Title: The Hiding Place
Author: Simon Lelic
Publisher: Penguin
Synopsis:
‘It was only a game’… Until a boy went missing.
‘No one was meant to get hurt’… But a body has been found.‘Just some innocent fun’… Except one of them is a killer.
Ready or not, here I come.It’s time to play hide and seek again.
My review:
Another brilliant read from the author of The Search Party, which I also really enjoyed. In fact, The Hiding Place features the same detective – Robin Fleet – who is, this time, investigating the death of a teenage boy whose body in the grounds of an exclusive school he attended, 20 years after he disappeared.
We then flick backwards and forwards in time as we see chapters set in the run-up to the boy’s death, and the present-day investigation. The plot is packed full of intrigue, and the fact it’s set in a prestigious school with plenty of secrets only adds to the mystery… I loved the slow reveal of what really happened and I found it difficult to put the book down!
The characters are great – some are much nicer than others, but DI Robin Fleet and his colleague Nicky Collins are hugely likable and I enjoyed following them as they attempted to unearth the truth. I really felt for Ben, the boy whose body is found, as we read what a hard time he had at school, and there’s a real impending sense of doom as we know what will ultimately happen to him…
The Hiding Place is a fast-paced, thrilling page turner which combines grit and intrigue. Definitely recommended!
My rating: 4.5/5
Many thanks to the publisher, Penguin, for providing a copy of this book on which I chose to write an honest review.