Title:	Bad Blood
	Author:	Angela Marsons
	Published:	November 15, 2023, Bookouture
	No. of Pages:	415
	Cover Price:	$4.99

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The 19th installment of the bestselling Kim Stone series, Bad Blood, finds Kim Stone investigating the murders of several men who grew up in a juvenile criminal institution after committing serious crimes a decade previously. The victims are found close to death, but unable to move or talk before dying shortly after being discovered. The bodies are posed, and there are messages from the murderer. In addition, those who read the previous installment of this series will remember that Stacey is traumatized after being stalked by Terrence Birch, a witness to a crime, and doesn’t tell anyone, including her wife and Stone. Birch is found in the road after a hit and run.

Marsons (who has a wife of her own) is one of my favorite authors, and her books have kept me on the edge in most of her books. However, this one focuses too much on Stacey and her wife, Devon, which is a lesbian relationship that most of us readers can’t relate to and is very uncomfortable because the intimacy is emphasized; previously, this relationship hasn’t taken a primary role, so it has been tolerable since the other supporting characters are relatable. I have nothing against LBGTQIA+, but choose not to read about it, so this book is my least favorite of the series. Marsons is excellent at developing her characters, so the others are still the great friends we are used to reading about, but with the Stacey/Devon thing, it goes too far.

Marsons is an excellent storyteller, and the story is easy to follow and the suspense builds throughout. The suspects are numerous, and even Devon is a suspect in the hit and run sub-plot for a time. There are ups and downs and surprises.

Unfortunately, this is a bit sloppily written, and hopefully, readers will read the previous excellent books before reading this one. No one can expect every book of an author to be fabulous, so I will keep reading the subsequent novels to come and will just remember that some of my favorite characters were able to progress in this novel (such as Penn and Lynne), and that is a good thing.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.