Liar Liar: A Detective Helen Grace Thriller by M.J. Arlidge

Helen Grace has some personal issues but she's a good cop.  She has the brain to put pieces together and make tiny hints something bigger.  Some cases haunt her but she never gives up.  This will be another of those cases; there's nothing to like about it.

NAL sent me an ARC of this book to read for review (thank you).  It will be published today.

Three fires are set in one night, taking down two businesses and one residential home.  The home had residents in it and not all survived.  It doesn't take long to determine it was arson.

The family had no known enemies.  The father was in debt but the loanshark wouldn't burn his house.  Who would have wanted to kill them?

There are more fires and more bodies and there doesn't seem to be any connection between them other than the fact they lived in the same community.  The mind that is controlling the fires isn't normal...

Mr. Arlidge writes very short chapters and adds a lot of players in his stories.  There are side stories, personal crisis moments, and lots of trauma before you are through with his books.  He stays a few steps ahead of you, shocks you where he can, and always leaves a seed behind to make you read the next in the series.  I'm almost afraid to keep reading his work because he haunts me, but that's also what makes this series a good read.

Helen arrests one fireman that a witness saw and confiscated all his fire paraphernalia he has collected.  He does have a fetish for fire but he's not the one setting the fires.  Who is?

When Helen begins to get an idea on who the killer is, she has to act fast.  It's about time for another fire.  She's almost too late.  Who it is and why it happened is mesmerizing.  You might be a bit more cautious about how you treat people and what you say after reading this one.