20190112_191655.jpgHappy Friday!  Today I have a review of C.J. Tudor’s newest psychological suspense, The Hiding Place, publishing on February 5, 2019 via Crown Publishing.

My Thoughts:

This little nugget is my first book by C.J. Tudor, and I loved it!

Joe attended Arnhill school as a child along with his many friends. He does not have good memories of his time there and vowed not to return because he left under difficult circumstances…including a suicide and a murder; all on a bed of lies and deceit. 

Now Joe HAS to return to Arnhill. Something bad has happened to another student, all eerily similar to what happened to Joe’s sister. He’s the only one who can get to the bottom of what is happening because he knows the truth. 

Joe lies to get the job as a teacher, and he faces his old friends that no longer want anything to do with him and vice versa. The tragedies center around an abandoned mine. What happened to his sister, the secrets at Arnhill, and all that has changed Joe’s life are enclosed in the shadows of that mine, and Joe will have to confront them. 

Oh my, what a thrilling page-turner this one is. I was hooked on The Hiding Place and had to know what happened to Joe’s sister. The shock value is high, the writing is fluid, and the pacing is on point. Why is Arnhill so deliciously creepy? Why do horrific things happen there?

Overall, The Hiding Place is an exquisite thriller with a touch of horror, and I’ll be waiting in line for Tudor’s next book AND reading The Chalk Man asap! 

Thanks to Crown Publishing for the complimentary book. All opinions are my own. 

Synopsis:

The thrilling second novel from the author of The Chalk Man, about a teacher with a hidden agenda who returns to settle scores at a school he once attended, only to uncover a darker secret than he could have imagined.

Joe never wanted to come back to Arnhill. After the way things ended with his old gang–the betrayal, the suicide, the murder–and after what happened when his sister went missing, the last thing he wanted to do was return to his hometown. But Joe doesn’t have a choice. Because judging by what was done to that poor Morton kid, what happened all those years ago to Joe’s sister is happening again. And only Joe knows who is really at fault.

Lying his way into a teaching job at his former high school is the easy part. Facing off with former friends who are none too happy to have him back in town–while avoiding the enemies he’s made in the years since–is tougher. But the hardest part of all will be returning to that abandoned mine where it all went wrong and his life changed forever, and finally confronting the shocking, horrifying truth about Arnhill, his sister, and himself. Because for Joe, the worst moment of his life wasn’t the day his sister went missing.

It was the day she came back.

With the same virtuosic command of character and pacing she displayed in The Chalk Man, CJ Tudor has once again crafted an extraordinary novel that brilliantly blends harrowing psychological suspense, a devilishly puzzling mystery, and enough shocks and thrills to satisfy even the most seasoned reader.

Have you read The Hiding Place, or is it on your TBR? Happy Reading! ~ Jennifer THR