What do you think?
Rate this book
DI Rita Gupta #1
Her Forgotten Grave
The first enthralling book of a gripping murder mystery series that will take your breath away...
Thirty years ago, Detective Inspector Rita Gupta's mother disappeared. Rita never gave up the search, but her hopes faded with time...
Until now.
A skeleton is discovered in the remote hills of the North Yorkshire Moors near Scarborough, where Rita grew up. DNA tests confirm the woman is Clara Winters, Rita's mother.
Rita takes leave from work and heads up north to Scarborough, to lead the investigation.
She comes across a town full of whispers, lies and dangerous secrets that some powerful men will do anything to keep buried deep underground....
Rita soon realises her search for the truth might well end her up in the same grave as her mother...but now its too late to stop, and the cold hand of a blood thirsty killer is reaching for her....
If you like James Patterson, Lisa Regan, Harlan Coben, Kendra Elliott, Melinda Leigh, then you will love the Rita Gupta series!
Thirty years ago, Detective Inspector Rita Gupta's mother disappeared. Rita never gave up the search, but her hopes faded with time...
Until now.
A skeleton is discovered in the remote hills of the North Yorkshire Moors near Scarborough, where Rita grew up. DNA tests confirm the woman is Clara Winters, Rita's mother.
Rita takes leave from work and heads up north to Scarborough, to lead the investigation.
She comes across a town full of whispers, lies and dangerous secrets that some powerful men will do anything to keep buried deep underground....
Rita soon realises her search for the truth might well end her up in the same grave as her mother...but now its too late to stop, and the cold hand of a blood thirsty killer is reaching for her....
If you like James Patterson, Lisa Regan, Harlan Coben, Kendra Elliott, Melinda Leigh, then you will love the Rita Gupta series!
453 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 13, 2024
183 people are currently reading
79 people want to read
About the author
Sam Carter
5 books9 followersSam Carter is the pen name of a veteran crime and mystery author who has thrilled kindle readers for almost a decade.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
April 2, 2025
This is the beginning of a series featuring a young woman, DI Gupta, who has some alarmingly challenging events to deal with during the investigation of her mother's death. Coming from London she has a new group of people to get to know and work with whilst keeping her own connection to murders and/or threats on the down low. I got into the story and found parts of it a compelling read, but there were seriously unrealistic events patched into the framework. There is rather a dramatic end to this assignment for the DI that I did not enjoy reading.
Amazon has this one free for now
Amazon has this one free for now
April 17, 2025
I really don’t know where to start with this review. I hate giving negative reviews but this one really needs picking up on.
The story had potential to be great. A good plot and reasonably paced BUT so many major errors & inconsistencies that I doubt I will remember them all and even if I could it would be as tedious to list them all as it would for someone else to read them but there are some real standout moments,
A DI in the London Met is interviewing a suspect when she is called to her DCI’s office to be told that the body of her mother who went missing 30 years earlier has been found in North Yorkshire.
1. She is then seconded to the local force to be the Senior Investigating Officer on the case - as if! In reality she would have been kept well away from the investigation.
2. She has been a thorn in the side of the North Yorkshire Force for many years seeking further information about the investigation into her mother’s disappearance but when she turns up to lead the investigation no-one in the police station knows who she is apart from the senior officer who allowed her to take on the investigation and she manages to keep her relationship to the deceased a secret throughout.
3. The remains are left unguarded in their uncovered burial place overnight so that the forensics team can continue their search for evidence in the daylight. The CSIs would normally keep searching for evidence with their own lighting because they wouldn’t want anything to go missing.
4. Once the remains have been recovered and examined by the pathologist she wants to have them sent to an undertaker and to arrange the funeral. The undertaker tells her that she cannot arrange the funeral without a Lasting Power of Attorney and she needs to get one organised. This is a nonsense, Lasting Power of Attorney can only be taken out by the person to whom it relates, it is a long and complex process and more importantly ends the moment the person who is the subject of it takes their last breath.
5. She asks a former boyfriend who is a solicitor to arrange it for her which he does even though this is not legally possible. It also takes months to put in place because the bureaucracy at the Office of the Public Guardian is very, very slow but this appears to be done overnight.
6. The former boyfriend would almost certainly not be working as a solicitor as he has recently been declared bankrupt.
7. She drives from London to North Yorkshire in a “decade old VW Golf” which then promptly disappears from the narrative and it is suggested that she is considering whether to buy a car at some point. The need for her to be given lifts wherever she goes is a crucial part of the plot so why didn’t the author just send her to North Yorkshire on the train?
8. When a clergyman is introduced to the story we are led to believe that he is a Catholic priest although he is constantly referred to as a vicar. This retired clergyman turns out to be married and it is not a post retirement marriage as there are grandchildren. The author seems very confused about the clergy and the church and has invented a Catholic Church of England Database. To be clear the author is not referring to the Anglo Catholic branch of the Church of England and is just very muddled.
There are many more errors but I think a list of 8 is more than sufficient. This author really should have done a lot of research and used the services of an editor. If they can’t afford an editor then at least a team of beta readers might have weeded out the more glaring errors and inconsistencies.
I would have preferred to contact the author privately to point out the flaws in what could have been a good story but can find no contact information. This was the first in what looked to be a promising series but I will not be continuing with it because the errors yank the reader out of the world the author has tried so hard to create and make it hard to continue with the story.
The story had potential to be great. A good plot and reasonably paced BUT so many major errors & inconsistencies that I doubt I will remember them all and even if I could it would be as tedious to list them all as it would for someone else to read them but there are some real standout moments,
A DI in the London Met is interviewing a suspect when she is called to her DCI’s office to be told that the body of her mother who went missing 30 years earlier has been found in North Yorkshire.
1. She is then seconded to the local force to be the Senior Investigating Officer on the case - as if! In reality she would have been kept well away from the investigation.
2. She has been a thorn in the side of the North Yorkshire Force for many years seeking further information about the investigation into her mother’s disappearance but when she turns up to lead the investigation no-one in the police station knows who she is apart from the senior officer who allowed her to take on the investigation and she manages to keep her relationship to the deceased a secret throughout.
3. The remains are left unguarded in their uncovered burial place overnight so that the forensics team can continue their search for evidence in the daylight. The CSIs would normally keep searching for evidence with their own lighting because they wouldn’t want anything to go missing.
4. Once the remains have been recovered and examined by the pathologist she wants to have them sent to an undertaker and to arrange the funeral. The undertaker tells her that she cannot arrange the funeral without a Lasting Power of Attorney and she needs to get one organised. This is a nonsense, Lasting Power of Attorney can only be taken out by the person to whom it relates, it is a long and complex process and more importantly ends the moment the person who is the subject of it takes their last breath.
5. She asks a former boyfriend who is a solicitor to arrange it for her which he does even though this is not legally possible. It also takes months to put in place because the bureaucracy at the Office of the Public Guardian is very, very slow but this appears to be done overnight.
6. The former boyfriend would almost certainly not be working as a solicitor as he has recently been declared bankrupt.
7. She drives from London to North Yorkshire in a “decade old VW Golf” which then promptly disappears from the narrative and it is suggested that she is considering whether to buy a car at some point. The need for her to be given lifts wherever she goes is a crucial part of the plot so why didn’t the author just send her to North Yorkshire on the train?
8. When a clergyman is introduced to the story we are led to believe that he is a Catholic priest although he is constantly referred to as a vicar. This retired clergyman turns out to be married and it is not a post retirement marriage as there are grandchildren. The author seems very confused about the clergy and the church and has invented a Catholic Church of England Database. To be clear the author is not referring to the Anglo Catholic branch of the Church of England and is just very muddled.
There are many more errors but I think a list of 8 is more than sufficient. This author really should have done a lot of research and used the services of an editor. If they can’t afford an editor then at least a team of beta readers might have weeded out the more glaring errors and inconsistencies.
I would have preferred to contact the author privately to point out the flaws in what could have been a good story but can find no contact information. This was the first in what looked to be a promising series but I will not be continuing with it because the errors yank the reader out of the world the author has tried so hard to create and make it hard to continue with the story.
February 2, 2025
DI Rita Gupta is an emotional mess. While she is a brilliant investigator who has worked her way up in the police force to a Detective Inspector, in private, she has personal demons due to the horror of the disappearance of her mother when she was 11 years old. She had gone to sleep with her loving mother tucking her in bed, and woken up the next morning to no longer having a home. Of course, this resulted in terrible loss, a journey in and out of foster homes, instability, endless counseling, and abuse. Thirty years later, bones are located in a shallow grave in the town where Rita grew up and identified as Rita’s missing mother. As a Detective Inspector, Rita receives approval to be transferred to the police force in her home town and is tasked with running the investigation to solve the murder. As clues and suspects continue to pile up, Rita discovers that her mother’s murder is only a small part of a horror that existed in the town during this period of time. This story is full of twists and turns and very exciting, with a totally unexpected ending. I definitely recommend this story.
February 10, 2025
Anyone who has lost a relative can sympathize with Detective Inspector Rita Gupta, but Rita’s mother didn’t just die. There wasn’t an accident or foul play to inspect. There’s no suicide note or letter for her 11-year-old daughter. Rita’s mother just disappeared; without a trace, hint, reason, or trail to follow. 30 years later the bones of her murdered mother are found in a shallow grave near the town where she disappeared. Now Rita jumps at the chance to solve this earth-shattering tragedy; slowly uncovering the buried secrets in this small town, and finally discovering who killed her mother.
I enjoyed this book. The plot tangles and twists, but never turns so tight that you get lost. The characters are realistic and sometimes flawed, but likable. The story often jumps back in time to the days and weeks before the murder, filling in minute details that later splash you in the face with their reality. But the time jumps flow smoothly, easily letting you tag along. In the end, all the tangled lines weave together, giving the reader a perfect picture.
I enjoyed this book. The plot tangles and twists, but never turns so tight that you get lost. The characters are realistic and sometimes flawed, but likable. The story often jumps back in time to the days and weeks before the murder, filling in minute details that later splash you in the face with their reality. But the time jumps flow smoothly, easily letting you tag along. In the end, all the tangled lines weave together, giving the reader a perfect picture.
February 9, 2025
An absence of evidence does not mean evidence of absence.
Some people will do anything to keep secrets buried……Inspector Rita Gupta has spent three decades grieving, without any closure. She’s now been given the opportunity to lead the revived investigation into the death of her mother.
The narrative built up our knowledge of the key characters, going back into the past. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear there’s far more to this murder, than there initially seems; with watchers watching other watchers. …..It seems all is not over yet, for Rita.
Some people will do anything to keep secrets buried……Inspector Rita Gupta has spent three decades grieving, without any closure. She’s now been given the opportunity to lead the revived investigation into the death of her mother.
The narrative built up our knowledge of the key characters, going back into the past. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear there’s far more to this murder, than there initially seems; with watchers watching other watchers. …..It seems all is not over yet, for Rita.
March 4, 2025
I thoroughly enjoyed this book from start to finish. This is my first book by this author, I enjoyed it so much that I've ordered more.
This is a well written gripping storyline and plot with strong characters. I particularly liked the main character, Rita.
There are surprising revelations and twists, leading to that final shocking twist.
This book did keep me guessing, and I never for one minute, guess who.
It's a book I would definitely recommend.
My thanks to the author for the advanced copy.
This is my honest and unbiased review.
This is a well written gripping storyline and plot with strong characters. I particularly liked the main character, Rita.
There are surprising revelations and twists, leading to that final shocking twist.
This book did keep me guessing, and I never for one minute, guess who.
It's a book I would definitely recommend.
My thanks to the author for the advanced copy.
This is my honest and unbiased review.
January 28, 2025
Amazing story!
Having your mother go missing, many other things that she had buried about that time in her young life, DI Rita Gupta has the unimaginable job to do, find out why her mother died, and then who killed her.
This twisting story about what Rita goes through as a DI and a daughter is very gripping and tough.
The end was not even close to what one might think!
Thank you, Sam Carter, for a great story.
I received a complimentary copy of this book and this is my honest review.
Having your mother go missing, many other things that she had buried about that time in her young life, DI Rita Gupta has the unimaginable job to do, find out why her mother died, and then who killed her.
This twisting story about what Rita goes through as a DI and a daughter is very gripping and tough.
The end was not even close to what one might think!
Thank you, Sam Carter, for a great story.
I received a complimentary copy of this book and this is my honest review.
January 29, 2025
A well written, British murder mystery. It was a suspenseful read, that grabbed my attention and held it to the end.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
April 2, 2025
Wonderful !!!!!! I could not stop reading
I only planned to start this book but I could not find a place to pause !!!!!! I am excited to start the next adventure!!!!! Thanks !!!
I only planned to start this book but I could not find a place to pause !!!!!! I am excited to start the next adventure!!!!! Thanks !!!
April 17, 2025
I liked this book. It is about a woman who vanishes. Years later a skeleton is found and it is her. Her daughter investigates the murder. The book is a little long, but it is an engaging mystery read. If you like British murder mysteries, you will likely enjoy this book.
April 18, 2025
Wow!
If you like a good crime thriller then this is for you. It builds to a great finale that keeps you on the edge of your seat until the end, then throws in an extra twist. Will definitely read more in the series.
If you like a good crime thriller then this is for you. It builds to a great finale that keeps you on the edge of your seat until the end, then throws in an extra twist. Will definitely read more in the series.
May 1, 2025
Good mystery!
I like Rita Gupta. She’s a woman who has been through a lot and has seen a lot as well. The one thing she wants more than anything , is what happened to her mother.
I do hope that a romance will develop between her and Jack.
I like Rita Gupta. She’s a woman who has been through a lot and has seen a lot as well. The one thing she wants more than anything , is what happened to her mother.
I do hope that a romance will develop between her and Jack.
June 13, 2025
A thirty year disappearance turns into a cold case murder when a skeleton is found. The detective in charge is none other than the daughter of the deceased. This is a great start to the Gupta series.
November 20, 2024
Decent read but the theme of historic child abuse covered up by the rich and powerful is a bit of a cliche
January 15, 2025
Became an interesting book. Wanted to see what happened but ending was confusing and too short.
February 6, 2025
Wow, such a good story. Great characters and filled with suspense. Definitely want to read whatever comes next.
April 5, 2025
Good book!
This is a fast-paced book with interesting characters. It's one of those books you don't want to end. Looking forward to the next book.
This is a fast-paced book with interesting characters. It's one of those books you don't want to end. Looking forward to the next book.
April 5, 2025
Omg
This book was absolutely fantastic! I couldn't put it down and I can't wait for more! Sam Carter is a genius!
This book was absolutely fantastic! I couldn't put it down and I can't wait for more! Sam Carter is a genius!
April 6, 2025
An interesting and well written story extremely well told.
DI Gupta and her team have their hands full trying to find TBE killer of her mother from many years before.
DI Gupta and her team have their hands full trying to find TBE killer of her mother from many years before.
April 7, 2025
3.5 stars
London based DI Rita Gupta is asked to solve a cold case in Yorkshire, which happens to be about her mother, although hardly anyone knows that.
London based DI Rita Gupta is asked to solve a cold case in Yorkshire, which happens to be about her mother, although hardly anyone knows that.
April 7, 2025
This was a awesome story about Rita finding out what happen to her mother after many years and who was responsible. This had lots of suspense and action and thank you this great story.
April 15, 2025
Her forgotten grave.
An excellant story keeps you guessing from the start.right to the end .five stars well worth the read .look forward to the next in series.
An excellant story keeps you guessing from the start.right to the end .five stars well worth the read .look forward to the next in series.
April 29, 2025
I enjoyed this book and look forward to the next one in the series!
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews