Jason Pinter brings us a new hero in the form of Rachel Marin and she is a powerhouse – just like his new thriller, Hide Away! From victim to vigilante, Hide Away takes the reader on a deep dive into the world of Rachel Marin, and it is deep indeed. Using flashbacks and slowly filling in the gaps as he goes, Pinter has written an engrossing thriller that is incredibly hard to put down.
The book opens with Rachel making dinner for her family, living a life where her primary concern is potentially burning a casserole. But everything changes in the blink of an eye when a terrible crime rips their world apart.
We immediately skip forward 7 years to the current storyline and we can tell right away that this Rachel is an entirely different person. She has changed herself inside and out, in every possible way: a new identity, new mindset, new physical abilities, and more. She has set her mind to the ideas that she will always protect her two children, and that she will never EVER be a victim again.
But even in this new town, crime seems to find Rachel. When a body is found at the base of a bridge, on a frozen river, Rachel realises that without her this case might not be solved. Inserting herself into the investigation doesn’t sit well with some of the officers on the case, leading to a tumultuous partnership/competition/adversarial setting. Sometimes helpful, sometimes overstepping boundaries, Rachel is eventually made to realise that she is putting her children in danger – the one thing she swore she would never do.
But by this point, Rachel has sunk her teeth into a target. She remembers times where she let go, with terrible consequences. This time she is determined to keep going until the killer is found and apprehended. She has seen too many criminals victimise too many people, and she is determined that, at least in this case, she is going to see that this killer will never hurt anyone else.
Early on, Rachel comes across as a little bit over the top. She seems a little too able to do absolutely everything, bordering into Batman-territory. But as you get flashbacks about what she has done and how hard she has worked to get to this point, you can’t help but get behind her 100 percent. She isn’t perfect, she is very human, and extremely well written.
The non-linear timeline might be frustrating for some readers (even though it’s one of my favourite storytelling devices) as there are quite a few events referred to in the book that the reader has to wait quite a bit for their reveal. But the reveals do come, and they are always worth the wait.
Hide Away is certainly a thrill ride, but it is also a story about overcoming victimhood, maintaining family bonds, growing stronger, and learning who and when to trust. Pinter has created a heroine who is mentally and physically capable of holding her own against just about anyone, and I am here for it!
Hide Away is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers as of March 1st 2020.
Will you be picking up Hide Away? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
From the bestselling author of the Henry Parker series comes a page-turning thriller about a vigilante who’s desperate to protect her secrets – and bring a killer to justice.
On the surface, Rachel Marin is an ordinary single mother, on the inside, she’s a fierce, brilliant vigilante. After an unspeakable crime shatters her life, she changes her identity and moves to a small town in Illinois, hoping to spare her children from further trauma…or worse. But crime follows her everywhere.
When the former mayor winds up dead, Rachel can’t help but get involved. Where local detectives see suicide, she sees murder. They resent her for butting in – especially since she is always one step ahead. But her investigative genius may be her undoing: the deeper she digs, the harder t is to keep her own secrets buried.
Her persistence makes her a target of both the cops and a killer. Meanwhile, the terrifying truth about her past threatens to come to light, and Rachel learns the hard way that she can’t trust anyone. Surrounded by danger, she must keep her steely resolve, protect her family, and stay one step ahead, or else she may become the next victim.
