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    Eeny Meeny
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    Eeny Meeny
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    Eeny Meeny
    Audiobook9 hours

    Eeny Meeny

    Written by M. J. Arlidge

    Narrated by Annie Aldington, Elizabeth Bower, Lucy Gaskell and Nigel Pilkington

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    First in the new series featuring Detective Inspector Helen Grace.

    Two people are abducted, imprisoned, and left with a gun. As hunger and thirst set in, only one walks away alive.

    It's a game more twisted than any Detective Inspector Helen Grace has ever seen. If she hadn't spoken with the shattered survivors herself, she almost wouldn't believe them.

    Helen is familiar with the dark sides of human nature, including her own, but this case--with its seemingly random victims--has her baffled. But as more people go missing, nothing will be more terrifying than when it all starts making sense....

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateJun 2, 2015
    ISBN9780698404007
    Unavailable
    Eeny Meeny

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    Reviews for Eeny Meeny

    4/5

    298 ratings47 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Detective Helen Grace has a terrible situation to deal with. When a young woman kills her boyfriend, the story she tells is hard to believe. They were kidnapped and dumped into an abandoned dive pool with nothing but a gun with one bullet. To survive, one of them must kill the other, then they will be set free. The evidence proves the story true, now what. When more pairs turn up, Helen and her team are racing against the clock. The press are not helping any.

      The title "Eeny Meeny" is so appropriate. How and why are the victims being selected. Once they are in captivity, one of them will live, one will not. The one who lives, is haunted by what they did and unable to function back in "normal" life. This book had me hooked quickly and I enjoyed the way the plot moved. The crimes were unique and not the normal run of the mill that I had read before. Helen Grace is a complex character. As the story unfolds, we learn more about her past and what has made her into the woman she is. There are chapters throughout the book told about past situations and the narrator of these seems to be the murderer, but is it? A good thriller that introduces us to Helen Grace and her team and I will definitely look for more in this series.
    • 5/5
      A fantastic novel. It had all the ingredients a good thriller should have. Suspenseful, thrilling, and will leave the reader breathless until the very last page.
    • 3/5
      Just your average run of the mill crime procedural. There was nothing particularly mind-blowing about this book, and to be quite honest I found it the writing incredibly cheesy, but it's still highly addicting and I'll be continuing with this series. The chapters are short; it's a very quick read.
    • 3/5
      This was one dark book. A couple who are hitchhiking are kidnapped and left for death - unless one of them kills the other. One is found and an investigation begins by DI Helen Grace, a hard-working woman who has her own issues.

      I thought the premise of this book sounded good and the beginning of the book moved quickly but it got snagged in the middle. I became confused about some of the character motivations. I still liked the story but think if the author had expanded some of the chapters it would all have become more cohesive.
    • 4/5
      I can't remember what I read that introduced me to DI Helen Grace but it was so good that I ordered all 6 books in the series from England. I received books 2, 3, 4 and 5 but they didn't send me book 1 and 6 until recently. Book one being Eeny Meeny. The premise is really awful, someone is taking two victims at a time, you will live if you kill the other person, just a horrible thought. Of course, the survivor is never the same again. Who is doing this and why make up this tale. Detective Inspector Helen Grace is quite a character, she keeps herself on a very straight and narrow leash and just works, no social life to speak of. Learning about her and her background was as interesting as the murders she needs to solve. I'm looking forward to continuing these series.
    • 4/5
      Good mystery. Detective Helen Grace isn't a very likeable main character, but she is interesting.
    • 3/5
      First in the Helen Grace detective series. I read the third one first, The Doll's House. It is suspenseful and full of action. I'm not sure how I feel about Helen yet. Some aspects of the story do not make sense. I am going to read the second in the series and will make a decision then whether I am a fan or not.
    • 3/5
      Eeny Meeny was pretty good despite the cheesy title. - I really liked the premise - sort of like the "Saw" movies but without the gore. The characters fell a bit flat and I think the plight of the victims could have been drawn out about more in order for the reader to really connect with the horror of their ordeal. But it was good story nonetheless, I'm glad I read it.
    • 5/5
      A complex gripping plot, with numerous red herrings before all is revealed.
    • 3/5
      A bit of a disappointment, this.... Convoluted premise, well-written but the unbelievable illicit interaction between two of the key characters really made me question how well the author knows the subject matter. Additionally, the lead character's tendency to shoot from the hip likewise didn't seem consistent with her level of authority. The conclusion was a bit of a surprise but was satisfactorily handled.

      I'll continue with the series as it progresses but this wasn't a fantastic start by any means.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoy the writing style of this author. His characters are extremely human, and the premise was interesting. There was some contrivance, but nothing that distracted from the story. I look forward to reading Arlidge's next book.
    • 4/5
      This is a fast-paced thriller. Nice short chapters make for a very easy read.The premise of the book is that two people are put in a place they can't escape from with a gun with one bullet. Starving, dehydrated and slowly going crazy, one will eventually escape and in so doing will be released. DCI Helen Grace is investigating, along with her team, and trying to find out who is orchestrating the abductions.I thought this was a great crime/thriller. Maybe not the best writing but it kept my interest and it wasn't obvious how the story would turn out. I liked the police characters and can see there is potential for them to be fleshed out in the next book in the series. I think this was a clever story with a cracking plot.
    • 5/5
      From my blogEeny Meeny miny moe, who will suffer, me or YOU. This is edge of your seat, cannot wait until you get to the end thriller. I actually wished I hadn't chose this to read during Book Bloggers Appreciation week, I wasn't able to give it the time it deserved. I really like mental games and the serial killer put the victims through the worst mental game, a survival game and really no one wins. The survivor sometimes suffering more than the victim. I realized it would really depend who I was imprisoned with. I thought the serial killer did a great job on choosing. I like to be in control so I think the choice would be to kill myself or the other but letting my guard and being killed, nope, isn't that terrible, but this is the torture they go through while starving.Short chapters are addictive, just one more continues until your eyes are closing. I can't believe how these chapters really pack a punch, whoooah. I had to stop for a few seconds at the end, take a breath and continue on, yes, I was holding my breath. I just couldn't wait to get to the end, it did end as I expected but it's a series so that is what I expect but I'm so excited the next two are out, MJ Alridge is releasing all 5 within 2 years, now that is exciting. I did figure out 2 main parts of the suspense, who the serial killer was, mainly from one early scene, so it was a little annoying that Detective Helen took that long to figure it out, definitely must have been denial. I lost respect for her due to this decision, she should have shared earlier on. It actually made me think she is a little hypocritical considering the person that was corrupting the case, which I also had figured out. I really look forward to this series, I thought 5 star start to a series and I really prefer stand alone"s but I look forward to more Detective Helen Grace, she is a great main character. Strong female, genuine, a loner due to dark past but a hard dedicated worker and oh so mysterious. If you enjoyed Chelsea Cain's series and or the movies Saw, you would love this one. I think the fact of knowing who the killer was and the way it was revealed was a major fault for me, it took away from the edge of your seat worthy thrill.I enjoyed the secret lifestyle chapters but hope this continues with a little more of why in the future books. Some will not enjoy this part in the book at all but I understood the connection to the story. I initially was going to give a 4 but when I really think about it, this was twisted, dark and bloody and the mental game, brilliant so a 4 1/2 stars it is. I thought one part was gruesome but oh so intense, intelligent like. If your looking for a thrilling suspense, this will keep you up at night to get through just a couple more chapters. I will be reading Pop Goes the Weasel soon.
    • 4/5
      Terrific first in this series, can't wait to read more about Helen Grace. There's a serial killer out there outsmarting Helen at every turn. Two victims wake in a room, there's a gun with one bullet between them. They must decide, kill or be killed, the survivor walks away. The killer is smart and always at least one step ahead of Helen's team. This novel moves very fast which only helps build the tension. Highly recommend!
    • 4/5
      A solid murder mystery from another Brit author; the author's debut novel. The story follows the case of a serial killer on the loose and the lead detective's long struggle to uncover the truth and find the killer. Interesting because the lead detective, while lauded, has many flaws -- some of which slow the book down a bit too much. Overall, a good read... and I would probably read the next in the series.
    • 2/5
      As soon as I started reading this book the only thing that came to mind was the Saw movies..I haven't even seen the Saw movies but I remember seeing previews about them where they put people in impossible positions and told them if they did something horrific they would be free.The people who get trapped in these "games" find themselves in no win situations. Yea they may live but killing someone else is bound to change you in very profound ways. So which is the thrill for the unsub? The killing or the aftermath of the survivor?Twisted up in this is Detective Inspector who seems to have issues of her own. For a woman who was the youngest female to be given the title of Detective Inspector she sure seems to be easily tricked and swayed.As the story progresses it picks up pace a bit but the story still seems contrived and not quite thought out. The ending jumped the shark for me a bit and wasn't satisfying in the least. There are apparently three books in this series so far, the 2nd Pop Goes the Weasel coming out in the USA in Oct 2015. I'm not sure if I will give it a whirl or not, but here is to hoping that this is just a first book blunder and MJ Arlidge works the kinks out in the next one.
    • 3/5
      Very fast paced but somehow not as enjoyable as I thought it was going to be.
    • 4/5
      This was a good story but seemed choppy in places. I don't know if it was the writing or the fault of the ebook editing but there were times when there was one thought and then they went straight to something else. This made for a hard read at times. But aside from that it was a fantastic story. I really loved the characters, especially Detective Helen Grace.. She is a very interesting Detective with a lot of secrets. I look forward to the next book in this series. I received this from Firsttoread for a fair and honest opinion.
    • 4/5
      AUTHOR: ALDRIDGE, M. J.TITLE: Eeny MeenyDATE READ: 12/15/15RATING: 4.5/B+GENRE/PUB DATE/PUBLISHER/# OF PGS Crime Fiction/ 2014/ Random House/ 395 pgs SERIES/STAND-ALONE: #1 in DI Helen GraceCHARACTERS AUTHOR: Helen Grace/ Detective Inspector TIME/PLACE Present/London, UKFIRST LINES Sam is asleep. I could kill him now. COMMENTS: This is a thriller by a new-to-me author. It is fast paced and the premise kept me wondering. An unknown woman is kidnapping 2 people and leaving them in abandoned places that they can not escape. There is no food, water or any amenity. They are left w/ a gun and the one who wants to survive the most will kill the other. These victim pairs seem to be un-related. Mixed feelings about Helen Grace, but interested enough to read on in the series.
    • 4/5
      I got this book as an advance reader copy through NetGalley.Eeny Meeny is a a pretty great, fast-paced read. The suspense and tension is built really well and the writing is sharp and clear. Helen Grace is a hard-boiled, tough nut, with a lot of complexities written in.Overall, I really enjoyed this book. The final few scenes felt like a little bit of a let-down, including one crucial piece of evidence that I'm not quite sure is actual evidence (I can imagine my former policeman father throwing the book down in disgust), but I think I'd give Helen Grace another shot (this is Helen Grace #1, after all).
    • 5/5
      *** Review Copy***Deliciously bizarre crime/thriller. The characters are solid and so is the plot with excellent execution this book is a must have.
    • 4/5
      The title, Eeny Meeny, indicates that some hard choices are going to be made, but this one is incredibly hard. Arlidge begins with two victims in an unknown location. They have been drugged and dumped with no food, no water, no plumbing, no light. Once they awaken and finally give up yelling for help, a phone on the floor rings. One picks up the phone and is asked, "Do you want to live? One of you will kill the other and will be set free. The gun is on the floor near the phone." The phone is disabled as far as the victims being able to place a call. The victims go through psychological torture as they go from being revolted by the idea of killing or being killed, but eventually the choice is made.Helen Grace is the Detective Inspector whose team is charged with resolving the grisly case, and too soon there is another missing pair, and then another. This is a fast moving page turner, with clues gradually unveiled page by page, chapter by chapter. Can this possibly be random? Helen doesn't think so but the link is elusive. The reader learns tidbits about Helen's incredibly sordid and dysfunctional childhood, which explain her tendency to be a loner socially and a tireless detective, but could it possibly provide the link to these random kidnappings with such grisly outcomes? The questions, and the tension, lasts til the very last page of this novel.There is sure to be more from Helen Grace, a tough and capable professional tormented by a dark side buried deep in her past. She and her team are all likable and capable, but the team definitely looks to Helen for inspiration and leadership. I received this copy courtesy of Net Galley.
    • 4/5
      This is book 1 in the new Helen Grace police procedural series and if the rest of the books are as good as the first one, keep them coming. Helen is a Detective Inspector and as the book starts, she is presented with a strange case. Two young people are kidnapped, one of them comes back and the other is dead. This happens in case after case and she knows that she has a serial killer to find. The story was very graphic but very realistic. It was a definite page turner mostly because of the main character. She was a flawed person with a lot of secrets of her own. I an definitely looking forward to the upcoming books in the series.
    • 3/5
      This is the first volume in a new crime series. Helen Grace is a tough british cop with a dark history, carrying around her own personal demons, but this case is pushing even her to the limit. The killer uses an especially cruel and twisted MO, imprisoning two people without food, but with a one-bullet gun, offering one of them a way out by shooting the other. As more and more victims show up, the whole police unit is on the search, even within their own rows.The presented killer's method was not new, but fascinating nonetheless. The flaws and personal problems of Helen Grace and her team give the characters depth and reality, however some parts seemed too stagy for my taste.While I liked the short chapters, their meaning was rendered obsolete by the many jumps between POVs, switching characters and places too sudden. This was often confusing and while it may have been meant too support the fast pace of the story, instead it slowed it down on many occasions.'Eeny Meeny' is a very twisted thriller which offers great suspense and introduces an interesting new cop character readers will surely want to read more about.(I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review)
    • 5/5
      The creep factor is super high with this one! It really reminds me of how creeped out I was by The Book of Matthew by Thomas White. That one stayed with me for a long time afterwards and I feel like Eeny Meeny will also. I just keep thinking about what I would do if I was in the same situation as the victims in this book. Who I imagined myself with definitely made a difference in what I thought the outcome would be. (That's terrible, I know!)Helen Grace is broken on the inside but not one ounce of it shows on the outside. She's a strong leader that has to make tough choices and the ending just breaks my heart for her. I'm so glad that this is the start of a new series because I would love to see how her character develops with everything that unfolded in Eeny Meeny.My only frustration with this one was who the serial killer turned out to be and how the case was resolved. It made me say, "Really?" but ultimately didn't take away from how much I loved this book. I just wish it would have ended differently.I recommend this one for anyone who loves suspense thrillers and intensely creepy books.
    • 5/5
      Oh, my word, what a debut novel! "Eeny Meeny" is a thriller that does just that - thrills. Tight plot, good character development, diabolically twisted storyline. Detective Inspector Helen Grace is on the trail of a serial killer who abducts two people at a time, and every time one walks out alive. What is the killer's motive? How does the killer choose the victims?There is only one thing I'd like to mention that I wish author M.J. Arlidge had done a little better. Although we get enough of a glimpse into Helen's personal life to know that she had some sort of troubled past, we are not made privy to any of that past until, all of a sudden about 3/4 through the book, it all gets thrown at us in a hurry. Helen's past is a key plot element which should have been more thoroughly introduced throughout the entire length of the novel; I'm sure Aldridge could have done this without giving anything away. The fact that the reader finally gets to see Helen's past so late in the novel makes the ending seem a little rushed. It's still a good ending, don't get me wrong, but I would have liked that element to have been drawn out more.Despite the above, I still give this book 5 stars because it was riveting, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm really looking forward to reading the next DI Helen Grace novel "Pop Goes the Weasel."
    • 4/5
      4.5 starsSam and Amy have been kidnapped and awaken to find themselves trapped in an abandoned swimming pool. Their captor has left behind a cell phone; when it rings, and Amy answers it, this is what she hears:"Do you want to live?"For a minute, I can't reply. My tongue won't move. But then:"Yes.""On the floor by the phone you'll find a gun. It has one bullet in it. For Sam or for yourself. That is the price of your freedom. You must kill to live. Do you want to live, Amy?"I'm only on page 3, and I'm already worried; after all, I've seen this plot device before in the Saw movies:"Hello, Mr. Hindle. Or as they called you around the hospital: Zepp. I want you to make a choice. There's a slow-acting poison coursing through your system, which only I have the antidote for. Will you murder a mother and her child to save yourself?"Nevertheless, I persevered and was quickly sucked into the fast-moving plot of Eeny Meeny, the first book in M.J. Arlidge's Detective Inspector Helen Grace series. Unlike Jigsaw, who hoped that his victims would survive to gain a greater appreciation of life, Eeny Meeny's villain has a much more diabolical goal in mind. To solve the mystery, Arlidge has created a fascinating character in Helen Grace. As is the case in most police procedural series, our heroine is damaged, but the nature of that damage, and the way she chooses to deal with it, are as extraordinary as the flaws of Val McDermid's Tony Hill and Carol Jordan and Mo Hayder's Jack Caffery. McDermid and Hayder are masters of the British psychological thriller, and Arlidge has managed to earn a place in their rarified company with his debut novel.Eeny Meeny was originally released in the UK and, according to Arlidge's UK publisher, "was the UK's bestselling crime debut of 2014." UK readers already have two more Helen Grace thrillers to enjoy, with another on the way in September; I can't wait until New American Library releases the second book, Pop Goes the Weasel, in America in October.I received a free copy of Eeny Meeny through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
    • 4/5
      273. Eeny Meeny by M. J. Arlidge - 4 Stars

      This book introduces us to Detective Inspector Helen Grace in an interesting mystery with some seedy and sickening undertones. The story is set in Southampton and immediately draws in the reader with its opening lines. The killer gives two people, locked in a room, a horrible choice. The killer leaves a gun with one bullet, and to escape one of the two must kill the other. So, will it be kill or be killed and how long before hunger and thirst causes one of the pair to pick up the gun?

      DI Helen Grace is driven, a single-minded and devoted cop. She a woman with a hard and complicated past, dealing with it in a manner that's sad and in some cases, surprising. I thought the combination of victim, crime, investigation and personal lives of the characters was fairly well-balanced. It's also easy for the reader to see if they can identify with the victim's who "survived". There's violence, terror, the worst of human nature. It's definitely not ideal for a reader who doesn't like books of a graphic nature.

      The concept of the story, a murderer setting up deadly games and forcing his victims to do the killing for him is not a new concept, but the story moves along quickly as it is broken up in short chapters. The story gets a bit repetitive at times because the same structure is used by the murderer but I still enjoyed it. There are definitely some rough edges to smooth out, but I plan to try the next book in the series, Pop Goes the Weasel.
    • 5/5
      I haven't read any books by this author before so its the first time I meet Helen Grace. In this first installment she called on the case to catch a serial killer, whi kidnaps victims and only frees them when one of them kills the other.I really enjoyed this book as it was something different. It reminded me of early James Patterson with its short chapters. Each chapter is filled with action and ends on a cliffhanger. The story slso reminded me of the film Saw, where the character would inly escape if he sawed off his foot. The book was a real roller coaster of a read with plenty of suspense all the way through. A very solid read with a charcter of Helen Grace that can grow on you. There was a lot going on and I did find it hard to believe that this is the first book in a series, I felt I had missed a couple of books.I would read more by this author as I really did enjoy this book and found although it was jam packed I read it very quickly.
    • 4/5
      Eeny Meeny is a gritty foray into the brutal mystery that is DC Graves' recent serial killer case. A twisted woman has been luring pairs of victims, drugging them and then forcing them to make a terrible choice. I found the protagonist to be rather remote. Although this may lend itself to upholding an air of mystery, whenever I was told she was feeling a certain emotion, it never rang completely true due to the lack of disclosure at other times. Couple this with a tendency to jump viewpoints within the same scene, and it became trickier to connect with the story. Still, the darkly compelling plot line drove me to finish this book in a single day.