The Hidden Girl – Louise Millar

Psychological Thriller
2*’s

 

We meet Hannah Riley and her husband Will as they drive to a remote spot in Suffolk to their new house. Hannah is placating Will who is lost in the countryside that formed the happier moments of his childhood. The new house has to be perfect for Barbara in a mere 10 days. Hannah longs for a child of her own and she believes the house is the key to finally achieving this.

Having moved in winter no sooner has Will returned to London where he works as a music producer than the snow falls cutting off the majestic sounding Tornley Hall from the surrounding towns and villages and Hannah is left alone in the house.

Hannah sees figures, has to contend with half the house being inexplicably locked and with a strange lingering smell. With poor mobile reception and Will appearing to have less invested in the move she is clearly in for a rough time until the snow clears. There is plenty of unwelcome surprises for Hannah but I felt frustrated with her. No one in their right mind would be planning on bringing up a child in a remote spot with no transport, surely? The desperation to fix the house up for the mysterious Barbara and the belief that any normal reaction to a suspected crime would jeopardise the visit made no sense even with the protracted build up and ongoing hints of the mysterious events eight months previously didn’t convince this reader.

The mystery continues when the villagers appear to contradict everything that Hannah has said causing further conflict between herself and her husband which isn’t resolved as he runs into the distance and back to London leaving Hannah to deal with the now wary inhabitants of Tornley.

I found this a somewhat tortured tale which stretched the bounds of credulity to the max, I know it’s fiction but in these types of thrillers I have to believe that this could really happen and this time I didn’t. The pace of the book is good, there are plenty of twists along the way and with a nod to recent press stories along similar lines but I wasn’t invested enough in any of the characters, the villagers in particular seemed to be the stereotypical country bumpkins of fifty years ago without distinct personalities to differentiate them from each other.  I think part of the problem is we have two strong story-lines; that of Hannah’s longing for a child as well as a potential  crime and whilst one is used to illustrate the lack of action on Hannah’s part these are two heavy subjects for one book especially when combined with the disabled neighbour, Will’s past issues as well as a strange relationship with his cousin it all became a little bit ‘issue-heavy’.

I have read Louise Millar’s previous books The Playdate and Accidents Happen which I found much more thrilling, so I’m sure if I hadn’t been a disbeliever The Hidden Girl may have been a better read for me.

I’d like to thank the publishers Macmillan for allowing me to read a copy of this book prior to publication on 22 May 2014.

WWW Wednesday (May 14)

Hosted by Miz B at Should be Reading
To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…
• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you’ll read next?

I am currently reading The Hidden Girl by Louise Millar



Blurb

Hannah Riley and her musician husband, Will, hope that a move to the Suffolk countryside will promise a fresh start. Hannah, a human rights worker, is desperate for a child and she hopes that this new life will realise her dream. Yet when the snow comes, Will is working in London and Hannah is cut off in their remote village. Life in Tornley turns out to be far from idyllic, who are the threatening figures who lurk near their property at night? And why is her neighbour so keen to see them leave? Plus Will’s behaviour is severely testing the bonds of trust. Hannah has spent her professional life doing the right thing for other people. But as she starts to unbury a terrible crime, she realises she can no longer do that without putting everything she’s ever wanted at risk. But if she does nothing, the next victim could be her . . .NetGalley

I have just finished The Broken by Tamar Cohen

Blurb

Best friends tell you everything; about their kitchen renovation; about their little girl’s schooling. How one of them is leaving the other for a younger model.
Best friends don’t tell lies. They don’t take up residence on your couch for weeks. They don’t call lawyers. They don’t make you choose sides.
Best friends don’t keep secrets about their past. They don’t put you in danger.
Best friends don’t always stay best friends. Goodreads

Next up is my most anticipated read of the year Want You Dead by Peter James, the tenth book in the Roy Grace series.

Blurb

IF HE CAN’T HAVE HER, THEN NOBODY CAN . . .
Virtual romance becomes a terrifying obsession in Want You Dead . . .
Single girl, 29, smouldering redhead, love life that’s crashed and burned. Seeks new flame to rekindle her fire. Fun, friendship and – who knows – maybe more?
When Red Westwood meets handsome, charming and rich Bryce Laurent through an online dating agency, there is an instant attraction. But as their love blossoms, the truth about his past, and his dark side, begins to emerge. Everything he has told Red about himself turns out to be a tissue of lies, and her infatuation with him gradually turns to terror.
Within a year, and under police protection, she evicts him from her flat and her life. But Red’s nightmare is only just beginning. For Bryce is obsessed with her, and he intends to destroy everything and everyone she has ever known and loved – and then her too . . .Goodreads

So my reading week is jam packed with dastardly deeds and twisted individuals… What are you reading?

Friday Finds (April 18)

Hosted by Should be Reading

FRIDAY FINDS showcases the books you ‘found’ and added to your To Be Read (TBR) list… whether you found them online, or in a bookstore, or in the library — wherever! (they aren’t necessarily books you purchased).

So, come on — share with us your FRIDAY FINDS!

First up today is The Hidden Girl by Louise Millar, I really enjoyed her last novel Accidents Happen and her debut The Playdate so I’m hoping this will be equally good.

Blurb

Hannah Riley and her musician husband, Will, hope that a move to the Suffolk countryside will promise a fresh start. Hannah, a human rights worker, is desperate for a child and she hopes that this new life will realise her dream. Yet when the snow comes, Will is working in London and Hannah is cut off in their remote village. Life in Tornley turns out to be far from idyllic, who are the threatening figures who lurk near their property at night? And why is her neighbour so keen to see them leave? Plus Will’s behaviour is severely testing the bonds of trust. Hannah has spent her professional life doing the right thing for other people. But as she starts to unbury a terrible crime, she realises she can no longer do that without putting everything she’s ever wanted at risk. But if she does nothing, the next victim could be her . NetGalley

If this sounds good to you too it is due to be published on 22 May 2014 by Macmillan

I have also got a copy of The Murder of Harriet Krohn by Karin Fossum. I’ve not read anything by this author before so this will be a new to me read.

Blurb

Charlo Torp has problems.
He’s grieving for his late wife, he’s lost his job, and gambling debts have alienated him from his teenage daughter. Desperate, his solution is to rob an elderly woman of her money and silverware. But Harriet Krohn fights back, and Charlo loses control.
Wracked with guilt, Charlo attempts to rebuild his life. But the police are catching up with him, and Inspector Konrad Sejer has never lost a case yet.
Told through the eyes of a killer, The Murder of Harriet Krohn poses the question: how far would you go to turn your life around, and could you live with yourself afterwards? NetGalley

This is due to be published 5 June 2014 by Random House Vintage.

Next is a book by Sabine Durrant, Remember Me This Way. Her previous book Under Your Skin has been on the TBR for a long while so if I enjoy this I will have to read that one too.

Blurb

Everyone keeps telling me I have to move on. And so here I am, walking down the road where he died, trying to remember him the right way.
A year after her husband Zach’s death, Lizzie goes to lay flowers where his fatal accident took place.
As she makes her way along the motorway, she thinks about their life together. She wonders whether she has changed since Zach died. She wonders if she will ever feel whole again.
At last she reaches the spot. And there, tied to a tree, is a bunch of lilies. The flowers are addressed to her husband. Someone has been there before her.
Lizzie loved Zach. She really did.
But she’s starting to realise she didn’t really know him.
Or what he was capable of . . . Amazon

Due to be published on 17 July 2014 by Hodder & Stoughton.

I Read Novels has a great review of The Enlightenment of Nina Findlay by Andrea Gillies, another author whose debut novel, The White Lie, hit all the right spots is firmly on my TBR

Blurb

Nina Findlay, alluring, accomplished, deluded, always the heroine of her own life, has found an irresistible safety in being adored by two men, brothers she’s known since childhood. But when her sister-in-law becomes gravely ill, the triangle that Nina’s depended on becomes catastrophically unstable. The life she’s known begins rapidly to unravel, and odd things begin to happen which those around her insist are all in her mind. Separated from her husband, she goes on holiday to a tiny Greek island, the honeymoon island of 25 years earlier, and is involved in a serious road accident. There, while recuperating, she becomes close to her doctor, who’s also on the point of divorce. A new relationship seems possible – but what’s real in the situation, and what’s imagined? Pressed in at all sides by other people’s truths, how can Nina be sure of identifying her own? A diary that was her mother’s proves to be a turning point. Perhaps romantic love is always a kind of undiagnosed madness. Face to face with the facts behind her assumptions, the time has come for Nina to unravel the taut knot of her past. Amazon

My resolve weakened and I bought a copy of Snarl by Celina Grace, the fourth in the Grace Redman Mystery series.

Blurb

A research laboratory opens on the outskirts of the West Country town of Abbeyford, bringing with it new people, jobs, prosperity and publicity to the area – as well as a mob of protestors and animal rights activists. The team at Abbeyford police station take this new level of civil disorder in their stride – until a fatal car bombing of one of the laboratory’s head scientists means more drastic measures must be taken…
Detective Sergeant Kate Redman is struggling to come to terms with being back at work after a long period of absence on sick leave; not to mention the fact that her erstwhile partner Mark Olbeck has now been promoted above her. The stakes get even higher as a multiple murder scene is discovered and a violent activist is implicated in the crime. Kate and the team must put their lives on the line to expose the murderer and untangle the snarl of accusations, suspicions and motives. Amazon

What have you found to read this week?