Review: Lie To Me (Detective Karen Hart Book 12) by D. S. Butler

                                                                     

Print Length: 427 pages

Publisher: Thomas & Mercer (September 8, 2026)

From Goodreads.com:  As soon as he picks up the phone, Arnie knows something is terribly wrong. ‘We’ve found him. Damon’s finally been found.’ For thirty-five years, DS Arnie Hodgson believed his childhood friend was dead. But he didn’t die back then. He was murdered yesterday.

DS Karen Hart’s heart breaks for her colleague as she joins the investigation, but soon the case takes a darker turn. Burned into Damon’s chest is a vivid scarlet mark—a Victorian branding iron shaped like a scythe. Why did Damon vanish that night? And why has someone killed him now?

As Karen and Arnie track down his old friends in the small coastal town of Humberston, they become sure answers lie buried in Arnie’s past; they were all together at the fairground that summer night thirty-five years ago when Damon disappeared. And when the detectives uncover another body, it’s clear someone will kill to keep their secrets buried.

Then another person close to Arnie is brutally murdered—with the same vivid scarlet mark seared into their skin. And when a driver tries to run Arnie down in a car, he must finally confront a terrifying question: is one of his old friends a killer? And if so, can he bring them to justice before they turn on him next?

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My Rating: 3 stars out of 5

I could have sworn I'd read at least one previous book in this series. Not only did the main cast seem oddly familiar, but so did Arnie's girlfriend, along with her occupation. So imagine my surprise when I checked my reading history and realized... nope. This was actually my first book in the series.

That said, I never felt lost.

The author does a great job introducing Karen's team and making their long history together feel natural, so even as a newcomer I had no trouble keeping up with the relationships between the core characters. Although I am now desperately trying to remember what other series I must be confusing this one with.

While I enjoyed this novel overall, I did have a few issues with it, although, let's be honest, no book is ever perfect.

My biggest complaint was Arnie's involvement in the investigation itself. There is absolutely no way he should have been allowed anywhere near that case, let alone be one of the officers actively working it. He was directly connected not only to the victims, but also to the events of that night thirty-five years earlier. The only thing clearing him was his own claim that he'd been drunk and couldn't remember what happened. That's... not exactly airtight. Any halfway competent defense attorney would have had a field day arguing potential bias or even questioning his involvement altogether.

Another issue was the sheer number of supporting characters. Several of them appear briefly during the opening chapters only to disappear almost entirely from the story. In fact, with the exception of two of them, I'm still trying to figure out why they were introduced in the first place. The group of Arnie's old school friends fared a little better because they remained relevant throughout the investigation, but even then they occasionally blended together, making it difficult to remember who was who.

I also thought the overall setup was a little too transparent.

I understood what the author was trying to accomplish by surrounding the mystery with such a colorful cast, but when some characters are so outrageously over-the-top, others are completely forgettable, and the rest fall somewhere in the middle, it unintentionally narrows the field of suspects. Before long, it became fairly easy to rule certain people out simply because of how they were written.

Despite those criticisms, I genuinely enjoyed this book. The investigation kept me engaged, I liked Karen and her team, and I appreciated how accessible the story was for someone jumping into the series this late. Since the entire series is available through Kindle Unlimited, I'll almost certainly be going back to start from the beginning to spend a little more time with these characters now that I've finally been introduced to them.

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.