When you think you're safe,
When you think you're all alone,
That's when he'll come for you...
A silent killer stalks the city, targeting those home alone at night - killing without pity or remorse.
As panic spreads, Detective Inspector Helen Grace leads the investigation, but is herself a hunted woman, her every step dogged by a ruthless killer bent on revenge.
As she tracks the murderer, Grace begins to suspect there is a truly shocking home truth that connects these brutal crimes...
Check the windows, lock the doors - this is a twisted page-turner that will prey on your darkest fears, in the way only M.J. Arlidge can.
I was a little late to M.J. Arlidge’s DI Grace novels, CAT & MOUSE being the third that I have read in a series which now stretches to eleven novels and a couple of e-book novellas, I believe. CAT & MOUSE continues the fast-paced, breakneck thrilling pace of the last two novels. In fact, if anything, the novel ramps up the tension to even higher levels.
The novel begins with a particularly brutal murder. As Helen Grace directs her Southampton MIT team’s investigation, Grace herself is not in a good place. She is jumpy, wary, anticipating an attempt on her life orchestrated by sociopathic psychiatrist Alex Blythe, who escaped capture at the end of the previous book in the series. DI Grace is also under pressure from her boss who makes it plain that he wants her gone. With additional strains on the team, in the aftermath of the revelation of ex-DS Hudson’s Machiavellian duplicity, even Helen’s closest allies are not as focused as they previously have been. And then there is a second murder…
As before, M.J, Arlidge leans on his experience in television crime drama, delivering short, tightly-plotted scenes which drive the story on at an ever-accelerating pace. The novel hurtles along breathlessly, a true page turner. As in previous novels, there are a couple of action scenes which stay just on the right side of parody, one in particular, on a docked cargo ship, would not be out of place in a Chuck Norris, or perhaps more fittingly, a Cynthia Rothrock movie - I was almost punching the air.
CAT & MOUSE is exciting, heart-racingly so. I was exhausted at the end. And very, very entertained.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Matthew (MJ) Arlidge has worked in television for the last twenty years, specialising in high-end drama production, including prime-time crime serials Silent Witness, Torn, The Little House and, most recently, the hit TV show Innocent. His debut thriller, Eeny Meeny, was the UK’s bestselling crime debut of 2014 and has been followed by nine more DI Helen Grace bestsellers including the latest, All Fall Down. In 2015, his audiobook exclusive Six Degrees of Assassination was a number-one bestseller.
Thanks to @Tr4cyF3nt0n at Compulsive Readers @mjarlidge and @orionbooks @orion_crime for the opportunity to review
No comments:
Post a Comment