I needed to figure out a way to start reading series where I am not current or the series is finished but haven’t read them yet. So it’s a way to commit myself to read my backlist, particularly series.
I’ve been wanting to read the DI Kim Stone for a long time. The audiobooks are available just on Audible so I’ve collected them. I don’t know much about them other than the setting and Jonetta likes them.
Six Graves by Angela Marsons Narrator: Jan Cramer
Series: DI Kim Stone #16
Published by Bookouture on May 12, 2022
Genres: Mystery
Length: 8 hours, 33 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Purchased
Goodreads
Amazon, Audible, Barnes & Noble, Apple
When Detective Kim Stone rushes to the scene of a house fire, she’s shocked to discover it’s claimed the lives of two teenage children and their parents. But this tragedy is not quite as it seems. Each body is marked by a gunshot wound and the mother, Helen Daynes, is holding the gun.
The case sparks painful childhood memories for Kim who suffered at the hands of her own abusive mother. As she begins to untangle the dark web of secrets within the Daynes family, Kim and her team discover Helen had a history of clinical depression. But could it have driven her to murder her loved ones?
Then Kim uncovers a tiny, vital clue in Helen’s bedroom that throws the investigation wide open. Could someone else have killed the Daynes family?
With the case only just underway, a deadly threat is made to Kim’s own life. Years ago, she rescued two little girls from the clutches of a dangerous psychopath who has just escaped prison and is coming for her.
A witness protection officer glued to her side, Kim must bite back her fear, as she keeps digging into the Daynes’s background and soon hits upon a shocking secret from Helen’s past that could crack the case. With the remaining family members in danger, Kim is under pressure like never before.
The monster circling Kim raises the stakes when he threatens the life of another innocent victim. He’s leading Kim straight to him. Forced to go against direct instructions from her superiors, will that one fateful decision cost her more than her job?
Kim and her team were just into a new case which looks like the mother killed her children, then her husband and then committed suicide. But not everything is as it seems. All of a sudden Kim is ripped away from her case to be put into protective custody, as a killer has escaped from prison and is interested in revenge against Kim. She has to send away Barney, her dog, as he might be used to get to her.
She works with her team from her home on the new case. As usual, they are a smart and competent team. Kim is noticing some personnel issues though. She watches as her team develops and forms a better working relationship.
The killer finds takes two innocent girls which is what he was denied by being arrested. Torture and pain are what delight him. Kim does as expected to save those girls.
Six Graves was suspenseful and fast paced with great investigative work. All the books are this way. Kim is pushed in so many ways. It’s one of her hardest cases and leaves her again changed for the future.
Hidden Scars by Angela Marsons Narrator: Jan Cramer
Series: DI Kim Stone #17
Published by Bookouture on November 9, 2022
Genres: Mystery
Length: 8 hours, 39 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Purchased
Goodreads
Amazon, Audible, Barnes & Noble, Apple
When a nineteen-year-old boy, Jamie Mills, is found hanging from a tree in a local park, his death is ruled a suicide. Detective Kim Stone’s instincts tell her something isn’t right – but it’s not her investigation and her temporary replacement is too busy waiting for the next big case to be asking the right questions.
Why would a seemingly healthy boy choose to end his life?
Why does his mother show no sign of emotional distress at the loss of her son?Still mending her broken mind and body from her last harrowing case, Kim is supposed to be easing back into work gently. But then she finds a crucial, overlooked detail: Jamie had a recent injury that would have made it impossible for him to climb the tree. He must have been murdered.
Quickly taking back charge of her team and the case, Kim visits Jamie’s parents and is shocked to hear that they had sent him to a clinic to ‘cure’ him of his sexuality. According to his mother, Jamie was introverted and prone to mood swings. Yet his friend speaks of a vibrant, outgoing boy.
The clues to smashing open this disturbing case lie behind the old Victorian walls of the clinic, run by the Gardner family. They claim that patients come of their own accord and are free to leave at any time. But why are those that attended the clinic so afraid to speak of what happens there? And where did the faded restraint marks identified on Jamie’s wrists come from?
Then the body of a young woman is found dead by suffocation and Kim makes two chilling discoveries. The victim spent time at the clinic too, and her death was also staged to look like a suicide.
Many people are found dead, supposedly by suicide. But as Kim and the team investigate, they found the deaths are suspicious. They piece together evidence of the victims being gay. For some their parents didn’t want them to be gay; some themselves wanted to be “normal” not gay. Each one ended up in conversion therapy.
As they look into the clinic, and talk to people, it becomes clear they are using torture, rape and even lobotomies to effect the “conversions.” The victims and other patients won’t say anything because of NDAs. Their accountant is also missing. Has he gone missing due to his knowing the evil happenings?
There are the bits of personal life which go along with the case. Kim working on getting back in shape after her recent injuries. Penn getting back to time spent with Lynne, thanks to Jasper meddling. Stacey being afraid of driving but knowing she needed to learn.
Kim and her team showed their usual compassion and intelligent deductions to find the actual culprits. Hidden Scars like the rest of the series is an amazing and emotional ride.
Deadly Fate by Angela Marsons Narrator: Jan Cramer
Series: DI Kim Stone #18
Published by Bookouture on May 25, 2023
Genres: Mystery
Length: 8 hours, 14 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Purchased
Goodreads
Amazon, Audible, Barnes & Noble, Apple
The woman’s bright blonde hair floats in the breeze. She almost looks like she could be resting on the soft green grass. But her brown eyes stare unblinking up at the sky, and the final cut across her mouth is dark with blood. Her words silenced forever....
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. When Detective Kim Stone rushes to the scene, the violence of the attack convinces her that this murder was deeply personal. What could have caused such hate?
As the team dig into Sandra’s life, they discover she believed she could communicate with the dead. Was that why she was targeted? The last people to see her alive were a group of women who had a session with her the night before she was killed, and as Kim and her team pay them a visit, they soon learn each of the women is lying about why they wanted Sandra’s help.
Kim realizes she must dig deep and open her mind to every avenue if she’s going to stand a chance at solving this case. And when she learns that Sandra was banned from the church grounds and had been receiving death threats too, she’s ever more certain that Sandra’s gifts are at the heart of everything.
But just when she thinks she’s found a lead, the broken body of a 19-year-old boy is found outside a call center–a single slash across his mouth. Kim knows they are now racing against time to understand what triggered these attacks and to stop a twisted killer.
But they might be too late. Just as Kim sits down at a local psychic show, she discovers something that makes her blood run cold. Both Sandra and the call center were named in an article about frauds. And this show stars the next name on the list. She looks around the audience with a feeling of utter dread, certain the killer is among them.
I barely finished the previous book and went right on with Deadly Fate. Here we have a case of psychics being murdered. There’s also a homeless guy that has died of natural causes but is unnamed. Penn takes that on and discovers his name, and his reason for being homeless. He knows something isn’t right and follows things in depth to help the family.
There are several women who were at the last readings of the murdered psychic. Kim and Bryant talk to them all. They find one women who monopolized the event, angry she didn’t get a better reading. Another women wanting to know what happened to her son who disappeared years ago. They find a psychic who wrote books about other ones being fake. Kim finds an author who wrote a book of how psychics fake their readings. They go to a theater to see a famous psychic perform.
Kim takes up the case of the boy who they believed abducted years ago. She finds some discrepancies in witness testimonies. The psychics keep dying until Kim rushes to one she believes is in danger. Penn is the one who saves the day though with the homeless man’s family and the missing boy. I’m always excited to read more.
Narration:
I am not sure I have listened to Jan Cramer previous to this series. Her voice was clear and no nonsense for Kim which was just right. I am comfortable with the voices for the other male and female characters. I have been able to listen at my newer 1.7x speed.
Listen to a clip: HERE
About Angela Marsons
Angela Marsons is the Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of the DI Kim Stone series and her books have sold more than 5 million in 7 years.
She lives in Worcestershire with her partner and their 2 cheeky Golden Retrievers.
She first discovered her love of writing at Junior School when actual lessons came second to watching other people and quietly making up her own stories about them. Her report card invariably read “Angela would do well if she minded her own business as well as she minds other people’s”.
After years of writing relationship based stories (The Forgotten Woman and Dear Mother) Angela turned to Crime, fictionally speaking of course, and developed a character that refused to go away.
She is signed to Bookouture.com for a total of 28 books in the Kim Stone series and her books have been translated into 30 languages.
Many of her books, including Blood Lines, Dead Souls, Broken Bones, Fatal Promise and Dead Memories reached the #1 spot on Amazon on pre-orders alone and the translation of Dead Souls, La Verita Sepolte, recently won the prestigious Primo Bancarella award.
I read all types of books but my favorites are urban fantasy and romantic suspense.I like some romance and some action / adventure / mystery in everything.I like sex in my books but please, only between TWO people.Intimate conversation is equally important to the sex in a book.It lets me see the characters.The other thing I enjoy is humor.
Friend or follow me at Goodreads.
- Restless Bones by Gillian French #GillianFrench @minotaurbooks.bsky.social - June 18, 2026
- 🎧 Somebody Worth Killing by Jessica Payne @jessicapayne.bsky.social @pattimurin.bsky.social @berkleypub.bsky.social @penguinaudio.bsky.social #LoveAudiobooks #JIAM - June 16, 2026
- Sunday Post – 14 June 2026 @caffeinatedreviewer.com @readingreality.bsky.social @kimbacaffeinate @readingreality - June 14, 2026
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
- 26-Audio
- 26-COYER
I LOVE this series and am thrilled you do, too, Anne💜
Thank you Jonetta. It’s just top tier amazing.
Seeing your 5 stars on all the books here makes me think I need to pick this series up!
It’s excellent but Audible only. I collected them as they were included in sales or I had credits to use.
That first one def sounds really intense esp for our main character. That would be super triggering I’m sure.
yes the situations are usually murder or violent crime so they might trigger if that is an issue for you.