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calturner's review
5.0
Due to ill health this is my first book of the year, and wow, what a read to kick off 2018 with!
‘Come and Find Me’ by Sarah Hilary is the fifth in her DI Marnie Rome series and is the best one so far. It sets off at a cracking pace and doesn’t slow down right up until the final page has been turned. With twists and turns aplenty, it’s full of everything we’ve come to expect from this series, with some genuinely heart stopping moments along the way.
Although this is the fifth book in the series and does have threads from the previous stories woven throughout, I do feel it would still read well as a stand-alone. I would, however, recommend that you read the entire series from the beginning as it is so good you will not want to miss a thing!
As usual, the wonderful characterisation of all the main players, but especially Marnie Rome and Noah Jake, add layers to the story, making you care about them so much that you feel their pain and heartache right along with them.
A superb psychological thriller that takes you on a rollercoaster of a journey and one that I highly recommend. A very easy 5 stars from me.
Thank you to Headline for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of this outstanding book.
‘Come and Find Me’ by Sarah Hilary is the fifth in her DI Marnie Rome series and is the best one so far. It sets off at a cracking pace and doesn’t slow down right up until the final page has been turned. With twists and turns aplenty, it’s full of everything we’ve come to expect from this series, with some genuinely heart stopping moments along the way.
Although this is the fifth book in the series and does have threads from the previous stories woven throughout, I do feel it would still read well as a stand-alone. I would, however, recommend that you read the entire series from the beginning as it is so good you will not want to miss a thing!
As usual, the wonderful characterisation of all the main players, but especially Marnie Rome and Noah Jake, add layers to the story, making you care about them so much that you feel their pain and heartache right along with them.
A superb psychological thriller that takes you on a rollercoaster of a journey and one that I highly recommend. A very easy 5 stars from me.
Thank you to Headline for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of this outstanding book.
btpbookclub's review
5.0
Oh My. This book took over me, it was all I could think about until I could finish it. Clever. Very clever. A brilliant story. This is the first book I have read by Sarah Hilary and it won’t be my last, very impressed… Well and truelly hooked and obsessed with this book!
Well written, fast paced and with short chapters you will lose yourself in this story. I loved the team, especially DI Marnie Rome. With a huge outcome I didn’t expect at all. Just made it all a brilliant read. Enjoyed every minute of it. Not a bad word to say for this story. I cannot wait to dive into all the other books by Sarah after this belter.
A well deserved five stars from myself! This book messes with the readers head… Who’s assumptions are correct? Who’s telling the truth? Who’s lying? You will find as the reader you have to piece everything together for yourself just like DI Marnie has too but will you be correct? Loved it. Kept me thinking and on edge.
Well written, fast paced and with short chapters you will lose yourself in this story. I loved the team, especially DI Marnie Rome. With a huge outcome I didn’t expect at all. Just made it all a brilliant read. Enjoyed every minute of it. Not a bad word to say for this story. I cannot wait to dive into all the other books by Sarah after this belter.
A well deserved five stars from myself! This book messes with the readers head… Who’s assumptions are correct? Who’s telling the truth? Who’s lying? You will find as the reader you have to piece everything together for yourself just like DI Marnie has too but will you be correct? Loved it. Kept me thinking and on edge.
jmatkinson1's review
5.0
An overcrowded prison is a tinderbox waiting to explode and when HMP Cloverton does so the outcomes are devastating. Prisoners dead, brutally attacked by other inmates, several prisoners in hospital suffering from the effects of smoke from the fire and one escapee. Michael Vokes is a talented artist and known psychopath, although he had not been convicted of anything more than aggravated burglary his former cellmate hung himself and Vokes has a string of women writing to him. Marnie Rome is tasked with finding Vokes and after visiting his home her team is in a race against time. However it is hard to work out who wants to harm Vokes and who wants to help him.
This is a slightly different episode in the series and works incredibly well. The emphasis is less on the team and more on the psychology, the way people are manipulated by words. The twist was flagged up fairly early on but Hilary managed to keep the crucial point until fairly late on. I particularly enjoyed the parallel tales about Rome's parents murder and the questions being put in her head alongside the questions being asked by the people under Vokes' spell. This is a really strong series of police procedurals and it is only getting better.
This is a slightly different episode in the series and works incredibly well. The emphasis is less on the team and more on the psychology, the way people are manipulated by words. The twist was flagged up fairly early on but Hilary managed to keep the crucial point until fairly late on. I particularly enjoyed the parallel tales about Rome's parents murder and the questions being put in her head alongside the questions being asked by the people under Vokes' spell. This is a really strong series of police procedurals and it is only getting better.
thebooktrail88's review
4.0
Whoah Marnie Rome! This is one humdinger of a case! Talk about getting close to the action and entering into your nightmare all over again!
The first scene explodes onto the page - a scene as quite frankly, this and Sarah’s other books need to be on the TV. They’ve got that frenetic punchy energy that sizzles as you read. The language here was even more brilliantly delicious than in other books and when practically the whole book is set between a prison and a hospital ward with a few visits to see victims, that’s no mean feat.
This case - looking for an escaped prisoner - is described as not looking for a needle in a haystack but “looking for a clean needle in a crackhouse”. Pure Hilary genius right there. A crime scene in a house stuffed with old things becomes the “Antiques Roadshow massacre” So much evoked in three words. Horror wrapped up in humour. And there’s a likeness of a victim to a sheep on the side of the road I’ll never forget.
Come and Find me deserves to devour the most readers possible. It grabs you and if that ending doesn’t kick you in the place the sun don’t shine, then I don’t know what will. This really gets into the terrifying psyche of being in a prison, being in a cell with a nutter or two, at the centre of a riot when things get really ugly. What happens to those on the outside looking in. The women who write to these prisoners. The whole shebang.
Horrifyingly good. This is the Queen of the crime thriller which messes with your mind and lets you in to the darkness areas of the human mine.
Come and Find Me should be not just the title but the sign outside bookshops, libraries and, heck, anywhere signs exist so you are directed to a crime writer you really need to be reading if you aren’t already.
The first scene explodes onto the page - a scene as quite frankly, this and Sarah’s other books need to be on the TV. They’ve got that frenetic punchy energy that sizzles as you read. The language here was even more brilliantly delicious than in other books and when practically the whole book is set between a prison and a hospital ward with a few visits to see victims, that’s no mean feat.
This case - looking for an escaped prisoner - is described as not looking for a needle in a haystack but “looking for a clean needle in a crackhouse”. Pure Hilary genius right there. A crime scene in a house stuffed with old things becomes the “Antiques Roadshow massacre” So much evoked in three words. Horror wrapped up in humour. And there’s a likeness of a victim to a sheep on the side of the road I’ll never forget.
Come and Find me deserves to devour the most readers possible. It grabs you and if that ending doesn’t kick you in the place the sun don’t shine, then I don’t know what will. This really gets into the terrifying psyche of being in a prison, being in a cell with a nutter or two, at the centre of a riot when things get really ugly. What happens to those on the outside looking in. The women who write to these prisoners. The whole shebang.
Horrifyingly good. This is the Queen of the crime thriller which messes with your mind and lets you in to the darkness areas of the human mine.
Come and Find Me should be not just the title but the sign outside bookshops, libraries and, heck, anywhere signs exist so you are directed to a crime writer you really need to be reading if you aren’t already.
bibliobethreads's review
5.0
I cannot stress enough how wonderful Sarah Hilary's DI Marnie Rome series is and urge you all to start reading it if you're not already obsessed like I clearly seem to be! Generally speaking, I usually begin crime series quite excited, determined to read all the books the author releases and then - something happens. It falls by the wayside, I read an "okay," book in the series and sadly, my enthusiasm wanes and I either forget about the series or resolve that it's no longer for me. However, the Marnie Rome series is one of the very few set of books where each story seems to get better and better and when I hear that one is due to be released, I'm gleefully anticipating it and genuinely leap-frogging it over other books in my TBR just so I can read it even sooner. Therefore, a HUGE thank you to Jenny Harlow and all at Headline Books for granting my wish and providing me with a copy of Come And Find Me in exchange for an honest review. I think you can already guess (and apologies for the awful gushing!) but all my expectations for the fifth book in the Marnie Rome series were exceeded, dramatically so. In fact, I'm beginning to think it impossible that Sarah Hilary could ever write a bad book and both her plot-lines and characters become more intricate and infinitely more wonderful than I ever could have expected.
Unlike other books in different series, I feel like I can talk about Come And Find Me quite easily without ruining too much for anyone who has never read any Sarah Hilary before. I'll attempt to explain myself - you know in other series where there's a bit of a re-cap of previous situations and if you're reading the series out of order, it can possibly ruin things slightly if you haven't realised? I really don't feel like this is the case with this fifth novel. Sure, we get some slight references to events that have happened both in Marnie's and other characters pasts but it's all a little vague and not too detailed so if you did happen to come to this novel first, it could easily be read as a stand-alone and you wouldn't face huge amounts of spoilers. Obviously, I would definitely advocate reading the first book in this series before any others as you get a much better idea of the personalities of our main protagonists and certainly, their back stories that has led to current events BUT I do like the way Sarah Hilary doesn't spend oodles of time re-hashing past events.
In Come And Find Me, Marnie and her team are investigating a jail break and the disappearance of a dangerous prisoner, Michael Vokey. As he escaped from the prison, there was an almighty riot and horrific fire which ended up with some men dead and five others including Michael's cell-mate, Ted Elms and Marnie's foster brother, Stephen Keele critically ill in hospital. As Marnie and her side-kick Noah desperately try to find Michael, fearing he might hurt someone else, they find letters from two women, Lara Chorley and Ruth Hull who had not only been writing to him on a regular basis, but seemed to have got slightly obsessed. The letters include photographs, have quite shocking content on occasion and make Marnie wonder if one/both of them could be aiding him or hiding him from the authorities. We hear from both Marnie and Noah as they struggle to crack the case and from Ted Elms as he lies in a coma in hospital and it is not long before the revelations of what happened the day of the riot are much more surprising and unexpected than previously believed.
I adore this series. As I alluded to before, Sarah Hilary can do no wrong and with each book she knocks it out of the park in terms of plot and character development. Of course, there are inevitable twists that you think as a reader, you might have figured out but she still manages to turn things round and bring in that unpredictable element that you never see coming. I probably mentioned in my previous reviews but Marnie and Noah are amongst my favourite characters in fiction, I really feel like I know them and admire how with each novel, the author seems to take them to the next level. This book wasn't so much about Marnie's struggles with her foster brother Stephen, although it was obviously mentioned as he was a patient in the hospital after the prison riot, but I quite enjoyed that we got to see a side of Marnie where she wasn't constantly caught up in the misery of her parents deaths. Saying that, I am rubbing my hands in anticipation of what's to come for both Marnie and Noah, especially after THAT cliffhanger. Finally, I just want to mention the writing which I have always enjoyed in the previous novels but in Come And Find Me, it was if I noticed it for the very first time. Some of the lines of this narrative were so gorgeously poetic it was a pleasure to read and brought a whole new dimension to a story I was already enjoying but ended up admiring and respecting purely for the way in which Sarah Hilary was using her words.
If you haven't read any of the Marnie Rome series before, you're in for such a treat. I almost wish I could go back and experience them all again, knowing nothing, right from the beginning.
For my full review and many more, please visit my blog at http://www.bibliobeth.com
Unlike other books in different series, I feel like I can talk about Come And Find Me quite easily without ruining too much for anyone who has never read any Sarah Hilary before. I'll attempt to explain myself - you know in other series where there's a bit of a re-cap of previous situations and if you're reading the series out of order, it can possibly ruin things slightly if you haven't realised? I really don't feel like this is the case with this fifth novel. Sure, we get some slight references to events that have happened both in Marnie's and other characters pasts but it's all a little vague and not too detailed so if you did happen to come to this novel first, it could easily be read as a stand-alone and you wouldn't face huge amounts of spoilers. Obviously, I would definitely advocate reading the first book in this series before any others as you get a much better idea of the personalities of our main protagonists and certainly, their back stories that has led to current events BUT I do like the way Sarah Hilary doesn't spend oodles of time re-hashing past events.
In Come And Find Me, Marnie and her team are investigating a jail break and the disappearance of a dangerous prisoner, Michael Vokey. As he escaped from the prison, there was an almighty riot and horrific fire which ended up with some men dead and five others including Michael's cell-mate, Ted Elms and Marnie's foster brother, Stephen Keele critically ill in hospital. As Marnie and her side-kick Noah desperately try to find Michael, fearing he might hurt someone else, they find letters from two women, Lara Chorley and Ruth Hull who had not only been writing to him on a regular basis, but seemed to have got slightly obsessed. The letters include photographs, have quite shocking content on occasion and make Marnie wonder if one/both of them could be aiding him or hiding him from the authorities. We hear from both Marnie and Noah as they struggle to crack the case and from Ted Elms as he lies in a coma in hospital and it is not long before the revelations of what happened the day of the riot are much more surprising and unexpected than previously believed.
I adore this series. As I alluded to before, Sarah Hilary can do no wrong and with each book she knocks it out of the park in terms of plot and character development. Of course, there are inevitable twists that you think as a reader, you might have figured out but she still manages to turn things round and bring in that unpredictable element that you never see coming. I probably mentioned in my previous reviews but Marnie and Noah are amongst my favourite characters in fiction, I really feel like I know them and admire how with each novel, the author seems to take them to the next level. This book wasn't so much about Marnie's struggles with her foster brother Stephen, although it was obviously mentioned as he was a patient in the hospital after the prison riot, but I quite enjoyed that we got to see a side of Marnie where she wasn't constantly caught up in the misery of her parents deaths. Saying that, I am rubbing my hands in anticipation of what's to come for both Marnie and Noah, especially after THAT cliffhanger. Finally, I just want to mention the writing which I have always enjoyed in the previous novels but in Come And Find Me, it was if I noticed it for the very first time. Some of the lines of this narrative were so gorgeously poetic it was a pleasure to read and brought a whole new dimension to a story I was already enjoying but ended up admiring and respecting purely for the way in which Sarah Hilary was using her words.
If you haven't read any of the Marnie Rome series before, you're in for such a treat. I almost wish I could go back and experience them all again, knowing nothing, right from the beginning.
For my full review and many more, please visit my blog at http://www.bibliobeth.com
j_lbrbsblogs's review
5.0
In this, the fifth DI Marnie Rome book, we get a well paced, gripping read. There’s a prison riot, violent attacks on prisoners and in the mayhem a prisoner escapes. Michael Vokey is on the run. He had been imprisoned after an attack on a young mother. He has been moved prisons because he causes problems. He seems to be able to get inside people and manipulate them. He has attracted women and they are writing to him, telling him their desires, asking him to come to them. And now he’s free and Marnie, in charge of finding him and putting him back inside, is worried he might just do that.
We follow the investigation. We hear the voice of one of the hospitalised prisoners, Ted, and find out some of what was happening in the prison and it’s rotten. Marnie and the team chase down leads and you feel their frustrations and their hopes. Most of all you, too, want this man off the streets. The story unfolds beautifully and the ending is, well you’ll just have to read the book and find out for yourself.
This is such a good story and I don’t hesitate to recommend it.
Rating: 4.5*
I was lucky enough to win a copy of this book from a competition thank you Sarah Hilary and Caitlin Raynor at Headline.
We follow the investigation. We hear the voice of one of the hospitalised prisoners, Ted, and find out some of what was happening in the prison and it’s rotten. Marnie and the team chase down leads and you feel their frustrations and their hopes. Most of all you, too, want this man off the streets. The story unfolds beautifully and the ending is, well you’ll just have to read the book and find out for yourself.
This is such a good story and I don’t hesitate to recommend it.
Rating: 4.5*
I was lucky enough to win a copy of this book from a competition thank you Sarah Hilary and Caitlin Raynor at Headline.
kaz_loves_books's review
5.0
What a brilliant book! Kept you on tenterhooks the entire way through the book, the writing was good and descriptive, it was a joy to read. Did Michael Vokey cause the riot? Kill the inmates, hurt others and set the fire? Why is no one talking? How did he escape from prison? This book makes you wonder about the prisoner Michael Vokey and what happened that night but I must admit, I loved it, so intriguing!
si0bhan's review
3.0
Come and Find Me is the fifth book in the DI Marnie Rome series, and my second read from the author. The first book I read, book three in the series, worked fine as a standalone. Although this one can also be read as a standalone, I feel it is best read in order. There were a lot of things with this one that I couldn’t quite connect with, details that I feel I would have enjoyed more if I’d read all the prior books.
Although Come and Find Me was an easy read, it failed to wow me in the way I had hoped. I was interested in seeing the way things would come together – although I did work some of the elements out – but I wasn’t invested in the story. It felt a bit too slow, and I was waiting for something big to happen. It was interesting, but I kept waiting for more.
At this point, I think I need to go and read the books in order with the hope I can connect to everything this way.
Although Come and Find Me was an easy read, it failed to wow me in the way I had hoped. I was interested in seeing the way things would come together – although I did work some of the elements out – but I wasn’t invested in the story. It felt a bit too slow, and I was waiting for something big to happen. It was interesting, but I kept waiting for more.
At this point, I think I need to go and read the books in order with the hope I can connect to everything this way.
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