Play Dead by Angela Marsons

D.I. Kim Stone, Tome 4

Synopsis: The dead don’t tell secrets… unless you listen.

The girl’s smashed-in face stared unseeing up to the blue sky, soil spilling out of her mouth. A hundred flies hovered above the bloodied mess. Westerley research facility is not for the faint-hearted. A ‘body farm’ investigating human decomposition, its inhabitants are corpses in various states of decay. But when Detective Kim Stone and her team discover the fresh body of a young woman, it seems a killer has discovered the perfect cover to bury their crime.

Then a second girl is attacked and left for dead, her body drugged and mouth filled with soil. It’s clear to Stone and the team that a serial killer is at work – but just how many bodies will they uncover? And who is next? As local reporter, Tracy Frost, disappears, the stakes are raised. The past seems to hold the key to the killer’s secrets – but can Kim uncover the truth before a twisted, damaged mind claims another victim …?

Review: I really like the author’s novels and I couldn’t wait to discover this one.

Kim Stone is in charge of a new case in a place like no other: a place where they study the decomposition of corpses in different environments. Yes, it’s quite intriguing, but what’s even more intriguing is that a corpse, a murdered woman, has just been discovered, and no one knows how she got there. But when it happens again, Kim is even more determined to find out what happened.

I really liked the setting of the investigation, very different from what we usually find, and I was really curious to know the identity and motive of the killer. This time, I didn’t see it coming at all! The story is much more complex than you might think! And of course, it’s a treat to follow the investigation with Kim Stone’s entire team.

A good read!