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Joanna becomes all-consumed by finding out what happened to the little girl because of a secret she is hiding. The story progresses seamlessly between her narrative in 2018 and an omnipresent narrator in 1985. Wow, I absolutely bloody loved this extremely well-written, cleverly plotted mystery/thriller that had me hooked in and captivated from the spine-chilling opening sentence right through to the satisfying concluding dash of poetic justice.' ? ? ? ? ? I couldn’t work out the solution to the mystery for most of the book, even at that I only deduced part of it! I’m not slipping, it’s just a particularly good mystery! 😅 Andrea Mara is an amazing storyteller and weaves a thoroughly enjoyable tale where you think you know what’s happening and then BAM! a plot twist throws everything you thought you knew out of the window! The characters in Hide and Seek are hiding so many secrets from each other that I learned to trust no one. And Joanna also has a past she doesn’t want to reveal, not even to her family, and is much closer to the truth about what happened to Lily than she wants to admit! But the whole community needs to look within and Joanna may be the catalyst needed to solve the mystery once and for all.
When Johanna and her family move into her new home, she's sure they've found her forever home. Until she learns about it's dark past: thirty years ago, it was home to three year old Lily Murph, who disappeared during a game of hide-and-seek, and never seen again. Joanna is determined to find out all she can about the little girls disappearance and the inhabitants of the close-knit neighbourhood are all eager to speculate. But the more she learns, the closer she's drawn towards her own dark family secrets - secrets she's spent years trying to hide. The game of hide and seek is over, but little Lily Murphy hasn't been found. Her parents try to stay positive, but they know this peaceful Dublin suburb will never be the same again. Has your other daughter got lost? Been taken by a passing stranger? Or perhaps the culprit is closer to home than you think? Joanna has moved into a new home with her husband and three children in a mature housing estate in suburban Dublin. Her sense of contentment at finding their "forever home" soon subsides when a new neighbour tells her that her home once belonged to the family of Lily Murphy, a three-year-old who went missing in the mid-80s while playing a game of Hide and Seek. Lily was never found and the
The only problem now is I’ll have to wait for Mara’s next release but the good news is she’s signed a deal with Transworld for two more books! I have read every single one of her books and have never been left disappointed... and dare I say it, but I think this latest one could be her best yet!!!! Andrea Mara has perfected her own south Dublin version of domestic noir where secrets are buried under manicured lawns and expensively paved patios. In Mara's world no one, from the babysitter to the new neighbour to the smiling guests at a garden drinks party can be considered above suspicion." - Sinéad Crowley As readers, we are aware of 'the twist' in psychological thrillers. As a writer, do you feel under pressure to come up with something bigger and more 'twisty' each time?
This is very hard to put down, it’s very smart and keeps you guessing to the end, the characterisation is masterful although there are a bunch of them to get your head around. Overall, an unpredictable, riveting read from start to finish. Joanna thinks she may be remembering what happened to Lily, and her childhood self may have been involved. A lot of thriller writers in recent years seem to be fans of the slow burn approach and often that can leave a reader underwhelmed. The opening section of Hide and Seek immediately grabs hold of you, slaps you in the face and leaves you cast aside agonising over what's to come. I found myself on the edge of my seat with Joanna’s anxiety and her fear about being responsible for Lily’s death. She appears to be a good person, but as her lies surface, I found myself curious about what she was hiding. This poor woman had such a bad start in life I understand why she chose to rather lie about her past – I might have done the same. She gained my respect when she decided not to destroy lives with a truth best left unknown.
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Wow, I absolutely bloody loved this extremely well-written, cleverly plotted mystery/thriller that had me hooked in and captivated from the spine-chilling opening sentence right through to the satisfying concluding dash of poetic justice.' I loved this book! As I mentioned on my stories, I started reading it on the plane home from Tenerife. As it was an evening flight I had a little doze and had a dream involving ALL of the characters in the book! Completely invested in the storyline, and I had only just started it! Do you enjoy a multi layered, slow burner psychological thriller where are you are so darned into it you can’t put it down? Where are you scratch your head trying to figure out the puzzle exercising every ounce of grey matter desperate to figure it out and coming up with all sorts of theories? When the answers come it is so not what you had in mind but it’s so well thought out in a cleverly executed executed plot? Look no further, Andrea Mara is the author for you.
Right now I’m busy editing next year’s book, No One Saw A Thing. It’s about a family on holidays in London, rushing through a Tube station one Monday morning. Two children, age six and two, get on the Tube but the doors close before their mother can get on. When she arrives at the next station, only one of her children is there. (This book is also based on a real experience, about a time when I was a child on holidays in London and my sister and I got on the Tube without our parents!)year-old Joanna forfeits her career to become a SAHM (girl, 11; boy, 9; girl, 3) when she and her husband, 49, move into a house in a closed community where he grew up outside of Dublin. Andrea Mara has done it again! Hide and Seek, her fifth novel, is her best yet! Mara is one of the undisputed champions of twisty, gripping thrillers that will leave your heart racing and your nerves shot!
I don’t want to say too much; it’s killing me not to comment on some of my favourite parts of the story but it would give it away. Joanna is horrified by this and starts to look into it; her in laws knew Lily’s parents and a lot of the neighbours remember the Murphy family also, so Joanna is not short of people to chat to about it, but what really spurs her on to uncover the decades-old mystery is her realisation that the photos of three year old Lily look very familiar to her indeed.As a reader, I love twists and surprising reveals, so as a writer, my instinct is to surprise the reader. If there are three suspects, I want the reveal to show it was someone else entirely, but someone that makes perfect sense, an ‘aha’ moment where everything falls into place, and suddenly it’s so obvious. It might be one big twist or a series of smaller twists or a reveal that’s unexpected but satisfying. The twist has to fit the story – I don’t want to add something just for the sake of having a big twist if it doesn’t actually make sense. Andrea Mara's tight plotting and convincing characterisation make her books both compelling and intriguing.' Liz Nugent As usual a brilliantly conceived and tautly plotted thriller from an author at the top of her game. Next-level domestic suspense - even the twists have twists. I loved it - Andrea Mara is a star.' * Lee Child *
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