Title: 
Hide and Seek
Author: M.J. Arlidge
Penguin Fiction
372 pages
About the author
M.J. Arlidge had worked in television for the last fifteen years, specializing in high-end drama production, including prime-time crime serials Torn and Silent Witness. Arlidge is also piloting original crime series for both UK and US networks. In 2015 his audiobook exclusive Six Degrees of Assassination was a number one bestseller.
His first thriller, Eeny Meeny, was the UK’s bestselling crime debut of 2014. It was followed by the bestselling Pop Goes the Weasel, The Doll’s House, Liar Liar and Little Boy Blue. Hide and Seek is the sixth DI Helen Grace thriller.
Within these prison walls, there was no forgiveness. Even in death.
After she was framed for multiple murders by her nephew Robert Stonehill, Helen Grace finds herself in the one place she never thought she would end up: Holloway Prison. Helen is surrounded by the very people she normally puts away. Not a good place for a Detective Inspector. While she awaits her trial, all Helen can do is to try to stay alive. But when an inmate is found gruesomely murdered and the authorities are at a loss, Helen is determined to find the killer. There is no way of knowing who will be next..
Detective Sergeant Charlie Brooks is on a mission. She believes with all her heart that Helen is innocent and she will stop at nothing to prove it, but exactly how far will she go?
There would be no sleep tonight.
Little Boy Blue ended with a ‘seriously, what the….?!?’-moment and once you get hold of a copy of Hide and Seek and will finally know what happens next…all you want to do is put up a do-not-disturb-sign, open that book and don’t stop reading until you turn the last page.
Hide and Seek did not disappoint. Once the story takes off, Arlidge does not let his readers come up for air at all, the pace is fast and so is the story he tells. The suspense in the story builds up with each page you turn as you puzzle along with Helen, who is desperately trying to figure out who is responsible for the murders at Holloway. And then there is Emilia Garanita. Now there is a woman you would love to give a high five. In the face. With a brick. I absolutely loved Charlie’s faith in and devotion to her friend and former boss. I do hope she gets to stick around for a long time.
However, I had hoped there would be a little bit more of Helen in this story, as in that she would finally shed a few layers of herself. You see some cracks in the hard exterior, but right now she seems a bit stuck (no pun intended). As much as I love a good, fast written thriller, in this case I would have preferred a much slower pace at times, and let Helen slow down a bit as well, although I am aware that the circumstances of the story make slowing down nearly impossible. Maybe in Love me not?
3,5 out of 5 stars
Miriam
