First Blood (D.I. Kim Stone #0.5)

Every legend starts somewhere — and Kim Stone’s begins in blood.

After finishing all “regular” entries of Angela Marsons’ Kim Stone series, I remembered reading about a prequel. “First Blood” was quickly discovered and read with glee. It’s the story of how Kim meets her new team for the first time and gets thrown quickly into a gruesome murder.

As can be expected from a Kim Stone novel, the mystery was engaging, relevant, and full of suspense. We also get a closer look at all of the team members much earlier in their careers: Stacey has just moved to CID and is rather insecure but quickly discovering her most important skills. She is far from the self-confident, married woman she becomes but already very likeable.

»Stacey show more was proud of her Nigerian heritage even though she had never stepped foot outside England and was equally proud to be British.«

Dawson, at this point, is an insufferable arse: he prefers sleeping in his car to going home and facing the music with his partner. He is hardly recognisable in this one, and too much of a nuisance during much of it for my taste.

»Yeah, Stacey had spent the day pounding the keyboard without stepping out of the office once. And yes, those efforts had yielded some results, he admitted grudgingly, but that wasn’t real police work. That was an office job.
And DS Bryant had spent the day following the boss around the outskirts of this case, driving her wherever she wanted to go. That wasn’t his idea of the job, either.«

Bryant, thankfully, is Bryant. He is the calm, collected, competent detective he will be during the entire series. It was good to see him already mostly as himself.

»‘You wanna check the cost of putting me on your insurance, Bryant. I’ll pay.’
He laughed politely.
‘Yeah, I’m not kidding,’ she said, as he neared the location to which she’d directed him.«

Kim herself is only slightly different: We learn that she’s been handled like a hot potato due to her sometimes sub-par social skills. Her placement with DCI Woodward, quickly styled “Woody”, is no coincidence. Her early insights into her team members are interesting to read and seeing her in “early action” is enticing.

Woody’s character gets some “rounding out” as well. We get to better understand why he acts generously towards Kim – in this case as well as later ones.

»‘But this is like asking me to finish a jigsaw puzzle while keeping half of the pieces in your pocket.’
He nodded. ‘Yes, I’m afraid that does seem to be the case.’
If she didn’t know better she’d think he was enjoying the challenge he’d laid before her.
‘So, Stone, time to see just how creative you and your team can get.’«

All in all, this prequel was a good read. It does feel slightly “anachronistic”, having read it after all the other novels, but it’s still very much worth a read.

Four stars out of five.

Blog | Goodreads | Hardcover | Facebook | Twitter | Mastodon | Instagram | Threads | StoryGraph | LibraryThing | Medium | Matrix | Tumblr

Ceterum censeo Putin esse delendam show less

It has been a long time since I read a Kim Stone Book. This one shows us a great deal more of Kim's life before she became a detective and also her early days on the force. Kim is a no-nonsense character and that alone often makes her unpopular with her teammates. Unpopular has never bothered or stopped her from doing brilliant police work solving difficult cases. This case they are handed is a brutal one and the motive for murder is not immediately apparent. Just how sympathetic we should be towards the victim is not immediately known either, but it is still an "edge of your seat" story...especially the opening chapter, which sets the scene right away, putting the reader at the scene of the soon to be brutal murder. We are allowed to show more see the aftermath, and that is quite enough believe me. This is the first case that Kim has worked with this particular team, and it is also Keats first time as the pathologist working alongside Kim. The case turns out to be complex and the author packs a lot into these first few pages to give us a clear picture of how all forces at play do or don't fit together. Kim calls the case "kinky" and she's far from wrong and she believes it is linked to other cases. The motive soon becomes clearer. There is a large suspect pool that keeps us constantly changing our mind. While this is a dark and deadly case...it's high on thrills, intrigue, mystery and tension. show less

Since I discovered NetGalley's app (Shelf) has a read aloud function, I've been able to dive into books when I can't use my eyeballs and then pick them up on my ereader later. Or just keep on listening to the very fine computerized voice I'm able to select. That's how I got pulled into First Blood. I've been on a big romance kick the past, well, several weeks and needed a change. First Blood was definitely that.

I just looked and there are already 20 books in this series so getting to start with a prequel seemed like a perfect way to get connected with the team. And I did. I honestly can't wait to start on [b:Silent Scream|24483265|Silent Scream (DI Kim Stone, #1)|Angela show more Marsons|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1582272656l/24483265._SY75_.jpg|44077500] to see how they continue to gel and grow together.

First Blood is a gruesome mystery that has the team searching for a serial killer who has been escalating and the clock is ticking if they're going to save the next victim. The pacing was great - I couldn't stop reading and stayed up into the wee hours this morning finishing it. That hasn't happened in a long time. The combination of learning about and connecting with Kim's team and trying to figure out who the hell the murderer was kept me glued to the page.

So why only 4 stars? Well, the bits that we get from the killer's POV and the final resolution seemed maybe a bit too much of a twist. I can't really say too much at this point because of spoilers but I had a "WTF?" moment once all was revealed.

I absolutely recommend the book for anyone who loves a good police procedural that focuses on the characters and the dynamics of a small team of detectives. Oh! I nearly forgot to mention that some of Kim's lines made me laugh out loud. There's not a lot of humor in the book but what's there is lovely.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me get to know Kim and the team. show less

Detective Inspector Kim Stone arrives at her new placement about to meet her new team. Her boss, DCI Woodward is not what Kim expects, but she knows that with her track record, it won't matter. She probably won't last any longer with this team than she has with her others. Woodward wants her to take time to get to know her team, but much to her relief, they are presented with a case almost immediately. The corpse of a man has been found with his head and genitals separated from his body. Kim isn't sure if she can trust her team to help her solve this case. DS Bryant is steady and pleasant, but not very dynamic. DC Stacey Wood is young, newly promoted, but inexperienced, and too much of a people pleaser. DS Kevin Dawson is lazy, show more arrogant, slovenly, and essentially homeless. Kim knows she has her job cut out for her if she is to make them into a team, and this case is going to be trial by fire for them.
First Blood is the prologue to the D.I. Kim Stone series. It works well as an introduction to the characters, whose backgrounds we get through their memories of and interactions with family members and previous colleagues. In this book, the killer's voice is in italics throughout the story, giving hints as to his or her identity. The clues all point to one place, but the killer's identity remains a mystery right up to the end of the book. Overall, this is a very good beginning to this series whose main character reminds me of J.D. Robb's Eve Dallas and Marie Force's Sam Holland. show less

Bello, mi è piaciuto molto, un buon inizio di serie soprattutto per la particolarità dei personaggi che costituiranno la parte sostanziale delle future vicende, a cominciare proprio dalla detective Kim Stone, una donna forte e tenace con un passato terribile che ne condiziona il carattere e i rapporti umani.

First Blood takes us back to the first day that Stone and her team come together. This is an unusual group that respect Kim's skills and unconventional investigative techniques. I enjoyed finding out how the team came together, and a lot of the history behind each character. A must read is you love this series like I do.

3.5 rounded up to 4 stars. Several aspects of this were simplistic in a way I didn’t care for, but overall it kept my attention and I think I could grow to like these characters. So I will continue with the series.