NAL
June 2, 2015
420 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depository/or Amazon
The "dark, twisted, thought-provoking" (#1 New York Times bestseller Tami Hoag) international bestseller—first in the new series featuring Detective Helen Grace.
Two people are abducted, imprisoned, and left with a gun. As hunger and thirst set in, only one walks away alive.
It’s a game more twisted than any Detective Helen Grace has ever seen. If she hadn’t spoken with the shattered survivors herself, she almost wouldn’t believe them.
Helen is familiar with the dark sides of human nature, including her own, but this case—with its seemingly random victims—has her baffled. But as more people go missing, nothing will be more terrifying than when it all starts making sense....
If someone on your holiday list is a thriller fan and you're looking for something they may not yet have read (or you want a new series to start yourself) you need look no further than Eeny Meeny.
When I saw that this book had been praised by both Lisa Gardner and Jeffery Deaver (see them and more here),it (hopefully) boded very well for both the character and the book. I love their DD Warren and Kathryn Dance characters and series so if they both enjoyed Helen and the book . . .
Luckily, I completely agree with them.
Helen Grace is a brilliant character to lead a new thriller series. She has a mysterious, troubled past but is now dedicated to her job solving crimes. She is a character with some dark, complicated aspects to who she was and who she is. She visits a S&M 'therapist*,' and has secrets she is keeping.
This all, though, gives her a unique approach to the crimes she has to solve and to the victims. It, also, her to be a bit of an unknown to readers. We learn more about her as things continue, but the questions only add to the book's mystery (and enjoyment).
The short chapters - at times just a page or two - work especially well here. With several different narrators, it allows us to follow a character and to learn more about them personally without being away from the action for very long, at all.
The shift in narration also allows us insight into characters - including one quite unknown one - we otherwise would have overlooked or not known. This only aids in the presentation of false leads. Fals leads that don't seem so false, at first, and convince you that you have it all figured out. Until you don't.
The crime solving, the crimes themselves, the characters, Helen Grace, her past and what we learn about her from first page to last and how it all ends will have you ready for more of this series. (And with seven novels pitched, there is hopefully much more to come!)
Review of Book 2 Pop Goes the Weasel will be up tomorrow!
The shift in narration also allows us insight into characters - including one quite unknown one - we otherwise would have overlooked or not known. This only aids in the presentation of false leads. Fals leads that don't seem so false, at first, and convince you that you have it all figured out. Until you don't.
The crime solving, the crimes themselves, the characters, Helen Grace, her past and what we learn about her from first page to last and how it all ends will have you ready for more of this series. (And with seven novels pitched, there is hopefully much more to come!)
Review of Book 2 Pop Goes the Weasel will be up tomorrow!
*semi spoiler? This does not go too far and truly fits into the character and story, do not let it deter you
"nothing will be more terrifying than when it all starts making sense...." that is an ominous line to end on with that synopsis! Short chapters can be highly effective, and sound like here they help add to a thriller's need for quick pacing. November was a crazy month for me with NaNoWriMo, but I'm so glad to have my time back to dig into all the crazy cool books that I missed the past few weeks :)
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