Blog Tour – Guilt – Bookworm Blogger

Title: Guilt (DI Nicki Hardcastle #1)

Author: Michelle Kidd

Genre: Mystery & Thriller

My Rating:

Source: ARC

Synopsis:

When a six-year-old boy disappears from a local fair, every parent’s worst nightmare is about to come true.
And for Detective Inspector Nicki Hardcastle, twenty-two years after her own nightmare began, the past she thought was buried starts catching up with her – and fast.
Leading the hunt for the missing child, Nicki soon finds the chase takes on a personal twist, with her own memories haunting her every move.
With time set against them, and a killer following his own chilling agenda, can Nicki and her team stop history from repeating itself?
Only time will tell.
But it’s time they don’t have.

My Review:

I’d like to thank Zoe from Zooloo’s Book Tours for arranging his tour and inviting me to take part. I’m always on the lookout for a new crime series to sink my teeth into and this one certainly delivered!

Like any good protagonist DI Nicki Hardcastle has her issues and when she is faced with a missing child case, she soon finds her old demons coming to the surface. What I enjoyed most about Nicki was her back story and how she controlled her team. She wasn’t pushy or rude but she certainly stood her ground and made it clear who was in control. I particularly liked how she dealt with the major breakthrough that Fox had discovered. It would have been very easy for her to take the spotlight but she gave credit where credit was due which speaks volumes about her personality.

I will admit the crimes were quite hard to read at times, especially when it was told form the child’s POV. The crimes themselves weren’t particularly gruesome but as a mother I definitely felt my heart strings being tugged and couldn’t imagine every going through what those parents did.

Michelle Kidd introduced just the right amount of characters. She built up a good team with the likes of Roy, Darcie and Fox being my favourites. They felt like a well oiled machine each character bringing different strengths to the case.

After Lucas has been abducted the case twists and turns down several paths with various developments arising. As per usual I was following all the red herrings and was kept guessing until the last minute. By the end everything was neatly tied up, except for one storyline. This mini cliff hanger has got me desperate to read the next in the series but unfortunately I will have to wait until next year.

Without a doubt I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I read most of it in one sitting! It was fast paced, gritty and tense. I’m now off to check out the author’s previous book!

Author Info:

Michelle Kidd is a self-published author best known for the Detective Inspector Jack MacIntosh series of novels set in London. She has also recently begun a new series which is set in her home town of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk – starring Detective Inspector Nicki Hardcastle.

Michelle qualified as a lawyer in the early 1990s and spent the best part of ten years practising civil and criminal litigation.

But the dream to write books was never far from her mind and in 2008 she began writing the manuscript that would become the first DI Jack MacIntosh novel – The Phoenix Project. The book took eighteen months to write, but spent the next eight years gathering dust underneath the bed.

In 2018 Michelle self-published The Phoenix Project and has not looked back since. There are currently four DI Jack MacIntosh novels, with a fifth in progress, and the first DI Nicki Hardcastle novel is due for release in August 2021.

Michelle now works full time for the NHS and lives in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. She enjoys reading, wine and cats – not necessarily in that order

Follow her at:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/michellekiddauthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michellekiddauthor/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AuthorKidd

Website : www.michellekiddauthor.com

Pre Order Links

Amazon UK – https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B099FMGZ16

Amazon US – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B099FMGZ16