Review: Deceiver on the Levels by David Hodges

Deceiver on the Levels (Detective Kate Hamblin Mystery, #15)

by David Hodges

Release Date: September 24, 2025

2025 Joffe Books

Ebook ARC; 286 Pages

ISBN: 978-1805732730

ASIN: B0FQJGCW5Z

Genre: Fiction / Mystery

Source: Review copy from publisher

 

3.5 / 5 Stars

 

Summary

Newly promoted to Detective Inspector, Kate is back on her old patch at Highbridge CID. But there’s no time to settle in. Early Monday morning, Kate gets a call. Fourteen-year-old schoolgirl Tammy Robinson is missing. She hasn’t been seen since Friday afternoon when she told her mother she was going to her best friend’s to revise. She never made it.

Kate discovers that Tammy wasn’t going to her friend’s house at all. She was planning to meet a mysterious boyfriend she called Gerry. She’d met him in an online chatroom — who is he really?

Kate is in a race against time to unmask the most dangerous killer she’s encountered yet. Before more young women die. 

 

My Thoughts

Deceiver on the Levels is the fifteenth entry in the Kate Hamblin mystery series, and while the author does a great job at constructing a pretty good mystery, I was somewhat disappointed with the character development and some of the actions of our newly promoted Detective Inspector.

 

First of all, the plot moves along quickly, drawing you in with a pretty explosive prologue that definitely sets up the stage for an interesting plot.  I'm not picky about chapter length like some people, so I thought each chapter did its job when it came to increasing the tension and continuing the story, to the point where I just wanted to continue reading to find out if my suspicions were correct.  It's a relatively short book, but the author did manage to pack in a lot of interesting information about the case into it which helped with the tension and the suspense, wondering what was going to happen with our missing fourteen-year-old. I also thought the twists and turns were good, ones that often made me change my mind and kept me on my toes when it came to figuring out the culprit.  The author definitely made good use of misdirection by having several characters fit what they were searching for several times and it did make me second-guess my choices as the story progressed.

 

So, while the plot development was really good and I enjoyed it tremendously, I was not a fan of the character development, nor was I a fan of some of the way people were treated in this book, particularly how Kate perceived her husband.  To me, it felt quite derogatory and belittling while I think it was supposed to come across as affectionate and loving.  I understand the exasperation, but instead of the relationship coming across as devoted and caring, it actually made me squirm and feel somewhat ...uncomfortable. I don't know how else to put it.  Furthermore, I am not a fan when a police officer goes off on their own, gets in deep trouble and puts others at risk as well, and then is praised for it?  The author consistently mentions how Kate gets herself into trouble all the time, but having read a lot of these books, she gets into trouble because she makes stupid choices and there are consequences to her choices, not because she is a great policewoman.  I thought by book fifteen she would have learned to give a thought to what she was doing, you know?

 

Verdict

Deceiver on the Levels had a really good story, and as a parent, this should give you chills and make you more aware as to what your kiddos are doing online.  However, I am still not a fan of the relationship between Kate and her husband, or how it is shown through Kate's eyes, although it seems much more deprecatory in this books than in previous ones from what I remember. And please, let's not give praise to people who do silly things and put themselves or other people in danger. I mean, you would think by now, considering Kate is a DI, that she would have learned to think before acting, and to be honest, this trope gets old, fast.  However, I still enjoyed the book and will be reading the next one when it comes out.