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Top reviews from the United States

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My favorite DI queen with her badass Kawasaki and no nonsense attitude. Great story.

Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2020

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Eight years ago, five high school students were lost during a competition. Only four of them made it out of the woods, the fifth murdered, her body burned by the psychotic Daniel King who held the kids prisoner, beating them, torturing them. King's belongings are discovered at the edge of a cliff, his body never found. The students move past the tragedy and grow into successful adults in their own right. Then one night, one of the remaining four receives a phone call with the disturbing warning, "You have one hour to live". It would be dismissed as a prank if the man were not found dead, strangled with wire. Then another student gets the phone call...

I don't know how I missed it when this book came out. I have read the other eight Helen Grace novels and have been keeping my eyes open for the ninth! Here it is, and it's a good one. Helen is just so damn badass with her Kawasaki and no nonsense attitude. Her friendship with the very pregnant Charlie is the sweetest combination of respect and loyalty. And despite her ever-growing belly, Charlie is still able to keep up, and she finds answers.

The answer to the mystery is clever and Helen nearly dies about a hundred times trying to solve it. And by the end, she has a new nemesis, and let me tell you, he's slimy, and he has issues.

Really strong addition to the Helen Grace series.

Joann R. Greene

Good

Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2020

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This is the 9th book in this wonderfully written series by M. J. Arlidge. "You only have 1 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. Thus begins this exciting new novel in the DI Helen Grace series. What I enjoy are the short, fast paced and tense chapters which tends to move the novel along. The plot was a good one and held my attention to the end. I also liked the addition of DS Joseph Hudson in this book. Once again, will Helen catch this sadistic killer?

Christine L. Bergwin

Not a Helen Fan

Reviewed in the United States on December 23, 2020

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I’ll give it a solid 3 stars...but I’m not sure why.. I dislike most of the characters, esp Helen Grace. I find her to be a ‘holier-than-thou’, know it all, whom everyone loves. The only person I did like was Jake, but he didn’t last long in the series. Poor fellow. But, I’ll keep reading the series, mainly hoping to see Helen get her comeuppance.

Queen Valhalla

Formulaic and disappointing

Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2020

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I love M.J. Arlidge's other DI Helen Grace novels, but this one was really disappointing. Aside from being formulaic and predictable (I figured out what was really going on early in the book), there were also inexcusable typos (words missing, wrong name used, awkward mistakes) that made this novel feel like it was rushed to meet a deadline. I hope this one was a blip, but it felt like Arlidge is either growing bored with Grace, or he doesn't really know what to do with his main character anymore.

Mari

Another Outstanding Helen Grace Novel

Reviewed in the United States on August 6, 2020

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If you love a good serial killer novel, M.J. Arlidge will never disappoint you with this series. I've read them all and look forward to the next one with anticipation.

Vik Gilbertson

Never mess with Helen!!

Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2020

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Loved it, she's such a powerful person and doesn't take care what anyone thinks.

Phantomsue

Great Book

Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2020

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Excellent as always for her books

metaldude30236

Enjoyable

Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2020

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Another win.

Top reviews from other countries

Ginger Book Geek

A superb read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 18, 2020

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I have been a fan of the DI Helen Grace series for a while now. I haven't quite caught up with all the books in the series yet but I am getting there. I read the synopsis for 'All Fall Down' and it certainly sounded like one hell of a read. It certainly was one hell of a read and I enjoyed every single minute of it. I loved this book but more about that in a bit.
I couldn't help but take to DI Helen Grace from the start and it wasn't long before I felt as though I had been reunited with an old friend. Helen has been through the wars and then some. Over the course of her career she has been involved in the investigation of some pretty nasty cases, which have left her mentally and physically scarred. Helen did have a pretty unusual way of handling stress but I won't go into the specifics. Helen is a determined and tenacious police officer, who works well as part of a team but at the same time she works well on her own too.
It didn't take me long at all to get into 'All Fall Down'. In fact by the time I got to the end of the first sentence, I knew that this was one book that I would be unable to put down. I was exactly right too. I managed to binge read the book over the course of a single day, which is pretty good going for me. Usually I have the attention span of a gnat and I am easily distracted but not in this case. I was intrigued by the story and I just had to keep reading to see how the story panned out. There was that much going on in the story that I didn't dare stop reading because I felt that I might miss something. The pages turned over increasingly quickly as my desperation to find out what happened grew and grew. I seemed to fly through the story and I immersed myself so deeply into the story that I lost track of time and just how quickly the pages were turning. The first time I looked up to check on my progress, I was staggered to realise that I had read well over a third of the book in one go. I soon reached the end of the book and I had to say farewell to Detective Inspector Helen Grace.
'All Fall Down' is brilliantly written but then I think the same to be true of all of the DI Helen Grace series. The author certainly knows how to grab your attention from the start with a particularly gruesome crime and he then takes you on one hell of a scary and unpredictable rollercoaster ride through the investigation. For me, the story was perfectly paced. The story hit the ground running and maintained the fast pace throughout, culminating in a tense and dramatic conclusion.
In short, I thoroughly enjoyed reading 'All Fall Down' and I would definitely recommend this book to other readers. I will certainly be reading more of M. J. Arlidge's work in the future. The score on the Ginger Book Geek board is a very well deserved 5* out of 5*.

Chirpy

Let down

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 18, 2020

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Have read all of MJ Arlidge's books, and have always enjoyed the Helen Grace novels, but I felt this was a bit of a let down. Not up to his usual standard, felt as though it was rushed (perhaps at the demands of his publisher), and the over use of the same words again and again really grates on me. Also felt it was a rehash of previous books in the series. Shame as I would like the Helen Grace series to continue, as have many other detective characters from other authors, but if that's to be the case, fresh ideas are needed. Sorry for the bad review, but for me, the story wasn't great. ☹

Spicewalker

Helen Grace is back

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 20, 2020

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Oh it is good to be back in the company of Helen Grace and her team. Not because there is any chance the book is going to give me the warm and fuzzies - far from it - but because I can pretty well guarantee I am going to get a book that is entertaining, gripping, infused with great characters, edginess and a mystery that is going to keep you on edge and guessing right to the end. Which is what I got when I started reading All Fall Down.  The book begins as the author means to go on - bringing that intrigue and tension that is going to hook the reader. A lone character, not one I could immediately warm to, who is faced with a broken down lift, a phone call and the ultimate threat - you have one hour left to live ... If this was a TV show, it would be time to queue the dramatic music. Now you might think you know what comes next, or can guess, but you'd probably be wrong. And that is the author's skill - keeping the suspense building to the point you think you can relax before bringing those moments designed to shock.  Now I will be honest - this did not feel as fast paced as some of the previous books, and the body count and mode of dispatch perhaps not as grotesque as some of it's predecessors either. That does not mean the author has softened, or gone easy on the characters, and the more i read, the more apparent the complexity of the victim's lives became. Their tale was one I sort of recognised, one that I could guess the direction the story was leading, but there was still that last little bit of mystery that was kept well hidden until the end of the book. The dramatic reveal that tips everything on its head, blindsiding not only the characters but the readers as well.  After everything Helen has been through, there was a moment that i thought maybe, just maybe, Mr Arlidge might be finally about to give her a break. If you want to know if that is the case and she looks set to get a happy-ish ending, you'll need to read for yourself but I am guessing from the parting chapter, her story is far from over yet. But seeing her here, back with Charlie and the team who support her, did feel like dropping in on old friends. We get to learn a lot more about relative newcomer to the team, DS Joseph Hudson, and the development of his relationship with Helen. He's a dark horse that one, competitive and determined, and that is all I will say. He is certainly interesting and I'm dying to see what comes next between the pair.  If you have missed Helen Grace, as I have, then this is a more than welcome return to the streets of Southampton and the high profile high energy investigations that we all love. It is a book that keeps the chills coming, the pages turning and the attention focused on just what will happen next and how far the characters will go to get what they want. There are times I found myself slack jawed, mainly with disbelief at their stupidity to be honest, and others where I was on the edge of my seat. But I was hooked, right to the end, and left most definitely needing more.

Happy Shopper!

OK but didn't enjoy as much as others in this series

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 17, 2020

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I have read all the books in this series but didn't enjoy this one quite as much as the others. I felt disconnected from the characters (usually I'm so absorbed I feel like I'm part of the story). The behaviour of DS Joseph Hudson didn't feel right to me either. It pulled me in enough to want to finish it but I was glad when I came to the end.

R. B. Lee

Don't bother

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 28, 2021

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I used to enjoy reading the early Helen Grace thrillers, but every time I have finished a recent one I've thought "never again" with regards to reading another. I really made a mistake reading this one, and giving it two stars is very generous. I hate giving up on a book once started, and found myself speed-reading in order to get to the end as quickly as possible. Prior to this I'd read a Mark Billingham book and the difference between that, a well written crime thriller and this, was huge. I also felt this one was excessively padded out to ensure that a set number of words had been achieved made the ridiculous story even more irritating. I won't be rushing to buy book 10.

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