M.J. Arlidge Books In Order

Publication Order of Helen Grace Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Born in 1974, Matthew Arlidge is an English author who focuses mainly on crime novels. For the last fifteen years, he has been working in the television where he majored in high end drama production. He is well known for the production of several prime-time crime programs for ITV for approximately five years. At the moment he is working on an important edition of The Last of the Mohicans for the channel BBC.

He grew up in Hampstead, London and was the youngest in the family of four siblings. He attended school right from 7 to 18 years of age. When he was still in school, he travelled widely and was even lucky to teach in a school in Southern India. He also visited Australia and Singapore, and when he relocated back to the U.K, he studied a degree in English Literature at the St Johns College, Cambridge.

This is where he got to meet his future wife and at the same time was awarded for the Douglas Chivers prize for an exceptional Shakespeare scholarship. He also got to learn the special skill of striking and spent a whole year at Bristol University studying Film and Television production. The journey too his career was one filled with struggles and hard work.

He started as a story liner and later went up the ladder to become a script editor at the BBC1 soap opera. After one and half years, he got a job at Ecosse Films, which was a British TV production company. He was then promoted in to a new position as the TV development producer within the same company. Here he created new shows for BBC including Cape Wrath and mistresses.

In the year 2007, Matthew left well prepared to start his personal production company. The company was referred to as TXTV Limited and with him he had two associates namely Chris Lang and Jeremy Wilt. He was successful at producing a number of British Crime series over the year’s one of them being the Little House. He also developed his shows for TV is among the best novel writers for crime series.

The first book that he wrote is known as Eeny Meeny. It was one of the record breaking introduction novels in the UK. This is a novel about detective Inspector Helen Grace. According to Matthew, his inspiration to write this book was centered on a very dangerous game that the victims were supposed to play along. What made it worse is the part of deciding which victim is supposed to die.

The first title of this book was originally supposed to be Nemesis, but Matthew and his group of editors thought it was a really terrible name. Therefore an agent who he works with came up with the idea of Eeny Meeny and most people agreed to it positively. It even brought about an inspiration among them to think about titles that sounded childlike and even children’s rhymes. This worked well because when you create an evil serial assassin material that can be described to have a childlike title; it tends to pull more readers.

In the novel, two people are kidnapped, imprisoned and left in possession of a gun. Time passes and hunger and thirst strikes in, leaving the option of only one of them to walk away. It is a very complicated story that any detective has ever dealt with. After she spoke to the devastated survivor that was when she was able to picture the whole thing and even believe them.

Helen, being a detective, is quite familiar with the darkest sides of humans including her own. But this case is different because it has very many random victims who are involved. She gets to discover the mysteries that lie ahead of what she is supposed to do. More people go missing and the most terrifying part about it is when everything begins to make sense for her.

As they try to hunt the criminal they are also trying to protect the survivors from the monsters calling card. A strange thing that the monster does is kidnapping a pair of people. For example a mother and a daughter or even a colleague and a work mate.

The other book that he wrote was referred to as the Doll’s House and was the third book in the Helen Grace series. This novel is in a way the continuation of the happenings that take place in the previous novels.

For example, Ruby wakes up in a strange place and the abductor explains to her that there is no one who is interested about where she is. Whenever the residents discover a body that belongs to a woman buried in a private beach, the first person to be informed is Detective Helen. She knows immediately that the killer is an expert and the woman has been dead for a number of years yet no one ever reported it.

She does not really get the sense as to why the family members never reported her missing and she continues to send messages to her family over the years. She is convinced that the killer is someone who is very smart and careful and has been keeping the girl alive in a hidden place. Helen tries to put the pieces together and discovers that time is running out for the victim who is still being held captive.

According to Detective Helen Grace, the monster that she is looking for is a very patient, resourceful and twists his evidence quite well. She describes him as someone who has killed a number of times before. As she continues to struggle to make the ends meet and be able to discover the exact motivation of the killer she gets to realize that time is not on her side.

In these amazing novels, the author tries to show the strength that relationships have and the dark choices that people often have to make. They also try to understand the killers way of working and what exactly is the thing that motivates him to kidnap people and keep them alive in a hidden place that is far. Also what is to be understood is why the people of the victims do not report when their family member goes missing.

There is much more to unveil in these series of books written by Matthew. He has a way of capturing a reader’s attention just by the how he plots his events and how the characters in the novel keep interacting and you can actually picture it while reading.

2 Responses to “M.J. Arlidge”

1. Anne O'Neil: 2 years ago

   Love every one of your books and also my hubby and daughters, can’t wait for the next one of DI Grace though as hope it is a follow on from Truth or Dare

   Reply
2. Maureen Mitchell: 2 years ago

   I am really booked by your books
   Please write more as once I start reading them I Cannot stop— They grip me til the end and then I think to myself “Why did I read it so quick Now I have to wait until the next book is written”

   Please can you e-mail me and let me know when another Helen Grace Thriller will be written

   I come from Bitterne SOUTHAMPTON and I can relate to All the places in each story

   Thankyou for being such a Great writer

   Maureen Mitchell x

   Reply