Today I’m joining the blog tour for Into The Fire. My review is written with thanks to Tracy Fenton for inviting me on the tour and to the publisher for my copy of the book.

Blurb:

The brand-new gripping thriller from the million copy bestseller M.J. Arlidge

Nowhere to hide. No one to turn to. Nothing to lose.

Helen Grace is sure she made the right decision quitting her job as a detective. Until the day she looks out of her window to see a desperate young woman being pursued by two vicious thugs.

Still a force to be reckoned with, Helen races into the night, swiftly downing the young woman’s attackers. For a moment, it feels like Helen doesn’t need her badge to do good, but as she leads her charge to safety, she’s struck from behind, regaining consciousness just in time to see the terrified woman being driven off in a white van.

Helen’s determined to find the woman and save her, but begging her former colleagues for help gets her nowhere. It’s clear that this time Helen is on her own.

Racing against the clock, Helen soon discovers a whole group of vulnerable women who desperately need her help. But fighting crime as a maverick is a dangerous game. One that could cost Helen her life, and the life of those she holds most dear…

Review:

I always love getting stuck into a new Helen Grace novel, and Into The Fire has everything you would expect. It’s fast paced and it had me on the edge of my seat, and despite no longer working for the police, Helen Grace is still the acerbic, dogged character who never plays by the rules that we’ve come to know and love.

There are three different strands to Into The Fire that run alongside each other, and the fast switching between them really helps to build tension. I was particularly interested to learn more about Emilia Garanita, the journalist previously known for sparring with Helen Grace, who now has a larger role to play as they work together. Her story is really fleshed out in this novel and it’s been developed really well.

Through Into The Fire, MJ Arlidge explores the issue of human trafficking. This is a subject that I felt was particularly relevant for modern times with immigration being prevalent in the political agenda. The author describes the process and experience of the people who are trafficked in great detail, much of which is incredibly harrowing and hard to read.

Into The Fire ends on a cliffhanger and I can’t wait to see where the author takes the series from here.

Into The Fire is available from Amazon.

You can follow the rest of the blog tour here: