This is another summer book I picked up at a hospital book sale; the description sounded interesting and you can't argue with a book that costs .50 cents. I read it fairly quickly; it's an engaging and fast read, although to be honest, it doesn't exactly stand out. Billed as "historical fiction," the story takes place in San Francisco at the turn of the century. 1915, to be exact, 9 years after the Great Fire and also 9 years after the events of the first book (which I didn't read). The events focus on a police detective, Randall Blackburn, and his two adopted children, Vignette and Shane Nightingale. Det. Blackburn is assigned to guard a mesmerist, James "J.D." Duncan, in town performing for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. (First off, let me say that nearly every time Duncan is mentioned by the characters, they refer to him as "Duncan." No one in the book ever calls him J.D., yet that ridiculous name is printed out, in full, way too often. I know it's petty to mention, but I found it annoying. Did Flacco not have an editor?) In any case, the historical fiction title is pounded home with a lot of talk by the characters about the newest thing, the telephone, and how much they all hate it and don't think it's a technology that will last. Besides that, and some detailed descriptions of Vignette's clothes, you won't get much more in the way of history.

The story itself is straight forward, deals with a stalker, methamphetimines and Alzheimer's, and is a nice, light mystery story. I found some of the dialogue between characters as well as their various internal thoughts to be kind of trite and unimaginative. As I mentioned earlier, it's an easy, fun enough read, perhaps more of a novella than a novel. Take it along to the beach and you won't be disappointed, but you might not find yourself remembering much about it either. ( )

Detective Randall Blackburn does not like his new assignment. After 19 years on the San Francisco police force, the homicide detective has been given a job babysitting. It is nine years after the great San Francisco earthquake, and the city is starting to renew itself. The Panama Canal has just been completed, and the Panama-Pacific International Exhibition is about to draw multitudes of tourists into the rebuilt San Francisco. The famed mesmerist J.D. Duncan has been engaged as the premiere attraction, and Blackburn, along with his adopted son, Shane Nightingale, finds himself assigned as a bodyguard to the increasingly paranoid stage performer.

J.D. Duncan is known the world over as a master hypnotist. When he takes to the stage, his command of the crowd is complete. The only thing Duncan is unable to control is his own mind – he is caught in the ravages of Alzheimer’s, a disease newly identified, which robs him of his ability to remember much of his life. He combats his symptoms with an elixir that offers him flashes of clarity in between moments of mania. When strange coincidences start to increase, he becomes convinced that someone is trying to kill him, but he can’t afford to show too many of his secrets to Detective Blackburn.

As Blackburn and Nightingale attempt to guard the performer against his unknown assailant, Blackburn’s adopted daughter, Vignette, has a mystery of her own to solve. Betrayed in her attempt to attend police officer’s training in disguise, Vignette cannot help but believe Blackburn’s fiancé, Janine Freshell, is not at all what she seems. As Vignette probes underneath the woman’s perfect exterior, she uncovers a devastating secret. As the connections between Miss Freshell and J.D. Duncan begin to become clear, the lives of everyone involved depend on whether or not Blackburn and Nightingale can piece the clues together in time.

Former screenwriter Anthony Flacco is a gifted author and storyteller. His descriptions of event and place allow the reader to see perfectly the action as it unfolds. In fact, for some readers, his descriptions might be too good, as some of his death sequences are several pages long, and extremely graphic. The action of the novel unfolds gradually, building suspense in each chapter, so the reader is eager to turn each page to see what will happen next.

The Hidden Man is Flacco’s second novel featuring Randall Blackburn and Shane and Vignette Nightingale – it’s predecessor, The Last Nightingale, took place nine years before the events of The Hidden Man, when Shane and Vignette were still children. Readers familiar with the preceding novel will be captivated to see how the characters have grown, but The Hidden Man is fully readable as a stand-alone novel.

Flacco’s depiction of the unusual blended family is brilliant. Each of his main characters is amazingly complex, and it would be nearly impossible to choose one as a favorite. His secondary characters are equally interesting, and he spends time giving each emotions and motivations that bring them fully to life. Within the confines of a mystery, Flacco is also able to explore themes such as a woman’s place within society and what makes a family truly a family, adding depth and richness to an already well-told story.

The Hidden Man is an excellent novel which should enjoy a wide readership. I highly recommend it to fans of mystery and suspense, as well as historical fiction and family dramas. I sincerely hope Flacco has plans to continue this series, because I can hardly wait to read the next adventures of Randall, Shane and Vignette.

Originally published on Curled Up With A Good Book at www.curledup.com. © Elizabeth Schulenberg, 2008 ( )

The Hidden Man by Anthony Flacco. Sometimes you know right away that a book just isn’t right for you. Twenty pages into Flacco’s mystery set in 1915 San Francisco and featuring homicide detective Randall Blackburn and his adopted children, Shane and Vignette Nightingale, I was ready to put it down and return to the medieval world. However, as a Bay Area native, I am continually searching for HM stories set in the region, so I continued and discovered a plot that wasn’t half bad. Blackburn is pressured by his captain into acting as bodyguard for J.D. Duncan, the brilliant mesmerist. Duncan is the showcase act of the Pan-Pacific International Exposition, the grand event reintroducing the city to the world after the 1906 earthquake and fires. Duncan is a paranoid drug addict fighting Alzheimer’s disease, but his fears are not unfounded as there is a non-descript man trailing his every move and seeking his downfall. However, the subplot involving the power struggle between Vignette and Blackburn’s fiancée was uninteresting and did little to move the story or characters forward.
Whenever possible, I try to read a series from its beginning. Despite the fact that this is only the second book in the series, I felt lost as to the background of the principal characters and their interrelationships. Perhaps reading the first book would have helped, especially if it explained how Blackburn’s manipulative fiancée entered the scene. The major failing here is something I’ve written about in the past. I hate it when authors extensively describe their characters’ internal thoughts and self-analysis and this book is full of just that type of non-action. Finally, I believe Flacco made an honest effort to capture the city scene, but the limited number of locations used in the plot hampered his success.
On the positive side, Flacco adds an interesting essay on the nature of historical fiction as an addendum to the book and I was most impressed with the cover design by Henry Sene Yee.

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