5.8.14

BOOK REVIEW: Eeny Meeny by M.J. Arlidge

The girl emerged from the woods, barely alive. Her story was beyond belief. But it was true. Every dreadful word of it.
Days later, another desperate escapee is found- and a pattern is emerging. Pairs of victims are being abducted, imprisoned then faced with a terrible choice: kill or be killed.
Would you rather lose your life or lose your mind?
Detective Inspector Helen Grace has faced down her own demons on her rise to the top. As she leads the investigation to hunt down this unseen monster, she learns that it may be the survivors- living calling cards- who hold the key to this case.
And unless she succeeds more innocents will die...
Publisher: Penguin
Pages: 437

I had seen this book pop up on a few people's blogs and TBR piles and I liked the idea of it; in the main I wasn't disappointed. M.J. Arlidge has worked in television for the past 15 years (I read that it was actually the pseudonym of the TV magician Paul Daniels but sadly this is not true!) producing prime time crime serials. Eeny Meeny is his debut novel but his TV experience shines through and there were several points where I could easily imagine the book being adapted for television.
M.J. Arlidge immediately takes you into the action, with the first two victims, Sam and Amy. Would you kill or be killed? That is the question the author repeatedly presents. It is almost a look at human nature and our natural instinct for survival. Helen Grace is the Detective Inspector called in to head up the case, at first she cannot comprehend what has happened to Sam and Amy but when more victims emerge, Helen knows that she has a serial killer on her hands.
As you can imagine there were a lot of twists and turns in this book; my only problem was that I felt it was a little long. There were several large and unexpected events at the end of the book but their impact was lessened for me as I had lost a little bit of interest in the story at that point.
Overall the book has good pace, the chapters are short and snappy but in my opinion there were just too many of them. I thought that the idea behind the book was fantastic and that did keep me reading. I like the character of Helen Walsh and there is plenty of room to develop that so I shall look out for more books by this author in the future.



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing this Dot :-) I bought this in pb a few weeks ago and haven't got round to reading it yet. I love a good thriller! xx

Dot said...

Thanks Sarah, I hope that you enjoy it too xx

All change here!

I have made the decision to stop doing written reviews on here for a little while. I shall keep this page open but for the time being I sha...