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Unbound Ties: When the past unravels, all that’s left is death ... (DI Gus McGuire Book 7) Kindle Edition

4.6 out of 5 stars 642 ratings

'Liz Mistry is a terrific crime writer who knows how to keep her readers on the edge of their seats and frantically turning the pages desperate to find out what happens next.' ★★★★★Bookish Jottings Blog

DI Gus McGuire Book 7

When the past unravels, all that’s left is death.

Lavender’s blue, dilly dilly,

When DI Gus McGuire is called out to the murder of a pregnant woman, the crime scene tells him that this killer is not only taunting them … he’s also just getting started.

Lavender’s green,

With ritualistic precision, the killer has placed a series of clues beneath the victim’s feet. Gus soon realises that these clues link back to his mother’s past as a child in foster care in Scotland.

When I am king, dilly dilly,

Troubled by his mum’s secrets, Gus is in a dark place. Side-lined from the main investigation, Gus works another murder, not realising that the two are linked and that the killer is closer than he realises … Dangerously close.

You shall be queen.

Then the killer begins to target people near to Gus. Angry and determined Gus races to unravel the past and catch this sadist before the loss is too much for him to bear.

The seventh gripping thriller in the DI Gus McGuire series, for fans of Angela Marsons, Val McDermid and LJ Ross.

Readers Love Unbound Ties

  • 'Oh my life! Finished this ARC a short while ago and am literally stunned. This really has to be Liz’s best Gus to date.' ★★★★★Carrie Wakelin
  • 'I wanted to write something profound and telling about Unbound Ties, but decided on....... Bloody fantastic read!!!!' ★★★★★ Lynne Jones
  • 'Finished Unbound Ties! I tried to slow down my reading pace, because I didn’t want it to finish, but I couldn’t, it was too good. I loved it.' ★★★★★Anne Boland

Other books in the DI Gus McGuire series: Uncoiled Lies, Untainted Blood, Uncommon Cruelty, Unspoken Truths, Unseen Evil

The DS Nikki Parekh series: Last Request, Broken Silence, Dark Memories

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There are 8 books in this series.

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From the Publisher

Unbound Ties: When the past unravels all that's left is death
D I Gus McGuire Police Procedural series set in Yorkshire

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08KJBB2HF
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Murder Books Publications (October 21, 2020)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 21, 2020
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 2.6 MB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 353 pages
  • Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 1838182101
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 out of 5 stars 642 ratings

About the author

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Liz Mistry
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Liz Mistry moved to West Yorkshire in the late 1980s. Her gritty crime fiction police procedural novels set in Bradford embrace the city she describes as ‘Warm, Rich and Fearless’ whilst exploring the darkness that lurks beneath. Yet, her heart remains in Scotland, where childhood tales of bogey men, Bible John and grey lady ghosts fed her imagination.

Her latest work, The Solanki and McQueen crime series is set around West Lothian, where she uses the distinctive landscape, historic heritage and Scottish culture as a backdrop to her gritty yet often humorous stories.

Struggling with clinical depression and anxiety for many years, Liz often includes mental health themes in her writing. She credits her MA in Creative Writing from Leeds Trinity University with helping her find a way of using her writing to navigate her ongoing mental health struggles. The synergy been creative and academic writing led Liz to complete a doctorate in creative writing researching the importance of representation of marginalised groups within the genre she loves.

Her husband, three children and huge extended British Indian family are a constant support to her. In her spare time, Liz loves visiting the varied Scottish and Yorkshire landscape, travelling, listening to music, reading and blogging about all things crime fiction on her website blog, The Crime Warp.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
642 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on October 25, 2020
    I’ve read dozens of books and watched as many television shows and movies where police officers and detectives have personal connections to horrific cases their departments are investigating.

    Unbound Ties wins the prize for the most connections! Eat your heart out, Kevin Bacon!

    When a young pregnant woman is found hanging at the top of the stairs in her home, the ritualistic scene displayed at her feet not only rule out suicide but also fills DI Angus McGuire with dread that the killer is just beginning. And he’s right. There will be more murders. Some will follow the pattern and some won’t. But with each death, Gus and his team are sure there’s a connection they’re missing. However, he’s gobsmacked when he learns the killer… and the murders could be directly connected to his mother’s childhood.

    This was such a good read told from multiple points of view… and one of them belongs to the killer. An arrogant piece of work, he enjoys choosing victims and planning the murders as much as he does taking lives. He also enjoys taunting the police, knowing they won’t catch him before his endgame.

    Though the methodical killer stumps Gus’ team at first, they dig in their heels, determined to close the case before he strikes again. When Gus is removed as lead investigator because he’s too close to the case, there are a few stumbles, but first Alice and later Nancy take the lead and Gus might even learn a thing or two from them.

    He is a moody manimal! Of course, after everything Gus has been through in his adult years alone, moody is not a condemnation. He has a loving relationship with his parents but too many lies and secrets over the years have left Gus wondering whom he can trust, and the last lie guts him.

    Several themes run through Unbound Ties, but for me, it was racism that stood out. Not because it was loud and preachy, accusatory, or timely, but more so because it wasn’t. While the thirty-five-year-old mixed-race Gus had his share of discrimination growing up, he never considered what his mother went through. But his mother also never talked about it. Born to a woman who didn’t want her, blamed her for her desolate life, and abused her mentally and physically, half Jamaican Corrine Cameron didn’t fare any better when she was thrust into the foster care system. Gus has to reconcile the strong, professional woman who raised him and his sister with the child scapegoated and traumatized simply because of her dark skin and the ignorance of others.

    Infidelity, betrayal, mental health, and the coronavirus pandemic are also key themes, but also not in-your-face. Liz Mistry does an excellent job of weaving them not just through the story but through the lives of its characters and how they were affected as they worked together to catch a serial killer.

    I have a knack for jumping into a series anywhere except the beginning, and in this case, it was book seven… of a seven-book series. Only me, right? But I LIKE these characters with all their quirks… and unwavering support of each other even when they don’t agree, so I’ve added six books to my already towering TBR. Make sure you add this one to yours.

    Enjoy!
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2020
    Review:

    Unbound Ties by Liz Mistry is SO. GOOD. I am obsessed with this book. I read this as a standalone which worked well, but now I just want to read the rest of the series. You know, because I definitely need six more books in my TBR!

    Gus McGuire and his team are fabulous. They’ve had six books to grow, but I think they are still growing, which is always nice to see for someone stepping this late into a series. They are easy to root for and empathize with.

    I enjoyed the seamless movement between past and present. The writing is fantastic. I was kept on my toes from page one to the end. Awesome.

    Highly recommended!!

    Rating:

    5/5☆

    *I received a free copy of this book from Rachel’s Random Resources in exchange for an honest review on the blog tour. All opinions are my own and unbiased
  • Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2020
    Unbound Ties is a standalone novel in the DI Gus McGuire series, and while I haven't read any of the previous books, I have to say I might just have to do that at some point. I enjoyed the cast of characters in this book, and I think it would be interesting to go back and see what other cases they've tackled.
    In Unbound Ties, Gus is investigating the murder of a pregnant woman. Seemingly ritualistic, Gus and his team are determined to figure out the murder before the killer strikes again. Unfortunately for Gus and his team, things aren't that cut and dry...or easy. Soon, the past will catch up with Gus, and by then, it just might be too late.
    I wasn't sure what to expect when I went into this book, but boy, it's a doozy. It's dark. It's brutal. It's a tense, taut thriller that will keep you on the edge, barely breathing as you follow along with Gus and his team, trying to make sense of it all. It's definitely an intense read.
    If you're looking for a thriller that will spike your adrenaline and give you a rush as you read it, check out Unbound Ties.
    4.5 stars!
    One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Amazon Customer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Must read series
    Reviewed in Australia on January 29, 2022
    Great series hope more to come read all available at present over one week more Gus Maguire series to come I hope and soon
  • Ginger Book Geek
    5.0 out of 5 stars One of my top reads for 2020
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 23, 2020
    Can I just start by saying how flipping fantastic the series featuring Detective Inspector Gus McGuire really is!! I haven’t quite caught up with all the books in the series just yet but I keep pace with the new releases and when I get a minute I read one of the earlier books. I read the synopsis for ‘Unbound Ties’ and I just literally could not wait to start reading. So without further ado, I grabbed my copy of the paperback, grabbed a cup of tea and settled down to start reading. Oh wowsers, ‘Unbound Ties’ is another corker of a read and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it but more about that in a bit.
    It didn’t take me long to get into ‘Unbound Ties’. In fact I saw the cover, saw who wrote it and I just knew that I had to read the book as soon as I possibly could. I settled down to start reading and that was it I was away. Safe to say that nothing else was done for the rest of the day because I couldn’t have put the book down even if I had wanted to. No I don’t mean that the book was glued to my hand although it might as well have been because it travelled everywhere. I had taken a shine to Gus again and I had to keep turning those pages to discover just how ‘personal’ this case was going to be for him and whether or not he would make it to the end of the story in one piece. I was also intrigued by the crimes as featured in this story and I had to keep reading to find out more about the perpetrator and their motivation for committing such awful crimes. The pages turned increasingly quickly as my desperation to find out what happened just grew and grew. At one point the pages were turning that quickly that it was as if they were turning themselves and the page numbers became a blur. I soon got to the end of ‘Unbound Ties’ and I had to say farewell to DI McGuire and his team.
    ‘Unbound Ties’ is absolutely brilliantly written but then I have come to expect nothing less from the super talented Liz Mistry. I like her writing style and the way she makes the reader feel as though they are at the centre of the action. That’s how I felt at any rate. I love the way in which Liz grabs your attention and entices you into the story. Once she has your attention she will not let you have it back until after you have read the very last word on the very last page. Not that I would have wanted it back. I love the way in which the level of tension in the story seemed to become more intense at times and I felt like chewing my nails on more than one occasion. I found ‘Unbound Ties’ to be a tense, dramatic and compelling read. I think that the book is extremely tightly plotted with more twists and turns than you would find on a ‘Snakes & Ladders’ board. I was gripped by the story from start to finish and I was on the edge of my seat throughout.
    In short, I thoroughly enjoyed reading ‘Unbound Ties’ and I would definitely recommend this book to other readers. I will definitely be reading more of Liz’s work in the future. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.
  • Nick Green
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic. Dark secrets, flawed characters - and that's just the detectives!
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 6, 2021
    I read this book over the course of 2 or 3 days and loved it. The characters are superbly drawn, all with flaws and secrets enough to satisfy any psychologist. This means that the killer is twice as bad - yet drawn semi-sympathetically to allow the reader to consider the nature v nurture debate, and how some circumstances result in serial killers, while others allow people to recover and lead valuable lives. The narrative between the locations of the story allows the reader an overview, but without giving away too much of the story - indeed, up to a point, it's not even clear who is the narrator - a strength of the first person narrative. The psychiatric patients seem well drawn (though I'm no expert), and certainly convincing. The police procedures sometimes less so (I'm no expert, but they seem to get away with a great deal). I find that irrelevant, as the characters more than make up for any procedural questions. One slight criticism would be that the proof reading at times let down the author (at one point, Dr. Mahmoud hilariously 'pooped her head out'), which is a shame, but doesn't detract from the wonderful accomplishment of this book and all the others in the series. Thanks for giving me such an enjoyable read.
  • ADW
    4.0 out of 5 stars Proofreading?
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 15, 2024
    I have enjoyed the 8 books in this series, in part because I know the area that the stories are set in well. The characterisation is generally realistic, although there does seem to be a small pool of characters who are very interlinked and appear in every story.
    My enjoyment has been tempered by what appears to be a lack of proof-reading, despite the list of acknowledgements of those who read the stories before they are published
  • SandraL
    5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best police procedural series .... and it keeps getting better and better!
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 20, 2020
    This latest book in Liz Mistry's DI The McGuire series is a cracker. This time the team are investigating the murders of pregnant women which all seem to link back to Gus's mum, the lovely Corrine. This case is very personal to Gus. He is also reunited with a face from the past. As well as Bradford, this book is also set in Liz's native Scotland.

    The book hooks you in right from the start and the murders are very macabre. The pace is unrelenting and had me right on the edge of my seat. I read the book in two sessions, determined not to go to sleep until I'd finished. All the way through I was trying to work out who the killer was, but didn't guess correctly until very close to the end. I was saddened by the racism suffered by Corrine when she was just a child, and shed a couple of tears.

    This is the first book I have read which is set during the current pandemic. There are only a few references and it made it feel real and current and I feel Liz was right to include them.

    I love everything that Liz Mistry writes but have a soft spot for Gus, and the ending was a shock, making me eager to know what is in store for him in the future!

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