‘Love Me Not’ by M.J. Arlidge

Published by Michael Joseph,
18 May 2017.
ISBN: 978-0-718-18585-1(HB)

Driving to work in Southampton Sonia Smalling is tricked into stopping and is then shot and killed. Helen Grace a police officer recently freed from prison after being wrongly convicted of murder, comes across Sonia's body in the road.

Helen wonders why she was killed as her credit cards and cash were not touched, although her car had been taken. On interviewing Sonia's husband Helen gets no nearer the truth. She does however discover that she was a probation officer and in spite of the fact that she is assured by Sonia's colleagues that all the youngsters she dealt with loved her, Helen wonders if it could be someone with a grievance against her.

Alerts are put out for the car and it is found parked by a shopping precinct. This time a pharmacist is murdered and drugs and cash are taken. Helen and armed response are rushed to the scene but the perpetrators escape out the back. Thanks to a witness Helen and the team manage to identify the culprits but are still puzzled as to what is driving them. Do the murders have any connection to each other and how many more are likely to be committed? Are they random or is there a deeper motive?

At the same time, a journalist Emelia Garanita starts to make her own enquiries and keeps coming across images of a serpent eating its own tail. What can be the significance of these?

It becomes a race against time for Helen and her officers to get one step ahead and prevent any more murders, a seemingly impossible task.

What a page turner! This really is a book that kept me on the edge of my seat. I like the way the author has used very short chapters especially as all the action takes place in one day, it seems to add to the urgency of solving the crimes and staying ahead of the murderers.

Highly recommended, but a warning, don't start reading this book at night, you wont be able to put it down!

-------

Reviewer: Tricia Chappell

Matthew Arlidge was born10 October 1974. He is an English author of crime novels starring DI Helen Grace. He has also worked in television for the last fifteen years specializing in high-end drama production.

Tricia Chappell. I have a great love of books and reading, especially crime and thrillers. I play the occasional game of golf  (when I am not reading). My great love is cruising especially to far flung places, when there are long days at sea for plenty more reading! I am really enjoying reviewing books and have found lots of great new authors.