The Hidden by Melanie Golding #BookReview #MysteryThrillers #Crime #TheHidden @NetGalley @crookedlanebks — Rain’n’books
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Melanie Golding’s The Hidden is a thriller that has a selkie legend woven thru it.
There are multiple voices in the story, one belonging to Ruby the estranged daughter of Detective Joanna Harper, the second one to Joanna herself, then the voice of the injured man, and an occasional voice of the mother Constance. Then the author also works out ways to screw our minds by introducing the THEN and NOW technique and it all boils down to an engrossing read.
The opening chapter of a toddler abandoned in the harshest winter outside a shop followed up with blood water dripping out of the ceiling, YIKES, that was one hell of a way to hook the reader in, but the pacing becomes a tad slower as the THEN comes into the picture of Ruby’s history with her neighbor and his mentally incompetent wife and their 2 yr old daughter.
As Joanna’s investigation zooms into a crunch when she realizes the presence of her daughter in the unconscious victim’s life, objectivity becomes lost as Joanna struggles to remain as a copper rather than a mother. By weaving the Selkie fairy tale, there’s a sense of unreality to the whole story of Constance and even though excellently done by the author, that knuckle-worthy tension did seem to lose steam at the end. The description of the islands was so beautiful, and the music of the seals played thru the violin, now that is something I wouldn’t mind hearing every day!
But by the end of it all, it was not the thriller that had me thinking about the story but the question raised by the author in her acknowledgment about the choice of a woman in captivity to return to her roots leaving her children to fend for themselves. It is a question that will never have a completely indisputable answer, isn’t it?
Compelling 4 stars☂️☂️☂️☂️
Many thanks to Net Galley, Crooked Lane Books, and the author for a chance to read and review this book. All opinions are expressed voluntarily.
From the acclaimed author of Little Darlings, Melanie Golding returns with another captivating tale of myth and the mysteries of motherhood.
One dark December night, in a small seaside town, a little girl is found abandoned. When her mother arrives twenty frantic minutes later, authorities release the pair, believing it to be an innocent accident of a toddler running off.
But when a man is found beaten and left for dead in his apartment and a bedroom is discovered to contain a padlock and-most worryingly of all-children’s toys, DS Joanna Harper begins to suspect the little girl on the seafront was not who her mother claimed. Worse, when CCTV footage reveals an image of the pair, Harper realizes she knows the woman almost as well as she knows herself: it’s her estranged daughter, Ruby.
Desperate to reach Ruby before the police find her, Harper knows her deception might just cost her everything. But if it means choosing between her daughter or her career, Harper knows there’s no question. She’ll protect her daughter no matter what. But what Harper doesn’t know is that someone-or something-else is searching for Ruby and the little girl, too. Waiting to bring them home . . . once and for all.
Steeped in local legend and exploring the depths of what it means to be a mother, Melanie Golding’s newest novel asks how far we’ll go to save the ones we love.
This review is published in my blog Rain’n’Books, ## Goodreads, ## Amazon India, ## Book Bub, ## Medium.com, ## Facebook, ## Twitter.
Originally published at https://rainnbooks.com on September 10, 2021.
