The Doll's House: A Detective Helen Grace Thriller by M. J. Arlidge

Helen Grace's career has had extraordinary cases with serial killers.  She's excelled at bringing them down.  Not everyone is happy with that.  Her supervisors don't like her stealing the lime light...

Berkley Publishing Company and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published February 2nd.

Helen has her own baggage.  She's a masochist.  She feels guilt from her childhood and that's the only thing that calms her down and makes her let the past go.  You can imagine how well that would be received at the cop shop.  That's her darkest secret.

Her other personal quest is to find her sister's son and check on him.  This one becomes a factor in this story and it's how she's set up for a fall.

The story begins with a missing person.  Ruby knows she's not at home but has no idea where she is.  Her captor calls her Summer and plans to keep her captive as his companion.  Ruby's terrified.

Helen, on the other hand, is looking for bodies on the beach.  When two young boys scare themselves to death by excavating in the sand and finding a body, Helen catches the case.  It soon looks like there might be more bodies there.

I think this author must hate Helen.  Helen is mostly a good person and works hard to take down the bad people in the world.  In the meantime, she gets set upon by upper management, her personal relationships take a dive, and she feels guilt about some of her activities.  Poor thing.  It doesn't slow her police work down, though.

The killer has no real connection to the missing women who turn up dead.  The only real connection is in his mind, so he's hard to find.  But find him, she will.  And then hang on to your seat...