Come and Find Me (DI Marnie Rome Book 5) (D.I. Marnie Rome, 5) Paperback – April 28, 2020

Come and Find Me by Sarah HilaryBLURBOn the surface, Lara Chorley and Ruth Hull have nothing in common, other than their infatuation with Michael Vokey. Each is writing to a sadistic inmate, sharing her secrets, whispering her worst fears, craving his attention.DI Marnie Rome understands obsession. She's finding it hard to give up her own addiction to a dangerous man: her foster brother, Stephen Keele. She wasn't able to save her parents from Stephen. She lives with that guilt every day.As the hunt for Vokey gathers pace, Marnie fears one of the women may have found him - and is about to pay the ultimate price.MY THOUGHTSI get the exact same feeling when I start a book written by Sarah Hilary. Enhanced anticipation, exited and also slightly nervous. I’m unsure if the nerves are for me or the author – probably a little bit of both. I remember buying Sarah’s first book in the DI Marnie Rome series, Someone Else’s Skin, and Sarah and Marnie had me under their spell – I was hooked. This is the 5th in the series and it doesn’t disappoint at all. Not by a long shot! In my opinion, everything about Sarah’s books has improved, not that they needed improving, but they get better and better!I read another review of this book which said the authors writing demands attention. For me, that sums a lot of things up. I find Sarah’s writing and storylines immensely enthralling and in some ways hypnotic. I picked up on more detail with the police procedural than in previous books which knitted together so well with the complexed and gritty narrative. And when I say gritty, this is tremendously dark and twisted. But as I’ve found before with previous outings, Sarah manages to pull it off with a degree of eloquence.I hope this series keeps going as the author has delivered a delight of a crime fiction novel, and one that’s up there with the best!Full 5*

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.

I loved this book. It's my first experience of DI Marnie Rome, and I'm looking forward to reading more about her, both past and future books.Come and Find Me is written from different points of view, all of which lead us to make assumptions about what happened, and which lead us on twists and turns which are realistically crafted as the story unfolds. Sarah Hilary's writing style is totally engaging, involving all the senses and making the reader think all the time. I spent hours second-guessing myself, which only added to the enjoyment as some of my wild suppositions were discounted, and hunches were proven to be correct.A really great crime thriller.

Come and Find Me is intensely gripping, full of suspense and has an incredibly intelligent and well-crafted plot. It had me glued to the pages and I couldn’t read fast enough to see how it would end, completely unable to guess where things were going. Utterly absorbing, addictive and a fantastic page-turner and as always, it leaves me wanting more so very desperately.

I rarely write reviews. Rarely (I am a terrible person and should do more, I know). But this is the second time I've written one for a Sarah Hilary book. Her writing is simply astonishing. There is a lot of quality writing out there, Val McDermid, Adrian McGinty, James Oswald, Sharon Bolton, Stuart McBride, Jane Casey (yes, I know there's a ton of others) and I am a vociferous reader but there is something about Sarah Hilary and her storytelling, her writing that leaves me honestly thrown after finishing her books. Maybe it's the throwaway sentences that you miss first time round that on a second read reveal so much. Maybe it's the fact you can read her books repeatedly and not feel that you are. Maybe it's the lines that make you catch your breath because it is relatable and real and yet out of the blue. So yes, they are crime novels, they are police procedurals and they are tightly plotted with plenty of human touches and twists you don't see coming. But they are more than that. They are books that renew your faith in storytelling, that make the (literally) hundreds of crime by the numbers novels you've consumed fade away and books that remarkably make me want to buy an actual book again and take my time as opposed to reading being a throwaway e-experience. Buy her books, not just at 99p, buy them when they are full price too. They are worth every single penny.

I’ve read and enjoyed the other books featuring Marie so was looking forward to Come and Find Me. Like the other books, this is well-written, compelling and intense. Marnie is a great character, driven, human and wonderfully flawed. Her guilt over her parent’s deaths and her obsession with understanding why her foster-brother did it comes full circle. I loved the way the events unfold with more questions than answers, urging you to keep turning the pages. This is a corker.

Come And Find Me begins with Ted Elms, critically ill on life support, but expressing through thoughts his first hand experience of what provoked a prison riot at HMP Cloverton—how a dangerous prisoner, Mickey Vokey, escaped during the ensuing confusion and violence as a fire broke out. Several men died and others were taken to hospital, including Vokey’s cell mate, Elms, and DI Marnie Rome’s nemesis, her foster brother Stephen Keele. His injuries are life threatening and leave Marnie trying to separate personal feelings from her professional involvement. However, she still needs to understand why Stephen did what he did and if he dies she’ll never know.Following on from the storyline in the previous book, Noah is also struggling with his own family problems concerning his brother and the now fragile relationship with his parents. I really enjoy the continuing development of the main characters’ lives as a backdrop to the plot, and there are some shocks in this one.It becomes apparent as the man hunt escalates that Vokey had been corresponding with two women who wrote to him regularly, and appear to harbour an obsession with him. The more Marnie and her partner, DS Noah Jake, learn about Vokey, and the letters that were exchanged, their concern for the safety of the two women grows.The investigation reveals more of Stephen’s back story and uncovers several leads, including the location of Vokey’s now empty family house, but nothing is straightforward or as it seems. Unusually Vokey is only ever seen through the eyes of others which adds to the uncertainty of what really happened. The story is plausible and compelling, told mainly from Marnie and Noah’s perspective with sections from the coma patient. The twists are thought provoking and unexpected, the narrative including a real understanding of human emotions.Sarah Hilary paints a grim and disturbing picture of life behind bars with an emphasis on manipulation between inmates and staff, and the fall out from lack of funding. It’s easy to see how things could escalate into violence. Come and Find Me is an extremely well written, fascinating police procedural with a surprising ending, as well as an insightful look into the characters’ reactions and responses as dictated by their situations.

I really enjoyed the first 4 Marnie Rome books and was looking forward to reading another one but I'm afraid I gave up soon after beginning this one. They are crime books so one expects a certain amount of violence, however lengthy, almost loving, descriptions of torture and horror do not advance a story. Most readers have imaginations and good writing can suggest enough without lingering over the details. As fond of her as I was, I'm afraid it's good bye Marnie Rome for me.

Another fantastic book from Sarah Hilary. Quite a sad one this time, the characters are so real. I would love someone to make the DI Rome stories into a tv series. The characters of Marnie and Noah are so interesting, it would make great tv. Onto the next book in the series!