Hidden Scars: A completely gripping crime thriller with a nail-biting twist (Detective Kim Stone Book 17)

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Just as Kim feels she’s making progress, a deadly threat is made to her own life by a dangerous psychopath from her past. Kim resumes her duties and kicks Burns out, when she immediately realizes her team is ready to revolt.

It is my absolute pleasure to wish a massive happy publication day to Angela Marsons and to take my place on day one of the blog tour for Hidden Scars, the 17th Kim Stone novel. Meanwhile, Stacey is trying to find a missing accountant, but feels it may just be a case of him leaving his wife. However when some suicides are reported and appear suspicious, Kim finds herself drawn back in again and into the murky world of a “conversion clinic” that helps people cure themselves of gayness(I kid you not and they do exist in real life unbelievably).

A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by Netgalley and Bookouture in exchange for an honest review. Late one evening, as the final church bell rings out, Sandra Deakin’s cold and lifeless body is found in the overgrown graveyard with multiple stab wounds. Not their nose, or their boobs, or their bums … no, these people would very much pleaseandthankyou (or are sometimes forced to) change their sexuality because life is so much easier when you’re a heterosexual.

The main storyline includes a great deal of information on conversion therapy, to the point where several times I felt like I was being educated. ABOUT 'HIDDEN SCARS': While Jamie’s cold, lifeless body lay in the morgue, Detective Kim Stone stared at the empty board in the incident room and felt her anger boil. Kim is in no doubt that she must take charge of her team and visits Jamie’s parents where she learns that they had sent him to a clinic to ‘cure’ him of his sexuality. There are some developments on a personal level in Hidden Scars, but thankfully nothing with a negative impact this time around. Kim visits Jamie’s parents and is shocked to hear that they had sent him to a clinic to ‘cure’ him of his sexuality.Hidden Scars gives us some time to let our poor fragile hearts recover after book sixteen, and this healing process is also reflected in main character Kim Stone. As the body count increases, Kim and her team unravel a web of dark secrets, bringing them closer to the killer. And it did shed some light on Stone's sexuality, which was kinda ambiguous/avoided throughout the previous books (and trust me, I tried really hard to find some signs she's either straight or queer). But this is a Kim Stone story, and whether seemingly innocent or not, something has to be a miss for it to have caught Stacey’s attention.

Desperate to crack the case open quickly, Kim and her team unravel a vital clue – a fiercely guarded secret that links both victims and could cost even more lives. Stacey once again investigates her own case at the same time; an aspect I always like of this series because detectives never have just one case demanding their attention. When teenager Sadie Winter jumps from the roof of her school, her death is ruled as suicide – a final devastating act from a troubled girl. The main case in Hidden Scars is another fascinating one, and focuses on the LGBT community and conversion therapy. I read a review that said it put all Christian Conservatives in one lump and I didn’t think that at all.For Detective Kim Stone every detail of the scene mirrors her own terrifying experience with her brother Mikey, when they lived in the same tower block thirty years ago. Late one summer evening, Detective Kim Stone arrives at Haden Hill Park to the scene of a horrific crime: a woman in her sixties tied to a swing with barbed wire and an X carved into the back of her neck.