suspense

Oh Nicole Lundrigan, you have a frightening imagination! I simply could not put down your latest release, Hideaway! Start to finish on a recent day off.

Gloria is a devoted wife to her husband Telly and mother to her teenaged son Rowan and young daughter Maisy. That's what you would see from the outside looking in. But inside it's a different matter. Gloria's moods swing from high to low with little warning. She either loves her children or 'disappears' them by banishing them to a room or a place and not speaking to them. When Telly leaves Glow for another woman, it tips her over the edge. One night Rowan has had enough and runs into the woods. And there, under a bridge, he meets Carl - a kind man who is battling his own demons - and Rowan decides to stay. And Gloria? I just don't want to say any more and spoil your discovery of the lengths a jilted (and unstable) woman will go to to get her husband back. (But he too is, as my gran used to say, a piece of work) Yep, this is where things get downright terrifying.......

Lundrigan's character building is so very good. I don't even know how to describe Gloria. She's a master manipulator, devious, cunning and cruel. We see her actions, but don't really get a look at her inner thought processes. Instead we see them - and the aftermath - through the eyes of Rowan and Maisy. And yes, these are heartbreaking to read. It was the 'what is going to happen to Rowan and Maisy ?' that kept me reading for the whole day. Lundrigan takes her story places I couldn't have imagined .The tension was unbearable in parts and I really had to fight myself to not skip to the last chapter to make sure things turned out the way I needed them to.

It seems a little off for me to say how much I enjoyed this book given the darkness it explores. But there are patches of light as well. An easy five stars and one of my most addictive reads this year. ( )