All Fall Down: The Gripping D.I. Helen Grace Thriller (Di Helen Grace)

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Tom Bale delivers once again with All Fall Down. I read his first offering, See How They Run, that contained such taut tension that I ate an entire bag of pretzels in one sitting. All Fall Down enters the room slowly with a buildup that is gradual and with fixed steps. The storyline simmers and teases. You know that the full boil is coming. And there are going to be some scorching blisters at the end. I read this book as part audio and part Kindle book, though towards the end, it ended up being mostly audio as I found myself listening to it while playing computer games. It was very easy to just lose myself in a book while playing mindless computer games. It was a good evening, well spent.

Allison Weiss seemingly lives the life anyone would want. A lovely home, a handsome husband, and a beautiful daughter. The only problem with this life is that said lovely home is way out of her price range, that handsome husband is very distant, and her beautiful daughter is very "sensitive". As if these problems weren't enough, she's trying to balance home-life, work, an ailing parent, and her addiction to prescription meds without falling off the rails. All her efforts to contain her addiction result in failure. Romantic suspence by LDS authors is probably my favorite genre to read. Not only is it exciting (and of course romantic) but it is also clean. And Julie Coulter Bellon is one of the best in this category! I love how she keeps readers on their toes the whole time with impossible situations and against insurmountable odds while taking them across the globe to interesting and exotic locations. and the plague changes her. it changes her position in her family, it changes her religious beliefs, and as more and more men begin to die, and women are forced to fill those positions, it changes her expectations and possibilities. All Fall Down is a twisted psychological thriller that kept me on my toes! It was unpredictable and filled with twists and turns.

While an easy read in style it is not an easy read in content. Dealing with the subject of addiction this story weaves a scary tail of drug abuse and the nose dive your life can take when your addiction takes over. I loved that this look in to addiction was told through an everyday ordinary person. Great family, great job, "mcmansion" in the suburbs. I found it realistic in the fact that addiction does not discriminate and stereotype and it can happen to anyone. This one has a very interesting plot, it felt very atmospheric and claustrophobic as the family retreat to the holiday home to try and re bond. I was recommended to this book by a fellow author, who knew that my work-in-progress includes scenes from the 14th century. It is probably aimed more at the Young Adult or teen market, so I may not be best place to review it, but with that proviso: Once upon a time there was a man who wrote a book. That book was called ‘See How They Run’. It was very good and I was a bit sad when I had finished reading it as I thought it would be hard to match. Then the man wrote another book and he called it ‘All Fall Down.’ And it was better than good. It was bloomin’ fantastic.

TL;DR: I was bored, I didn't care for the characters, and I thought the plot was predictable. Would not recommend. Imagine having a family bbq and a dying man turns up uttering the words HELP ME well that's exactly what happens to the Turner family. Rob and Wendy Turner put it down to being in the wrong place at the wrong time having no idea who this man is.But in the days that follow their lives are threatened in ways they could never imagine. The Family is being watched by someone which they are unaware of.who will stop at nothing to fulfil their own twisted desires…….But when hidden secrets come rushing to the surface, it’s clear not everything is as it seems in this happy family. Are the Turners a victim of circumstance – or does the key to their fate lie closer to home? As she goes through rehabilitation, she realizes her mom is not the person she thought she was—a parallel as the two have more in common than they may know. Both are hiding behind their fears to be perfect, walls which surround them, a pretense, as this is what they know—never show your weaknesses or let anyone know the real you. However while maintaining their secrets, false pretenses, what crutches do they use to hold them up? Something or someone has to fall. and people will die. horribly. from three different plagues; the bubonic, the septicemic, and pneumatic. all of which are horrifying, and two of which are gruesome. Unfortunately for the majority of this book I just didn't feel connected with the story, or the characters and or even when it was clear there is a huge amount of danger, I found myself not being worried, or scared, more oh well, never mind.There's no tension or fear - maybe because the prose is wooden. It's the written equivalent of dead grass: plain, colorless, devoid of all life.

The man who uttered those words was covered in blood, stinking and very soon was going to die. Then Rob would find himself in a dilemma. The police had said the man was tortured and kept asking if Rob knew him. Yet things turn tragic when Echo reveals her pregnancy to Berry-berry. Clinton plots retaliation but is unable to follow through. Annabelle and Ralph have suspicions about Berry-berry’s role in Echo’s death. Rafe vows that he will find whoever did this -- but he doesn't have to. They find him first -- to let him know that they have his brother and if he wants to see him alive again he needs to deliver the file Gary was working on with the encryption key -- and he has 72 hours to accomplish this!

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Whew! This story really put me through the wringer! My heart rate spiked a few times and I felt nervous and uncomfortable from start to finish. The psychological terror comes from not knowing who to trust, not knowing what the motive could be, and from inner turmoil within the Turner household. Rob and Wendy’s paranoia is catching as they question event from their past, wondering if it is all somehow connected. And I would have been more interested to spend time on Allison's life in recovery. Many chapters were dedicated to her downward spiral (and after a while, I was cringing), some to rehab, and only a couple out of rehab. What made her daughter be less of a handful? How did she and her husband recuperate? How can she afford to be in full-time recovery and not work at all? I was really excited to read this book, I love Jennifer Weiner and I have struggled with painkiller addiction so I was all set to love it, I didn't at all. Isabel lives in the small village of Ingleforn in a close and loving family: her father, Amabel, her beloved stepmother, Alice, nine-year-old brother, Ned, toddler sister, Margaret, and baby brother, Edmund. Not living with them are Isabel’s older brothers: Richard, who is married and lives at his own farm, and Geoffrey, Isabel’s favorite sibling, who has joined a monastery.

I don't think there's one negative thing I could say about All Fall Down. I simply could not put it down. If I had to choose one thing to dislike, it would have to be how snarky, or above it all, Allison could be at times. But then again, denial is a beautiful thing, not just the river. Allison Weiss got her happy ending: a handsome husband, an adorable daughter, a job she loves, and the big house in the suburbs. But while waiting in the pediatrician's office, she opens a magazine to a quiz about addiction and starts to wonder: Is a Percocet at the end of the day really different from a glass of wine? Is it such a bad thing to pop a Vicodin after a brutal Jump & Pump class, or if your husband ignores you? She tells herself that the pills help her make it through her days; but what if her increasing drug use, a habit that's becoming expensive and hard to hide, is turning into her biggest problem of all? Berry-berry is a total narcissist and his illusions about himself are fed by his blindly adoring family. I can see the influence of Tennessee Williams’ mentorship in this novel. Berry-berry has much in common with Chance Wayne. Both are hustlers looking for maximizing income with the least amount of effort through exploiting others. The reason I gave this novel only two stars was not because of the heavier story line or the way Jennifer Weiner touched on some grittier topics, such as addiction, marriage conflict and aging parents. No one would argue this book delves a bit deeper that the usual summer easy read concept that she has tried to toy with and fight against equally in the past. However I found this particular book very hard to keep my interest. People often have entire lists of things they fear, but one of those fears usually stands out, stronger than all the others. For me, that’s fear of germs and infectious diseases. Deciding to read All Fall Down was a way for me to face my worst fear, and although it took me a while to get through it, in the end, I’m very glad I did.That said, I don't know if Weiner can write a main character who isn't snarky about others, unhappy that she is/was overweight, and/or has a free floating anger about not being recognized as someone who is as talented as she is. It's just gotten old. and uninteresting.