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!

Confession though…. as this is the 9th novel in the series, I SHOULD have read and reviewed it in September – I’m a month behind. Woe is me…

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.

“No matter what the day held, Barney’s welcome was enough to put a smile on her face.”

Her team respect her and are very loyal. And no wonder – Kim never asks her team members to do anything that she would not do herself. She is fiercely protective of people she cares about and has an overriding passion for her job.

Police team

D.S. Bryant, twelve years her senior, is Kim’s partner and dearest friend. Devoted to his wife and daughters, Bryant is the glue that holds Kim’s team together.  Their banter is a delight to read.
“How’s the leg?” he asked, taking his seat. “Not bad,” she answered, on safer ground. “But you’ll be happy to know I can’t drive.” I already know that, Guv. Oh sorry, you meant you’re not allowed to drive. My mistake.”
In this novel, Bryant is feeling shut out by Kim because she won’t share her grief about the loss of Kevin Dawson from their tight-knit team.
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. Stacy is taking the loss of Dawson very hard. This time out Stacy is working on the case of a missing teenage girl, Jessie Ryan.
D.S. Austin Penn, is the newest member of the team but not a complete stranger as he has worked with them twice before for short terms. He gets a cold reception to his new team as they are all resentful of his presence there because they miss Kevin Dawson.
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. This time out Woody is very concerned about whether Kim is fit both mentally and physically to return to work.

Kim meanwhile as stoic as ever, pushes through the pain of her leg injury and avoids coming to terms with the tragedy which took place at the end of the previous book.

In DI Kim Stone’s ninth outing, Kim has just returned to work after a six week absence in which she was recuperating from her injuries sustained at the end of the last book. Picking up right where she left off, her first case back is related to the one in the previous book. Doctor Cordell (connected to the prestigious Heathcrest School) has been murdered. Cordell was a member of the secret society “The Spades” which featured greatly in the last book.

Then, there are three more murders, all connected. Kim and her team must discover the murderer before more people are victimized.

I must say that this book’s plot was diabolically clever and the characters are becoming more and more like family to me. The series just seems to go from strength to strength. I highly recommend though that this series be read in order to fully realize its brilliance.

“Fatal Promise” is ultimately a novel of misplaced revenge. It explores how the loss of one person can affect so many others in such profound ways and how emotional pain is manifested so differently from person to person.

As I devoured this ninth novel in the series, I felt certain that this entire series is one I will certainly recommend to all lovers of gritty crime fiction. 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 tenth book, “Dead Memories” in November. Oh, and in case you didn’t already guess… “Fatal Promise” is very highly recommended by me.

I purchased “Fatal Promise“ in Kindle format.

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.