‘Hide’ by Lisa Gardner

Published by Orion 7 February 2007.

ISBN 978-75287-204-9

Annabelle Granger is dead, or so she reads in the news but she is very much alive and living in Boston. The mistake is made because a pit has been found in the grounds of the old Boston State Mental Hospital with the bodies of six mummified young girls in it. Each has been carefully bagged with keepsakes and Annabelle’s necklace with her name has been discovered round the neck of one girl.

But Annabelle is no longer calling herself by that name. Since she was seven, her parents had been constantly on the move changing identities and homes every year or so. They were running and hiding from something or someone for all that time and now Annabelle is alone with both parents dead and she doesn’t know from what she should be hiding.

It is clear to Detective Bobby Dodge that Annabelle is the key to the murders and as he digs deeper into her story it seems that even her father could be the murderer. He has to deal with his own demons, he is now working under a former lover, D.D. Warner and another woman, whose husband Bobby shot dead when he was working as a police sniper, could also be involved.

As the police investigation continues it’s clear that a number of former inmates of the hospital are potential killers and none of them can now be traced. They are either dead or have themselves assumed new identities.

Events are happening that make it clear the killer is back and Annabelle is in danger but that danger leaks out to reach D.D. too and Bobby is torn.

This is a clever, complex and unusual thriller that draws you in from the first page and makes you want to read the rest immediately. You care about the characters and just when you think that you’ve worked out who the killer is the plot takes another twist. A really good read that strikes at your darkest fears and makes you wonder how many more are out there?

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Elaine Warden