If you’re in the mood for an “I wanna finish this in one day cos I have to know what happens” thriller with a mom-turned-vigilante-after-a-trauma as the heroine, working with or sometimes around a pair of talented detectives (a divorced older white male with a tragic past and an addiction to “Lord Of The Rings” and a younger black female with a new wife and her children from a previous marriage), who are hunting down the people who killed the former mayor of a small American city, then “Hide Away” will give you everything you need.

I consumed “Hide Away” in a few sittings in one day and was always keen to get back to it. It’s an entertaining read, with a plot that I enjoyed seeing unravelled, enough action to keep it interesting, and a clever use of flashbacks and past secrets that kept the tension high and the pace fast. There is violence but none of it is gratuitous. The emotional punches in the book aren’t subtle but they work. The dialogue is well done and the prose never gets in the way.

I was cheering for the heroine by the end and I liked the way the whole thing worked out. It gave me some surprises but it didn’t cheat and it seemed mostly plausible. If this was TV, the show would be an instant hit.

This is the first in a new series. It was published in March 2020, so I guess it will be awhile before the next book comes out but when it does, I’ll be waiting for it.