Thank you, NetGalley and Bookouture, for sharing this outstanding book with me. As you follow along with the series, the characters become family. I am excited to read book 18. As Cher types up letters about overflowing rubbish bins in a job she hates, she dreams of Michael Hunter. He’s gorgeous, smart, funny and he’s about to become her new boss. But he barely looks at Cher except to ask for a coffee refill. How can she get him to notice she’s the perfect girl for him? So why not 5 stars if I enjoyed it so much? Well I didn’t really care for the Stacy storyline here. Without going into details for fear of spoilers, I thought the resolution of that story arc was a little silly.

So if you know you're sensitive to this trigger or have been on the receiving end of such a thing, I'd say avoid this, it's extremely well written, but not worth experiencing unnecessary additional trauma. While Cher ignores the warning from workmate Dan that Michael is bad news, her friends have their own problems to fix. Sarah is longing to start a new life with a man who won’t commit, and bride-to-be Deb should be looking forward to her wedding, but her future mother-in-law is turning it into a nightmare from hell... If only her fiancé could see it that way.Penn is having to learn a few lessons too, relating to loosening the reins on his younger Downs Syndrome brother who is a bit more switched on than Penn realises.

A secondary mystery has Stacey searching for a missing husband, Gabriel Denton, an accountant. His wife is distraught, claiming he was a wonderful, devoted husband and his absence is out of character for him. Stacey learns that he was in a emotional but platonic relationship with a co-worker and withdrew a large sum of moey from the bank before he vanished. Now, she has reason to believe he was killed. The characters continue to appeal, and I particularly liked the interplay between Penn and Jasper. The team is a family, and in this one Kim really admits that Bryant is a friend. I also liked that both Tracy Frost and Ted Morgan made appearances at Kim's house to show their friendship, even though Kim has not really seen them as such. The main storyline includes a great deal of information on conversion therapy, to the point where several times I felt like I was being educated. And I was. I knew what conversion therapy was before I started reading Hidden Scars, but I really had no idea of the extremes to which it could be taken. I adore the relationship between Kim and Bryant and more so in this story as for once there was real vulnerability shown between them, their own guilt and hurt over the past case really affected them both so it needed to be dealt with, in the way those two deal with things anyway! As such a massive fan of this series, the minute the 17th installment of the Detective Kim Stone series fell into my inbox I had a little jig, punched the air and then pressed the big red stop button on the world.The clues to smashing open this disturbing case lie behind the old Victorian walls of the clinic, run by the Gardner family. They claim that patients come of their own accord and are free to leave at any time. But why are those that attended the clinic so afraid to speak of what happens there? And where did the faded restraint marks identified on Jamie’s wrists come from? Hidden Scars is a procedural/mystery about a chain of murders covered up as suicides. Stone’s team investigates, exposing the brutal practice of conversion therapy.

The topic of conversion therapy is the focus of the main mystery. Conversion therapy aims, by various means of emotional manipulation, behaviour modification, and shaming to change a gay individual to a straightorientation. A bill was passed in Canada early this year to make conversion therapy a crime. It was learned that Jamie and Sarah both attended a conversion clinic run by the Granger family. Kim and team members discover that participants in the therapy were forced to undergo horrendous treatment in an attempt to eliminate homosexual thoughts and behaviour. Those admitted to the conversion clinic had to sign a non-disclosure clause and were unwilling or afraid to talk about what they endured. The investigation is complicated. Kim and team need to find out why former patients are being killed before more deaths occur. Anyways, let's move onto the book. This was one – if not THEE – heaviest topic Angela Marsons has taken on. PSA: I am not gay, so I cannot say with 100% certainty that everything was accurate or the trauma wasn't glorified. BUT, I found it to be handled with empathy (esp. miss Kim who is always a bull in a china shop type person) and sensitivity. Especially John. Oh, poor John. The clinic Jamie was sent to is run by the Gardner family, who appear to run the business by fear as those that attended the clinic are afraid to speak of what happens there. When the body of a young woman is found dead by suffocation, Kim discovers that she attended the clinic and her death was also staged to look like a suicide.Whereas this one isn't as gory as some? Or am I becoming oblivious to it? But the usual hard hitting amazing writing is still there, humanizing and pulling us readers in to emphasize. This time the main subject matter is conversion therapy, which i have to admit I was ignorant of, not anymore! Hidden Scars is the seventeenth instalment in the constantly compelling DI Kim Stone series, set in Britain’s Midlands. In some respects these are formulaic police procedurals, with similar elements and tropes repeating in each book, but you can’t really blame Marsons for giving her fans what they want. She manages to keep the series fresh by introducing a new topic into each book - in this case conversion “therapy” - and coming up with twists that still manage to catch me out every time. Look, I will only listen to this series, which means I give up the opportunity to read it for review. It’s worth more than the Audible credit I give up to let Jan Cramer tell me the story in her most talented way. She’s so consistent and her voice for Kim lives happily in my head. Trust me, she’s that good. This was a fast-paced crime thriller, with relatable characters, and short chapters that kept the suspense level high. Another brilliant read that gripped you from beginning to the end. Another winner! A new Kim Stone book from Angela Marsons is always a reason to drop everything and read. And that is exactly what I did with Hidden Scars. Saturday night at home, glass of wine and Kim and the team - what could be better. Another fabulous read, book 17 and absolutely one of my favourite series. I have been reading these books since the first book came out and the excitement never fades. If you haven't met Kim yet - what are you waiting for? You will not be sorry.

Anyway, after 17 books, you would think they would be getting "old", but each books is fresh, and I can't wait for the next one! We do get to see the more human and restrained version of Kim here and it’s all the better for it. She’s still not her old self, still traumatised physically and mentally from her last case but she soldiers on to try and save the day. James Mills is a bright 19-year-old man discovered hanging from a large tree. His death is automatically ruled self-inflicted. James' death haunts Detective Kim Stone. Why would a young healthy man end his own life? As Kim investigates, she discovers that James recently suffered a leg injury that prevented him from climbing trees. James was murdered, but who wanted him dead? It has been two months since Kim's near death experience in Six Graves and she is returning to work. As a DI she knows exactly what the psychiatrist want to hear. Now she has to meet with her boss, DCI "Woody" Woodward, and convince him she is ready. Kim has never let anyone get close ... not even Bryant who is her partner and friend. We see a vulnerability in Kim.I absolutely LOVED the originality of this plot, something that even though I've only read in passing has always held and intrigue to me. Conversion Therapy, what a sad and strange world we live in to know that some people actually believe that you can, as Kim said, 'un gay' someone. Outstanding… It is like visiting old friends when you read a book in the Detective Kim Stone series.’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Thank you to Bookouture and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own. The boy’s dark hair shone in the bright lights. His lips seemed about to speak. But his body was cold and his blue eyes would never open again. As with most of the books in this series, there are separate cases going on, which may or may not turn out to be connected. An author as experienced as this shouldn’t have to resort to coincidence to hold her plots together. Also, and I know I sound like a broken record complaining about this every time, a serial killer turning up in every book is just too unlikely, and the increasingly untenable no-Covid setting also stretches credibility, but these are my only criticisms and will certainly not stop me eagerly awaiting the next one.