The third sequel of a crime story from the series Helen Grace by M.J. Arlidge about a young girl named Ruby waking up in dark and cold room with a voice telling her everything will be alright, but deep down she knows it´s a lie.
I am being honest here; I have read the previous two books few years ago and returned to this series just now. It was bit hard to get back to the characters, their relationships and previous stories. The story begins with three or more different POVs, which can be hard to follow, since the chapters are already too short. We jumped from one characters thoughts to another’s, without getting into the plot. Because of that I personally had the feeling, that it was not possible to emphasize with the characters, to understand them, to get deeper into the story or to be in such reading flow, that I was not able to put the book down. The characters, as well as the story, were for me shallow and really fast evolving. Don´t get me wrong, it does not have to be bad, on the other hand it´s quite perfect for a cory evening after a long and hard day without straining anymore of one’s brain cells. It´s more a chilling book for two days, because that’s the number of days it took me to finish it.
Now, to the concrete story. Helen was somehow not that much involved in the story; I was missing her input in some parts. She was the main character and yet, the story worked without her. But as other main characters in detective and crime books, like from Chris Carter or Jo Nesbo, her life is not easy. Her whole life she has been challenged to survive, to save all the victims, to make the hardest decissions, not just in her career, but also in her personal life. Nevertheless, she receives a plus point for riding a motor bike. Let´s give her some time to develop in the following books, since the series contains more than ten novels. Her boss, Ceri Hardwood, has a serious mental problem. So many things are wrong with her. She was obsessed with her employee, who does better job than she does. She somehow does not care that her husband is not loving her anymore and is cheating on her. After that is revealed, she throws herself by the first chance on another employee of herself. Not a complete different and unknown man, she must make it more complicated and desperate. She is seriously written as the bad guy working and lurking in the background. Still, I hope we will see her as a psychopath or a possible serial killer later on in the series. That would be a nice touch and twist to the storyline.
The victim was more or less ok, to some point I was not sure if there was a Stockholm syndrome developing, or she was just playing along to gain the trust of the kidnapper. If it was the first point, then it is disappointing, most victims hold longer their rage, anger and hate towards the kidnapper. One think that I do not understand. How is it possible, that you, as a human being, receive multiple blows with a metal pipe or stick in your head and yet, you are still able to get up and chase someone? Even the part with kidnapper´s getting up after few blows is for me hard to believe, what is he the Hulk? What I would like to mention is the dig towards pathologists, their lack of empathy and almost heartlessness and sterile personalities, always right to the point, clear facts and stats. I can understand that you cannot be emotional, when you have all day a dead body in front of you.
The ending of the story was too rushed; I was missing a detailed description from the kidnapper or the final fight. But so rushed and somehow fast written was the entire book.