DI Helen Grace Books in Order: How to read M.J. Arlidge’s series?

Helen Grace is a detective inspector in the south of England in this crime series from TV writer and novelist M. J. Arlidge.

Set in and around the English coastal city of Southampton, this series revolves around the investigations of Detective Inspector Helen Grace, a tough and determined police officer who rides a motorbike, doesn’t drink, but certainly catches (serial) killers.

How to read the DI Helen Grace Series in Order?

1. Eeny Meeny – 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 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…
2. Pop Goes the Weasel – A man’s body is found in an empty house. A gruesome memento of his murder is sent to his wife and children. He is the first victim, and Detective Helen Grace knows he will not be the last. But why would a happily married man be this far from home in the dead of night? The media call it Jack the Ripper in reverse: a serial killer preying on family men who lead hidden double lives.
3. The Doll’s House – Ruby wakes up in a strange room. Her captor calmly explains that no one is looking for her. No one wants her. Except him. When the body of a woman is found buried on a secluded beach, Detective Helen Grace is called to the scene. She knows right away that the killer is no amateur. The woman has been dead for years, and no one has even reported her missing. But why would they? She’s still sending text messages to her family.

4. Liar Liar – Detective Helen Grace has never seen such destruction. Six fires in twenty-four hours. Two people dead. Several more injured. It’s as if someone wants to burn the city to the ground… With the whole town on high alert, Helen and her team must sift through the rubble to find the arsonist, someone whose thirst for fire-and control-is reducing entire lives to ash.
5. Little Boy Blue – In the darkest corners of the city, there is a thriving nightlife where people can let loose and cross the lines of work and play, of pleasure and pain. But now that sanctuary has been breached. A killer has struck and a man is dead. In a world where disguises and discretion are the norm, one admission could unravel a life. No one wants to come forward to say what they saw or what they know-including the woman heading the investigation: Detective Helen Grace.
6. No Way Back (short story) – Jodie’s arriving at her third children’s home. She’s only fifteen. Maybe this time will be different. She’ll be safe. Looked after. But the truth is Jodie has no one left to protect her. She must defend herself. She must change.
7. Hide and Seek – Framed for a murder she didn’t commit… As one of HM Prison Holloway’s most high-profile new inmates, Helen Grace has a target on her back and nowhere to hide. She has made a long list of enemies over the course of her career-some are incarcerated within these very walls. When one of Helen’s fellow prisoners is found mutilated and murdered in her own locked cell, it’s clear that the killer is someone on the inside.
8. Running Blind (short story) – Fresh out of Police College, 18-year-old WPC Helen Grace is the first to arrive on the scene of a fatal collision. Her colleagues see nothing amiss, convinced that the young man’s death was a tragic accident. But Helen is not so sure. Who is their mystery victim? Why would he risk life and limb running across a busy highway? And what might he have been running from?

9. Love Me Not – A woman’s body lies in the road. At first it looks like a tragic accident. But when Helen Grace arrives on the scene it’s clear she’s looking at a coldblooded killing. But why would anyone target a much-loved wife and mother? Across town, a shopkeeper is killed while his customers are left unharmed. But what lies behind the killer’s choices?
10. Down to the Woods – The last thing Tom Campbell remembers is camping in the New Forest with his girlfriend, Melissa. Now he is helpless, alone and consumed by fear, hunted through the woods by a sinister, masked figure… When Tom’s body is found, displayed with grisly relish, Helen Grace takes the case. But before she can catch her breath, a second victim is taken – a serial killer is on the loose.
11. All Fall Down – “You have one hour to live.” Those are the only words on the phone call. Then they hang up. Surely, a prank? A mistake? A wrong number? Anything but the chilling truth… That someone is watching, waiting, ready to take your life in one hour. But why? The job of finding out falls to DI Helen Grace: a woman with a track record in hunting killers. However, this is one case where the killer seems to always be one step ahead of the police and the victims.

12. Truth or Dare – A crimewave sweeps through the city and no one is safe. An arson at the docks. A carjacking gone wrong. A murder in a country park. What connects all these crimes without causes, which leave no clues? DI Helen Grace faces the rising tide of cases which threatens to drown the city. But each crime is just a piece of a puzzle which is falling into place. And when it becomes clear just how twisted and ingenious this web of crime is, D.I. Grace will realize that it may be impossible to stop it….
13. Cat And Mouse – A silent killer stalks the city, targeting those home alone at night, playing a deadly game of cat and mouse with the victims. As panic spreads, Detective Inspector Helen Grace leads the investigation but is herself a hunted woman, her every step shadowed by a ruthless psychopath bent on revenge. As she tracks the murderer, Grace begins to suspect there is a truly shocking home truth that connects these brutal crimes. But what she will find is something more twisted than she could ever suspect…

If you like DI Helen Grace, you may also want to see our Tom Thorne reading order or our Jeffery Deaver Reading Order. Don’t hesitate to follow us on Twitter or Facebook to discover more book series.