the series has proved to be a worthy successor to the first four. I enjoyed every minute of the read. This was another stellar installment in what is fast becoming a favourite crime series.

By the time I finished this fifth novel in the series, I was left with the feeling once again that I wanted MORE Kim Stone. Lucky for me I purchased the entire series in order that I might read one installment every month for my “Marsons of the Month” blog series. I look forward to reading the sixth book, “Dead Souls” in June. Oh, and in case you didn’t already guess… “Blood Lines” is highly recommended by me.

I purchased “Blood Lines“ in Kindle format.

I read this book in May, but I’m late posting my review.

Angela Marsons discovered her love of writing at Primary School. She wrote the stories that burned inside and then stored them safely in a desk drawer.
After much urging from her partner, she began to enter short story competitions in Writer’s News resulting in a win and three short listed entries. She self-published two of her earlier works before concentrating on her true passion – Crime.
After many, many submissions she signed an eight book deal with Bookouture as their first crime author. Her D.I. Kim Stone novels have sold 3 million copies.

Angela Marsons is from Brierley Hill in the West Midlands and is a former security guard at the Merry Hill Shopping Centre. She continues to live in the Black Country with her partner and their bouncy Labrador and potty-mouthed parrot.

Follow Angela Marsons on Twitter.