Joe Thorne was born and raised in Arnhill. He left to go to London, to get a degree and to teach, and he never wanted to go back to Arnhill. But then he got the letter. The terrible thing that had happened when he was a teenager, when his little sister went missing and then came back, that terrible thing has happened again.
The years have not been kind to Joe. Nor has his bookie. But a couple of lies to the new principal at his old high school, and he has a teaching job there. Renting the place where the latest darkness has struck is cheap. Who else would want to live in a home where a murder-suicide happened? Who but Joe, who had previously come face to face with that darkness, could deal with the coldness that won’t seem to go away? Who else could deal with the bugs skittering in the pipes or the spectre of death that hangs in the air?
While Joe tries to get his feet back under him, to maybe make a friend or two at work, to make enough money to spend some time in the pub, he finds that he can’t escape the misadventures of his past. Especially the one that ended with a friend’s suicide, his little sister’s disappearance, and a brutal attack on his family from what might be pure evil. It’s only by confronting his past that he can fix what’s happening to him in the present, but is Joe strong enough to face the evil that is holding the whole town hostage?
C.J. Tudor’s The Hiding Place is a creepy thriller, a mystery with questions of evil and good. with some good old-fashioned twistiness and more than a little supernatural spookiness. Is it too scary? I didn’t think so. I am a big fan of thrillers and not so much about the horror, and I thought the creep level in The Hiding Place was just right. I really enjoyed this novel, and I will definitely be watching for more C.J. Tudor in the future!
Galleys for The Hiding Place were provided by Crown, with many thanks.