• Play Dead

  • Detective Kim Stone Crime Thriller, Book 4
  • By: Angela Marsons
  • Narrated by: Jan Cramer
  • Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (1,560 ratings)

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Play Dead  By  cover art

Play Dead

By: Angela Marsons
Narrated by: Jan Cramer
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Publisher's summary

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?

The latest utterly addictive thriller from number-one best seller Angela Marsons.

©2016 Angela Marsons (P)2016 Bookouture

What listeners say about Play Dead

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

A rush to print

I've been a fan of Angela Marsons and her original plots and antisocial character Kim Stone -- so much so that I preordered this novel when I saw it was pending.
But the thought did niggle in the back of my mind that all four DI Stone books have come out rather quickly: the first was published in Feb 2015.
Play Dead is noticeably weaker than the others -- perhaps it was a rush to print because the story itself is interesting. It's some sloppy writing that puts me off, plus soggy psychological dabbling and, worst of all, Marsons gets out her soap box rather more often than is bearable for a thriller. She has always been prone to a dash of preachiness but it gets let off the reins here.
All the faults can be laid at the feet of indulgence, a lack of writing discipline. If it comes from writing at speed as I suspect, then it can be corrected. If it's a career development then that's a sad loss to the murder thriller genre.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Not Marson's best

There was too much reliance upon prior novels. I had to keep reminding myself of what happened in previous books to make sense of this one. Definitely needs to be read in order of publication.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great addition to the series

Angela Marsons has crafted another great suspense/thriller. This book does work as a standalone novel, however I recommend listening from the beginning of the series. There are plenty of twists and turns to the story to make one feel as those they're on a roller coaster.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Another great Detective Kim Stone thriller!

British author Angela Marsons continues to release very high quality police procedural novels in her Detective Kim Stone series. Play Dead is a serial murder mystery. English actor Jan Cramer is a rising star in the audio book narration field. She is simply superb. I highly recommend this novel and the others in the series.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

This book is GREAT!!

This book is a great read! Storyline was great! Performance by Jan Cramer was great!!!

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5 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
  • jo
  • 06-13-16

Predictable

Predictable plot. Unbelievable police work. Terrible accents from narrator. Managed to finish so gave it 2 stars based purely on that.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

VERY Slow

I couldn't enjoy this book. I'm actually confused by the rave reviews. This book starts tremendously slow and even after 3 hours of listening I still was unable to garner any type of interest. Returned this immediately.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

D. I. Kim Stone does it again

Another British crime thriller from Angela Marsons. D. I. Kim Stone race against the clock to find a serial killer who is dumping his bodies at a body farm. As usual, the "who" in "whodunit" is a surprise.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

There is no "I" in team

There was not much interaction with the other team members in this story. It was all Kim, Kim, Kim. In Marson's past stories I enjoyed knowing a little bit more about the other members of the team and even just hearing their voices as they investigated on their own. Listening to Jan Cramer, as Kim, spout out orders to her team gets a bit annoying in large quantities. Does she really only have one tone of voice - a bark?

The story line was interesting and kept me listening in spite of the narration. I didn't feel that "page-turning" dramatic crescendo though so maybe the writing was off too.

If you like Detective Stone, you may want to skip this one. Have you ever had a neighbor's dog bark continually for an hour? Yeah-it's like that.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great series!

My favorite part about this series is that, even when you're sure you know who the culprit is, there's always a surprise in the end!

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1 person found this helpful