Hide and Seek

Starred review from August 21, 2017
Arlidge’s harrowing sixth Helen Grace thriller (after 2016’s Little Boy Blue) finds the former detective inspector languishing in London’s Holloway Prison awaiting trial for three murders. Already convicted of the crimes by the media and her fellow inmates—some of whom Grace put in Holloway herself—Grace must fight daily for her life and her sanity. On the outside, only one of her former officers, Charlie Brooks, believes in Grace’s innocence. Both Grace and Brooks know that Grace’s nephew Robert Stonehill painstakingly and brilliantly framed Grace, but locating him and proving his guilt is difficult, especially since Brooks is under pressure from above to let the case go. Meanwhile, a serial killer is gruesomely killing inmates in their locked cells in Holloway, and Grace is compelled to investigate these murders or risk becoming one of the victims. Parallel cat-and-mouse manhunts create relentless tension in this dark and twisted nail-biter filled with strong, well-defined characters—hero and villain alike. Agent: Hellie Ogden, Janklow & Nesbit.