Book Review: All Fall Down By M.J. Arlidge

Available here

So, Helen Grace sweeps in on her motorbike, dressed in leather and ready for anything ... no change there then ... except  ... she's in a relationship, her usual sidekick is heavily pregnant, her boss is hiding something and one of the trickiest cases she's ever confronted kicks off, putting Helen bang in the spotlight with her delightful nemesis, journalist, Garantina, gunning for her as usual. 

An exciting, well executed narrative that had me hooked from page one ... what more can a girl ask for? 




Here's the blurb

"You have one hour to live."

Those are the only words on the phone call. Then they hang up. Surely, a prank? A mistake? A wrong number? Anything but the chilling truth... That someone is watching, waiting, working to take your life in one hour.

But why?

The job of finding out falls to DI Helen Grace: a woman with a track record in hunting killers. However, this is A case where the killer seems to always be one step ahead of the police and the victims.

With no motive, no leads, no clues - nothing but pure fear - an hour can last a lifetime...

My Thoughts

Well, helter skelter springs to mind! I'd waited a while for my Helen Grace fix, but when I started reading  All Fall Down, I was immediately thrust into an adrenalin fuelled tension. 
All Fall Down kicks off with a tense opening and from there on in it's a bit of a rollercoaster culminating in one of the best chase scenes I've read in a while. 

With Helen in top form professionally, it's interesting to see a different side to her explored in this one - a more personal side, which as you'd expect has many surprises to it too. 
The concept of the novel - a group of survivors being targetted one by one years afer their abduction is enough to send chills down your spine and I loved the way the story unravelled, slowly bringing us closer to the truth. 
I did fleetingly consider the killer as a suspect early on, then moved away from that idea, when a few red herrings got in the way. 

What I love most about these books is the strong female protagonist and Helen Grace is as kick ass as they come. Looking forward to the next one already.