Broken Bones (D.I. Kim Stone, #7)

by Angela Marsons

On long work days her seventy-year-old neighbour stepped in and took care of Barney for her.

If we go from reading the books, she’s away from home more than she’s there, and that to me is just wrong. I know it’s a fictional dog and a fictional character, but in reality it would be wrong & cruel to have a pet you just don’t have the time for, it’s like he’s her emotional crutch when she is home, without her thinking about the dogs needs emotionally.

single and pregnant at seventeen

Ok now we know the victim profile, young mothers working as escorts (I won’t use the word prostitute as it’s demeaning)

She removed the shoe coverings

Called ‘overshoes’ in the medical field for obvious reasons

It had only been a couple of months since the constable’s traumatic experience at the hands of a bunch of racist bastards. Kim had kept her deskbound ever since

Which is exactly what caused that problem in the first place!

And there was something she still hadn’t told her team.

They getting a new playmate?…

‘I’m Roxanne. I just saw what happened

More like planned it

And that she’d slept with men for money. Not a vision any mother wanted

I don’t think it would even rustle my mothers feathers, to coin a phrase

for ever.

Should be one word

‘I’ll go home, hug my kids hard, cry and then move onto the next family that needs me.’ It was a world that Kim could not comprehend.

Agreed, it could only be done by special people with a gift for empathy as well as enough of strength to manage the final break. Amazing people.

A woman’s body was her own providing her mind was in full working order.

Not in Texas, or several other states in the U.S over there if your pregnant your body is nothing more than an incubator and the baby is everything, you come last.

Had the sacrifice been for the child or herself?

Everyone’s assuming a woman/mother is the one who left the baby, when it doesn’t have to be that way at all, there’s 100’s of different reasons why anyone may of done it, I could go in a guessing game, but the fields way too large, heck someone may of murdered the mother but were not able to harm the baby and that would explain why they didn’t come inside the station, or someone might of been minding the baby for the mother, only she never returned, and say they’re both illegal in the country she thought she couldn’t go to the cops, so left the baby that’s 2 huge jumps of guesstimates, but as I said, it’s a wide field!

‘Bryant, I have the luxury of not having to make that decision. But I’d ask you the same question.’

It’s funny, well not really funny so much as sad, that with prostitution people seem to think it’s the be all & end all of their lives, flike they’d never just been another kid growing up, that they will never just become another nameless face one day and have put it all in the past. I mean look at someone else at work, someone you do or don’t know well, and you know what? You’d never be able to tell.

so one more hour would hardly make the difference.

Oh to be that naive again, every second she not there her mother will be terrified about what may of happened to her.

‘So, the choice is yours.

I don’t think I was ever this naive though, not sure what the deal is, sex trade? Make her do one thing, then hold it over her head as blackmail to make her do something even worse? If this part of the story was set back in time a little way I’d guess Ellie was/is the babies mother

have thought they’d be eager to leave the premises after what must have been an intensely long and gruelling shift.

Not if they’re illegal and stay there ….

A few faces smiled begrudgingly in her direction

What does that achieve? He obviously has his claws into her, so he’s going to find her again, then be angry, unless we’re supposed to be thinking he just dragged someone off the street, which I doubt.

were now as precious as

I was just getting this was the father, was about to do a guesstimate

‘You wear silent headphones?’

Does she mean noise canceling head phones?

‘Check your phone secretly. You can’t hide the fact that

Oh but this woman is evil, and unfortunately very savvy at what she’s doing, I’ve never understood how a woman can trick or badly treat another woman in anyway regarding any kind of abuse, but especially this kind, they usually know firsthand how the other persons going to feel, and they do it anyway.

Kim rued the day that the woman had discovered the comfort of alcohol.

Ditto & I think I was 9 or 10.

It’s hard to label a prostitute a certain type because there are a hundred reasons why a woman might choose this profession but there was just something about her. Street life hadn’t hardened her yet. She was kind, educated, helpful and compassionate. My understanding is that she was just trying to get herself out of a hole.’

The problem being though, that many find that hole too deep to get back out of again, and for many many reasons

He nodded. ‘She committed suicide a few weeks ago.’

If your reading with attention you’ll be seeing all the pages aligning & it’s sadly obvious what’s happening and has been for some time. What utter assholes!although she did get one thing right, children grow up too fast these days, well I guess always did, it’s just more in your face now.

blue slippers

They’re called overshoes for very obvious reasons

‘Could just be a coincidence as I’m really not seeing the connection between

But I on the other hand are seeing my bells Dingalinglingdingding as it looks like I may be right, time will tell though. Oh and how I love guesstimating & plot twisting!

‘It wasn’t because of the time that had passed, it was because of how much you’d done, what you’d managed to fit into that time. Between my sessions, events would occur and push the incident back into my past and then I’d have to go and talk about it all over again.’ She looked at him earnestly. ‘I need it to be over, Kev,’ she said.

They say bad trauma or jail time can leave people stuck mentally at around the age it happened and I have to say it true, because of this very reason, there’s just nothing, monotony day after week after month after year and they just keep rolling along and suddenly one day you wonder wtf happened.

‘Yeah, yeah, I’ll be out in a minute.’ Ellie heard the thickness in her voice and knew immediately that Roxanne was not okay.

And here comes the grift…

Lauren Goddard, also known as Jazzy, a young prostitute who committed suicide by throwing herself from the top of a tower block two weeks ago, on Christmas Day.’

Now I remember, the start of the book. Maybe it’s someone thinking they’re ‘saving the fallen’ pun not originally intended but noticed as I typed and so it’s now fully intended!

She had almost gagged at the smell of gases from bacterial decay as

She’d REALLY of gagged if she’d known that we smell by minute particles of whatever odors we happen to be imbibing infiltrate our nasal cavities getting caught in the fine hairs inside, and voila! Now go smell something disgusting and remember that!

The image of a bone saw had stayed with her for days.

Try picking bone, flesh etc out of what essentially look like 1/2 round cheese graters, called femoral head reamers, Google it, it’s not a pretty sight. Also most bone saws aren’t the long toothed manual type most readers would expect, the majority of them are now cordless & use batteries which are like your typical newer saws/drills

left there to die.

Ding ding Ding and at least they did a little better for the baby

A staircase up to the second level rose up just a few feet from the front door of a dark, unlit hallway. Margaret Goddard stepped into the kitchen which was first door on the right.

Confusing, kitchens upstairs? Or the staircase was mentioned for illustrated reading? Could be taken either way.

‘Dunno, partner, but I think we should head over to her address and find out.’

And the cases are starting to align just a little more, orbiting around a particular scumbag who I hope pays in the end.

that minibus thing gives me the creeps. You ever known that before?’

That’s just beyond obvious, they’re illegal and are in a tight leash

More than any of her prior books the author has spun a wide net of characters, both good & bad which all interlace at certain points and it definitely keeps you turning the pages, watching out for ‘little red fishies’ (red herrings) and having fun thinking of plot twists. It’s not an easy feat to do it this well & it’s just as much appreciated as it is absolutely brilliant writing.

Neighbour had no clue she was a prostitute until she saw it on the news.’

Well it’s hardly like they walk around with a flashing neon sign on their heads

another transaction didn’t quite go to plan, did it?’ she asked, smiling.

Still doesn’t make sense, if he knew her well enough to work for him, what’s to stop him grabbing her again? And if he didn’t, then why have the cops taken that further, it would of been sex trafficking, technically both would be, just different ways of cruelty.

The way you viewed something you’d made, or acquired, a possession.

Not really a descriptive way a 14 year old would put it, more likely to say creepy

no matter how creepy he was.

Next page proves my point.

She didn’t even know what Roxanne did to earn a living.

Us readers do….

The door closed and the world went dark.

A well scripted act?? Or does he just do that regardless?

I’m still waiting to meet the stereotype.’

You’ll wait a very long long time for that.

Kai watched

Ding ding Ding

‘Either he has nothing to hide or he’s incredibly confident we won’t find what he has to hide.’

I’ll take door number 2

Stacey found the detailed response odd but let it pass.

Giving more information than required usually means lying, and I think it does here too, but for slightly different reasons

‘We’ll pick up something your missus would approve of in a bit.

That was silly, nothing more, just half a page of pointless silly.

‘Please, go ahead,’ he said, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees.

I ant picture that, in my minds eye that position is beyond odd and I can’t see anyone sitting like that especially in a situation like that

We’ll nab the first one to get off the bus

I’m fairly sure this will be a one stop kinda stop…

‘Why the hell has no one been dropped off yet?’

Tbh they should know what I knew chapters back, it’s all for one & one for all, by not allowing their characters to even remotely guess at this, it’s making them look silly.

Stacey easily remembered how that soft, low voice could do things to her insides. Stacey looked away.

Using her name twice like that almost makes it read like an action to be done via a script for a movie, not good. Could of been Stacey easily remembered how that soft, low voice could do things to her insides & quickly looked away. Stacey easily remembered how that soft, low voice could do things to her insides & looked away before it showed on her face

Devon knitted her fingers together beneath her chin.