Hide is a crime thriller that focuses on Annabelle Granger, a woman who has been on the run from an unknown stalker for all of her life, even as a child, when her parents would whisk her away at the last minute and they'd start new lives. Not knowing any different, Annabelle wakes one day to find that her death has been announced in the paper.....

Meanwhile, an underground chamber has been discovered in the grounds of a former mental hospital, and the remains of six young girls are found. One of them wears the locket that Annabelle had as a girl. Convinced there is a strong link to a previous mass murderer, Detective Bobby Dodge and Sergeant DD Warren investigate, and when Annabelle approaches them, the mystery starts getting deeper and deeper.

What I enjoyed most about this book was the mature and subtle dealing with the subject matter. The sensitive nature of young girls being abducted is dealt with in a way that doesn't really open your mind to the horrors that may have befallen them. Instead, it focuses purely on the fact that there is a murder mystery to solve, a killer at large, and that he is likely to be the very same person who has stalked Annabelle's family all their lives.

Lisa Gardner manages to inject pace throughout the book, switching the writing style from the first person with passages featuring Annabelle, to the third person when Bobby is the main focus. The characters all get depth and background, and the construction of this is expertly handled. I felt the flow was not interrupted at all, and the breaks in pages for chapters and new scenes was enough so that you could pick the book up briefly if you only had a small window to read in.

Some of the action is dealt with in a very cloak and dagger style, and Gardner manages to achieve what crime thriller authors should: the art of deflection. There are plenty of moments where there are obvious culprits, then some that are subtle enough to make you wonder whether it's deliberate or if you've really hit the nail on the head. Either way, when the ending of the book and indeed the murder mystery came along, I was surprised. It's not that the character hadn't occurred to me as the murderer, but the circumstances, the twists and the way it comes about is intricately woven but without making it seem complicated in terms of story presentation.

It wasn't perfect as a crime thriller, but it certainly made it hard to put down at times. I was very impressed with the thought that had obviously gone into the writing style and how the tale was presented. The pace of the action fluctuated but the speed of the story maintained a persistent constant, making you really want to find out how it all ends. It brings the back history of the characters into play enough so that you have to focus, but without bogging you down in too much detail to get you bored and make you want to skim. There was one plot thread which seemed somewhat irrelevant to me, but I had an indication that there had been a previous book featuring the characters, and I wondered whether having read this first would have cleared things up somewhat.

Overall then, a very enjoyable crime thriller from another author to add to my list to watch out for. I'll certainly read some more Lisa Gardner books at some point. Not knowing the name beforehand had make me put it off for a while, but I'm now glad that I picked it up and went for it. Recommended.