Review: The Doll’s House by M.J. Arlidge

Title: The Doll’s House

Author: M.J. Arlidge

Series: Helen Grace, #3 

Published: February 2016, NAL

Format: ARC E-copy, 432 pages

Source: Netgalley

The bestselling author of Eeny Meeny and Pop Goes the Weasel brings back Detective Helen Grace, who is hot on the trail of a twisted serial killer in this gripping new thriller.

Detective
Helen Grace is on the trail of a twisted serial killer in this gripping
thriller in the “taut, fast-paced”* international bestselling series.

Ruby wakes up in a strange room. Her captor calmly explains that no one is looking for her. No one wants her. Except him.

When
the body of a woman is found buried on a secluded beach, Detective
Helen Grace is called to the scene. She knows right away that the killer
is no amateur. The woman has been dead for years, and no one has even
reported her missing. But why would they? She’s still sending text
messages to her family.

Helen is convinced that a criminal
mastermind is at work: someone very smart, very careful, and worst of
all, very patient. But as she struggles to piece together the killer’s
motive, time is running out for a victim who is still alive…

My thoughts: This is the third book in M.J. Arlidge’s Helen Grace series and I think the books keep getting better and better, though still eerily creepy and twisty! These are the types of books that you can’t put down because you just have to know what’s going to happen next and you need to know how it’s all going to end.

This latest installment was so creepy good – at one point, I found myself reading it with one eye open, holding my breath, afraid of what was going to happen next and definitely not expecting what did in fact happen…and then – I had to wait a bit to get back to that part of the story. Of course, this kept me glued to the book, feverishly flipping the pages, needing to know what did happen next, though giving my over-active mind time to come up with ideas, never once thinking what M.J. Arlidge had in store for our characters.

Helen Grace is certainly not anyone I would want to mess with and is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters. She has such focus and determination, sometimes to her own detriment, but in the end, she gets the job down and that’s all that matters. She certainly has a lot of baggage and quite a few enemies, including a few in her department, but she will stop at nothing to help those that need help. 

The case that they are working on in this book was very interesting. It definitely makes you think just how easy it is to manipulate things with social media. We are once again put inside the captor’s head, allowing us to get some clues as to what his motivations are. And we are also given insights into the victim’s mind, showing us what they are feeling and thinking, how they are handling their captivity – this all makes for quite a powerful read. 

I am absolutely loving this series and cannot wait to get my hands on the next installment, Liar, Liar…just have to wait for it to be released in the U.S. 

Books in this series: 

1. Eeny Meeny
2. Pop Goes the Weasel
3. The Doll’s House
4. Liar Liar
5. Little Blue Blue