What would you do if you had to make a choice? If you were imprisoned with no food, no water, someone you know, and a gun? Two go in, but only one can come out. How do you choose?
Eeny Meeny
by M. J. Alridge
Penguin Group
June 2015
Helen Grace is a respected, hard-working Detective Inspector. She has been charged with leading the investigation into a heinous serial killer who forces victims to make a choice between his/her own life or the life of his/her fellow captive. Initially, Grace doesn’t believe the stories the victims are telling, until the capture repeats itself several more times.
Grace must follow a sadistic mind, battling her own demons as she goes. She is forced to confront the limitations of her present and the horrors of her past as she races to stop the orchestrator of these horrible crimes.
Based on the background, I was really hoping to like this novel. I am a fan of a crime stories, so I was really excited to get into this one. As the story started, it seemed pretty promising. There’s the central crime, as well as some office intrigue that leaves many of the inspectors and officers distrustful.
Even with that, as the story progressed, it was less and less what I thought it would be. Sometimes, this is a good thing. In the case of Eeny Meeny, it wasn’t. There were many moments where the change in point of view was jarring. While I think the intention was to keep the character shrouded in mystery, the transitions weren’t smooth.
Also, I completely recognize this is the first in what will be a series of novels featuring Helen Grace. That being said, as a reader I needed more of her background to be unfolded earlier in the story for the ending to not be so jarring. It felt completely out of left field, again not in a good way.
So overall, I’m not sure I’d be interested enough in this series or Helen Grace as a character to read additional entries into this series. She needed more to humanize her and make her likeable to the reader. That didn’t really happen for me.
Robin Gwaro is the Young Adult and Women’s Literature Editor at Bookgateway.com. She currently spends her days wrangling her 8 year old science nerd and 5 month old busy body.
This book was provided by the publisher as a review copy.