Amazon.com.au:Customer reviews: Bring Them Home (Detective Karen Hart Book 1)

Top positive review

Enjoyable fast paced read Lincolnshire Detective Karen Hart and the missing girls

Reviewed in Australia on 25 April 2019

I really enjoyed this book. It had a different outcome to what I thought would happen.
The book is well written, fast paced and shows that police are human too, they have lives outside of work and make mistakes. Especially when working very long hours in the case of searching for missing children. The book is set in Lincolnshire, in the middle of England where the police have to manage a rural region of small towns and villages.
Even though I had a hunch of the abductor, there is still some un-expected twists.
I plan to read more books by this author.

5 people found this helpful

Top critical review

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Overexplained and lacking restraint

Reviewed in Australia on 5 October 2021

Sorry, I could not even get to half way. Too often the characters thought, and spoke in long sentences, explaining everything several times over to each other. It felt a bit like I was reading daytime soap opera. The portrayal of police work seemed unrealistic - lacking nuance and depth - everyone seemed overly sincere. I bought based on the reviews, and feel let down. I am leaving at three stars because it may have improved over time, I just could not stay with it.

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From Australia

Bron D

Enjoyable with Audio

Reviewed in Australia on 2 August 2021

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A small town police procedural which follows the police loyally, including a few detours into dead ends. While its hard to say a crime novel has a happy ending, this book does feature a closed ending where the criminals are caught at the end.

I enjoyed that this books primary focus was a missing persons' case when two young girls go missing from school. It made a change from a lot of police procedurals I'd read recently that were focused on serial murder. Although there is a colder case they intermittently think about, for the most part this book focuses on the single crime, and the daily life lesser crimes of villagers.

The 4 central members of the police team, DCs Sophie and Rick, DS Karen Hart and DI Morgan have quite a strong introduction. For the first book in a series they had strong team dynamics (both positive and negative) as well as a few personal side stories that promise the develop strong characters over the course of a series.

Helpful

Great start to a police procedural series

Reviewed in Australia on 26 January 2021

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Great start to a British Police Procedural Crime Series. This is a new to me Author, but since it’s one of my favourite genres, I really wanted to read this series. It didn’t disappoint. DS Karen Hart has a tragic background, 5 years ago she lost her husband Josh and daughter Tilly in a car accident. Her neighbour and close friend Christine is her backstop and provides unconditional support. We also meet her relatively new Boss DI Scott Morgan, who is very different to Karen and prefers to not rely on Karen’s hunches. Rounding out the team are DC Rick Cooper who is juggling outside demands and DS Sophie Jones who is ambitious and eager.

The story itself is a parent’s nightmare, where 2 ten year old girls have gone missing. This a page turner, as the team work quickly to locate the girls, and like all good detective novels, there are some red herrings, with the reveal at the end a really good one.

Helpful

A good, solid, police procedural.

Reviewed in Australia on 12 October 2018

This book was a bit of an unusual read because it was purely from the points of view of the police investigating the disappearance of these two little girls.

DS Hart and her team try and figure out what has happened to two little girls who go missing after they leave school a bit early one day. There are suspects galore, parents who have secret lives and the dynamics between the police team are still getting established. I quite like reading a series from the beginning and I am looking forward to reading books by this author, and books in this series in particular. I thought the characterisations were well done and the storyline flowed.

4.5 stars from me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer.

2 people found this helpful

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From other countries

SandraL

First in the series - Lincolnshire Police Procedural

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 February 2019

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DS Karen Hart and her team are called in to investigate the disappearance of two 10 year old girls who sneak out of school early to meet a friend who says they can ride their pony. The case reminds Karen of one she investigated 18 months ago when a young woman went missing and was never found.

I read these books in the wrong order because I was given an ARC of the second DS Karen Hart book, which I really enjoyed, so bought this one. There were many twists and turns in the investigation, as you would expect, and I didn’t guess the ending. I am now looking forward to book 3 in the series.

I listened to this book on Audible, and although I enjoyed the story, I did not enjoy the narrator and sometimes felt like giving up because she was spoiling the story for me. Authors, please be aware that a narrator can make or break a book.

21 people found this helpful

A. Maxwell

Good plot line but irritating police procedure.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 February 2021

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Was really glad to get this finished, although I suppose I could have just stopped reading it. The missing girls story was good but the police procedure is really irritating. CID officers of these ranks would call each other by their first names, and the Sophie character came across as a petulant child. She may have been a recently appointed detective, but she would have been a uniformed officer prior to this and would have had experience of interviewing and dealing with criminals. Teams investigate crimes together, the rank structure, attitudes towards each other and allocation of tasks was much too rigid and stereotypical.

4 people found this helpful

JL Dixon

Compelling read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 April 2020

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Bring Them Home is the first book in the Detective Karen Hart series of police procedurals written by one of my now favourite authors, DS Butler.
Two girls sneak out of school together and disappear. Detective Sergeant Karen Hart is on the team leading the hunt and investigation. With recent addition, Detective Inspector Scott Morgan and Detective Constables Rick Cooper and Sophie Jones, Hart must deal with personal tragedy, obsession with a previous disappearance, distrust of the police, and the family she believes are responsible for both abductions.
I normally don't get too attached to characters in book one of a series, but I did here. DS Butler's skill at establishing each character's back story made for more compelling reading. I read this over two days, when I should be completing a house move, and didn't want to put it down.
As soon as I had finished, I started reading book two, Where Secrets Lie.
Thank you DS Butler for introducing us to this series.

Amazon Customer

Quality Police procedural

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 April 2022

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Well written Police procedural with engaging characters, easy to read entertaining but not the greatest mystery or full of surprises and twists, but always interesting. A good start to this series

James MacLeod

Very good read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 November 2020

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A very good read for a first book and the author showed that she had a special knowledge of police procedures and the language of cops in major crime investigations where dry humour is often present. Will try another book of this author.🤓

Kindle Customer

Well worthy of 5 stars!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 March 2019

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I have just finished reading this book which I have enjoyed reading!
Like all good crime police procedure dramas every end was well and truly tied up!

Michael Smith & Eileen Smith

Convenient reading

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 November 2018

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Bring Them Home (Detective Karen Hart Book 1)

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