Book Review: Child's Play by Angela Marsons

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Another brilliant offering by Angela Marsons. 

As an author Marsons goes from strength to strength. Each novel is so distinct from the others. Her storylines are always intriguing and Child's Play is no exception. 

I thought it would be difficult for Marsons to top the last Kim Stone novel, Dead Memories,  but I couldn't have been more wrong. Child's Play delves into family dynamics, explores how families faced with the extraordinary can react and takes us on a thrilling, time sensitive race to find a disturbed killer. 







Blurb 

Finally we’re playing a game. A game that I have chosen. I give one last push of the roundabout and stand back. ‘You really should have played with me,’ I tell her again although I know she can no longer hear.

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.

The victim, Belinda Evans, was a retired college Professor of Child Psychology. As Kim and her team search her home, they find an overnight bag packed and begin to unravel a complex relationship between Belinda and her sister Veronica.

Then two more bodies are found bearing the same distinctive markings, and Kim knows she is on the hunt for a ritualistic serial killer. Linking the victims, Kim discovers they were involved in annual tournaments for gifted children and were on their way to the next event.

With DS Penn immersed in the murder case of a young man, Kim and her team are already stretched and up against one of the most ruthless killers they’ve ever encountered. The clues lie in investigating every child who attended the tournaments, dating back decades.

Faced with hundreds of potential leads and a bereaved sister who is refusing to talk, can Kim get inside the mind of a killer and stop another murder before it’s too late?

What I think

I know I'm in safe hands when I open an Angela Marsons' book and just settle down for the ride. I am delighted to tell you that Child's Play lived up to my expectations and I fnd this particularly surprisong as this is Marsons' eleventh book and I have yet to be disappointed. 

Never having been a gifted child, more of a plodder, like Marsons, the idea of how child prodigies live their lives, how much control they have over their lives, how it impacts on them as adults and how their families are affected is so intriguing. Throw in murders with a cryptic sign, family dynamics that are distingtly 'off' , feuding sisters, a tournament for gifted children and the fear of another murder happening soon and we are gifted another tightly plotted, intriguing and thrilling read. 

A new addition to Kim's team is pleasing, the existing team are humanised by their ongoing personal lives and I loved the lovely role reversal with Kim being able to relate more to a witness than her sidekick. Detective Penn's subplot allowed us more insight into his character. 

Marsons is one of those authors that blends darkness with a healthy dose of humour and that is a quality I love in her writing. She doesn't veer away from the horror of life, but rather balances it out with lightness. The prologue was chillingly dark and had me hooked from the start.

So .... bring on Book 12, is all I can say