Tuesday, June 9, 2015

ARC Review ~ Eeny Meeny by M.J. Arlidge

Rating: 4/5 stars
Author: M.J. Arlidge
Formats Available: eBook, Paperback, Hardcover, Audio 
Publication Date: 06-02-15                   Pages: 432
Purchase - Amazon                             Add to Goodreads
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 Inspector 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....

My So-Called Review:

Much more than your standard crime thriller, Eeny Meeny dives into the psychological side of thrillers by showcasing a killer who takes victims, two at a time, isolates them with no means of escape or survival and provides them with a gun, loaded with a single bullet and a message stating when one of them is dead, the other will be set free.  Author, M.J. Arlidge, sets up some frightening yet fascinating storylines with this type of predicament. Would you sacrifice yourself so that your loved one would be set free? What if you weren’t trapped with a loved one but a co-worker, would you find yourself debating whose life could be spared the least? As hunger and thirst set in would your desperation become strong enough to pick up the gun and force the sick game to an end? Could you actually survive a situation like this and go on to live a normal life or would the terrifying guilt eat away at you until you wished you were the one not spared? These are the questions I kept asking myself while reading this dazzling series debut.

The actual mystery aspect of this story is incredibly imagined, well drawn out, and so damn clever that I truly enjoyed every minute of this book.  Detective Inspector Helen Grace is a fantastic female lead who’s supported by two well-developed colleagues, Mike and Charlie; together they try to outwit and outplay this sadistic killer. Fair warning, there are some pretty dark subject matters at play here and not all of them originate from the killer. I don’t ever give spoilers but I think it’s important to mention that Grace is not your textbook hero; she has some seriously messed up demons in her closet and a pretty disturbing way of dealing with her own stress.  Kudos to the author for going “outside the box” of convention with his character and making Grace that much more intriguing! 

As the body count continues to rise, Helen Grace and her team begin to realize that these victims may not have been chosen at random. What possible motive could be behind these unrelated yet specific people being targeted? At times my mind was spinning all over the place trying to figure out what was really going on! There are so many twists and turns that I dare you to try and figure it all out before the final reveal! I thought I had done so a few times only to be proven wrong on several points in the end. Once all the pieces finally came together it made such perfect sense that I wondered how I had missed so many clues along the way Lol

This is the first book in a new series that will revolve around D.I. Helen Grace and I was thrilled to discover there are already 3 additional books scheduled for release! If you’re looking for a new thriller series or something original and different then I highly recommend Eeny Meeny. This will be a fantastic read for anyone who loves darker crime and/or psychological thrillers! I personally cannot wait until October when book 2, Pop Goes the Weasel, is set to release, it’s become one of my most anticipated books for the remainder of 2015.

Thank you to the publishers, Penguin Group Berkley, NAL and to NetGalley for the complimentary, advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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