Book Review Hide and Seek by M.J Arlidge

Hide and Seek

by

M.J Arlidge

Detective Inspector Helen Grace has spent her whole life running.

From the past. From herself. From everyone who's ever tried to get close to her.

She's spent her whole life hiding.

Behind the badge. Behind her reputation as one of the country's best detectives. Until - framed for murder - she became one of its most high-profile prisoners.

Now there is nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide.

Because HMP Holloway is a place of dark days and long nights with dangers at every turn. Despised by the inmates and reviled by the guards, Helen must face her nightmare alone.

And then a carefully mutilated body is found in a locked cell.

Now Helen must find a ruthless serial killer. Before the killer finds her.

I was so excited to receive this ARC from NETGALLEY and Michael Joseph/Penguin as I have read every book in the DI Helen Grace series and loved them.

Hide and Seek begins where the last book 'Little Boy Blue' ended with Helen imprisoned for murders she didn't commit. She is in Holloway Prison and obviously given the fact that she had a hand in the incarceration of a lot of the inmates and she is a 'copper', she isn't having the easiest time.

Her friend and colleague Charlie Brooks is still actively to track down Robert Stonehill - Helen's nephew - who framed Helen for the murders. Her investigation however is not being supported by the rest of the team as the officer in charge is insisting the case is closed.

Whilst Helen is resident in Holloway the body of another inmate Leah is discovered. Leah is unpopular among the other prisoners as she has murdered a pregnant woman.
However Leah hasn't committed suicide. She has been murdered and her body defiled. Her mouth has been sewn up and pulled into a macabre smile, her eyelids have been sewn, her nose and ears have been stuffed with Vaseline and her vagina and anus is also sewn. It is also discovered that she in the early stages of pregnancy, meaning the finger of suspicion is now pointing towards any male members of staff in the prison.

Can Helen find out from inside who is responsible for these murders? Is she in danger?

This book kept me on tenterhooks to the very, very end. Another absolutely first class novel from the fantastic M.J Arlidge.

Order here

Good Me, Bad Me by Ali Land

Good Me, Bad Me

By

Ali Land

'NEW NAME, NEW FAMILY, NEW SHINY ME'.

 Annie's mother is a serial killer. The only way she can make it stop is to hand her in to the police. But out of sight is not out of mind. As her mother's trial looms, the secrets of her past won't let Annie sleep, even with a new foster family and name - Milly. A fresh start. Now, surely, she can be whoever she wants to be. But Milly's mother is a serial killer. And blood is thicker than water. Good me, bad me. She is, after all, her mother's daughter... Translated into over 20 languages, Good Me Bad Me is a tour de force. In its narrator, Milly Barnes, we have a voice to be reckoned with, and in its author, Ali Land, an extraordinary new talent.



Thank you to Netgalley and Michael Joseph for this ARC

Wow!! This book absolutely blew me away. Written from the perspective of Milly the daughter of a child killer we follow Milly into her new foster family as she struggles to come to terms with what her Mother has done and the fact that she is the main witness in the upcoming trial. 
Her new foster family consist of Mike (a psychologist), his wife Saskia and their daughter Phoebe.
Phoebe is a nasty character who is jealous of Milly and her and her friends set out to rage a campaign against her to make her life as uncomfortable as possible.
Milly finds a friend in Morgan who lives in the much scorned tower blocks nearby. Can she trust Morgan with her true identity?

This book kept me guessing and using Milly as the narrator all the way through is genius. I really liked the character of Mike who obviously whilst helping Milly prepare to give evidence against her Mother, has his own selfish agenda as to why he wants to help her.

The references to the crimes committed by her Mother are thankfully not described in lurid detail, but leaving the reader to imagine them is an excellent way for each reader of the book to have different insights into Milly's character.

This book was fantastic and kept me awake wanting to carry on reading. It is one of those books that after it is finished you will find yourself still thinking about it for weeks afterwards.

Brilliant.

Buy your copy here
Ali Land can be found on Twitter