Hello everyone!
I am back with another review, The Hiding Place by C.J. Tudor. Thanks so much to Penguin Random House for sending me a copy of this book for an honest review, as always, all opinions are my own.
This story follows Joe, a washed up teacher who left his hometown and never wanted to return. After his sister went missing - and then showed up again 48 hours later, nothing in Arnhill was ever the same. After one of the local teachers is found dead, along with her son - who also went missing but came back - in an apparent murder-suicide, Joe knows what happened 25 years ago is happening again. Except this time, he knows what's happening.
The book is written in two storylines, the present, and 1992, which is 25 years in the past. Although I'm not usually a fan of these sorts of temporal jumps because I always end up liking one over the other and not wanting to read half the book. Tudor, however, navigates them seamlessly. The past and present get woven together so well that you never get confused as to which perspective the story is in, but at the same time, you never have harsh breaks between the two.
As with Tudor's debut, I was completely enthralled with this book. Tudor is quickly becoming one of my auto-buy/auto-read authors and I cannot wait to see what she has in store next. The storyline and characters are so well-written and fleshed out.
My only real complaint with this book was that I'm not sure I get 'it.' Like *think* I understand what was happening, but there isn't really a definitive answer given. Personally, I'm okay with not knowing everything at the end of a book, but for those readers who prefer a clean-cut ending, you might struggle with this one.
This is truly one of those books you really want to go into blind - maybe just having a general idea about the synopsis is enough - because Tudor's writing speaks for itself.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to more from Tudor.