Lin Le Versha and Team Hobeck have done it again!

This time, in this nail-biting and extremely captivating thriller, we meet an entitled and pompous Hector Percy, who lives at Glebe Hall with his wife, Esme, and son, Jack.

The house and the estate have been in Percy’s family for centuries, however, Hector needed some help to keep it going. Glebe House is shared between three families – Percys occupy the main part, Zac and Luke are in the west wing, and the Hendersons live in the east wing.

One day, when Steph Grant and Hale are walking, they see a plume of smoke coming from Glebe Hall. Upon their arrival, they realise that the smoke is coming from a car. A frantic man is running around crying that his wife is inside. Unfortunately, she cannot be saved.

That man is Jon Henderson, Hector’s right-hand man and friend. His wife, Madeline is the person that perished in the fire. The couple have a daughter, Bella, who attends Oakwood’s Sixth Form College, where Steph works as a receptionist.

Soon, Bella leaves Glebe Hall and stays with her Art teacher, Caroline (who is also Steph’s friend), claiming she feels unsafe. The young woman says she has been abused by someone at Glebe Hall…

The more Grant and Hale probe into the residents of Glebe Hall, the more inconsistencies they find.

Ooh, I loved this deliciously dark thriller. It explores the issue of consent, something that’s current and relevant. I truly felt for Bella, as she didn’t realise what was happening to her until she was in a loving relationship.

I loved Le Versha’s characterisation, there were many layers to them and it seems everyone had a secret, or two.

Hector was a person that every reader would hate from the start. I didn’t appreciate how he treated his family and people he claimed as his friends. He was self-centred, with zero empathy.

Overall, it’s a tense thriller that will keep you guessing to the end. I can’t wait for another book in this series.

I definitely recommend it.1 Peter Fleming286 5

A deceptive start for the reader, with old friends enjoying a picnic and exchanging gentle humour in the grounds of a Stately Home, masking the unpleasantness to come.

Hector has worked hard to keep Glebe Hall, his inheritance following the death of his brother. Their father also left them large debts and there was inheritance tax to take into account. His solution of sharing with friends has worked for a couple of decades but nothing stays the same and change is coming. Hector can see only one solution, perfectly reasonable to him, but absurd to everyone else. He is a firm believer in family duty and putting one’s family first and anyone who gets in his way is being unreasonable. This provides the foundation stone for the plot.

The plot is the investigation into the death of Madeline in the grounds of Glebe Hall, whose burning car Steph Grant and DI Hale chance upon. Her Husband Jon and Hector are trying to fight the fire and rescue her and they explain that she had been drinking and after a blazing argument drove off. So apparent misadventure then. Their explanations later gets Hale’s detective radar working and he sees that there is more to it than that. Their stories agree but there is an underlying evasiveness about them. He ‘deputises’ Steph back into the force to help and once they discover it is ly that Madeline has been murdered their investigation uncovers much more, including murder and abuse. All buried under a mountain of deceit. A clever plot with a few unexpected reveals along the way.
The pacing of the story line is perfectly judged allowing a nice blend of characterisation and action. There’s enough incident, deaths and jeopardy to keep most readers happy.

The characterisation is brilliant, especially the Percy family. Hector is perfectly named as that is exactly what he is a domineering bully of a man. all bullies he is used to getting his way and is dumbfounded when Hale has the temerity to stand up to him. He is a man of privilege and believes that it is his of right. A man of his people, not the great unwashed public, they can pay to gawp at his house and possessions, but those in the ‘County Set’ and of course the masons. He’s friends with the Chief Constable and makes sure everyone knows it. A thoroughly obnoxious man and at outrageously so when his plan unravels.

His son Jack is feckless and indolent so a real gentleman in the making. His creepy sucking up to his father and trying to manipulate his mother will have you cringing as you read. A loathsome young man, already adept at coercive control and ignoring boundaries, the proposed lessons in consent at college coming far too late for him, but is he irredeemable?

It’s difficult not to have at least some sympathy for Esme, Hector’s wife, as she lives with those two and puts up with so much. As the story develops it is clear that by her willingness to accept and conform to keep a settled household, she is making her own life much worse. It comes as something of a relief when she finally ‘wakes up and smells the coffee.’

The easy relationship between Steph and Hale is quite engaging and Derek the dog provides natural periods of light relief along with some gentle humour. This is nicely judged against a story of the abuse suffered by Bella, Jon and Madeline’s daughter, which is tactfully covered.

Blood Ties is a crime story that exposes the abuse of power and privilege whilst retaining an easy going charm about it. More comfortable than cosy and a pleasure to read.
Miriam Smith (A Mother’s Musings)1,642 253

“Blood Ties” is the third in the ‘Steph Grant Murder Mystery’ books by author Lin Le Versha and as I’ve been following this series since ‘Blood Notes’, it was a given I’d be reading this book too. I’m not sure what’s happening at Hobeck publishers but their authors are just getting better and better with their stories! This was by far my favourite in the Steph Grant series, although the others were brilliant must-reads too.

I love Steph and her partner DI Hale (and not forgetting Derek the mutt who Hale is just starting to endear to) - their personal and working partnership is perfect and together with Steph’s incredible empathy and patience and Hale’s police experience and authority, they really do make an ideal formidable team. Nothing gets past these two and considering the deaths and incidences that the author throws at them, it’s a good job too!

“Blood Ties” is a mixture of cosy crime, a traditional police procedural, entitled characters you can’t help but hate, modern up to date issues with deep set emotions and not forgetting the ubiquitous and mysterious dark deaths. The usual eclectic characters are included again, Art teacher Caroline and her partner Margaret and Principal Peter Bryant and together with the previously mentioned content themes this book is a superb addition to the ‘Steph Grant’ series and whether read as a standalone or as an already fan of Lin’s novels, this is a highly entertaining story that really does have you gripped.

#BloodTies - ??????????blog-tour hobeck review-books1 Donna MorfettAuthor 3 books53

I came to this series at book 2 and was looking forward to the latest read from this wonderful author.
I was not in the least bit disappointed.

The setting this time is a large country house, split into three wings, each inhabited by three families, to share costs.

Steph and Hale are staying and happen to come across as murder, as you do!
They can't help but investigate and as they do they discover that there a lot of dark secrets hidden by the residents.

This a dark and twisty thriller. There's despicable, entitled and arrogant Hector, then Bella who I totally felt for.
Lin has a way of creating characters that you feel you know despite just meeting them, even the peripheral characters. I remember thinking this when I read book 2. It's been wonderful to see Steph and Hale grow and learn more about them.

It's totally engrossing, I know people don't the word unputdownable but sometimes the word is the only one that is apt. This book is exactly that. This can be read as a standalone, but if you do then please go back and read the others, just because you'll be missing out on two cracking reads if you don't. Deb534 13

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