#BlogTour - All Fall Down by M.J. Arlidge

“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…

ALL FALL DOWN is the ninth in M.J. Arlidge’s series featuring DI Helen Grace and my first exposure to both character and author. The novel works well as a standalone though, and Grace, a determined, flawed investigator, is an intriguing protagonist whose backstory I am interested in exploring down the line.

Set in Southampton, the novel is a well-structured police procedural with strong, realistic characters. DI Grace investigates the murder of Justin Lanning, a successful businessman in his mid twenties. Lanning had, according to his partner, received a call prior to his death, the caller threatening that he had only one hour to live. As Grace’s team delve into the victim’s history they discover that he is one of five school friends who had been abducted by Daniel King eight years previously during a Prince of Edinburgh Awards hike on the South Downs. The five were tortured by King before four of them escaped. It appeared that, after killing the remaining student, King committed suicide, although his body was never found. Recently, King has returned to the public consciousness due to the publication of a book about the experience by another of the survivors. Grace and her team become convinced that there is a connection to the events of the past, and to King, and that the survivors may be at risk.

There is a mixture of action and character-driven drama. The relationships within the team, particularly between Helen Grace and her deputy, Joseph Hudson, whom she has, perhaps rashly, taken as a lover, threaten to derail the investigation. The relationship between the survivors of King’s torture are also more complex than they initially appear. The author maintains tension until the end and it all makes for an enjoyable thriller.

M.J. Arlidge has worked in television on prime-time crime thrillers and ALL FALL DOWN has that sort of feel. I could see DI Helen Grace and her team appear in that medium but meanwhile look forward to discovering the other books.

Thanks to @Tr4cyF3nt0n at Compulsive Readers @mjarlidge and @orionbooks @orion_crime for the opportunity to review ALL FALL DOWN.