Book Review: The Hiding Place by C.J. Tudor

Sometimes, revenge can be pretty sweet. Other times, it brings about more than we’ve bargained for. That’s one of the reasons I feel like the best revenge (in my own life) is letting nature take its course with those who have wronged me – but that doesn’t make for very good fiction. The Hiding Place, by C.J. Tudor, starts with following a teacher who wants to get revenge on those at the school he once attended – and yes, he winds up getting much more than he’d bargained for.

Tudor starts chapter one of the novel with:

Never go back. That’s what people always tell you. Things will have changed. They won’t be the way you remembered. Leave the past in the past. Of course, the last one is easier said than done. The past has a habit of repeating on you. Like bad curry.

-p.5 The Hiding Place. C.J. Tudor

So here we have main character, Joe, heading back to the place that caused him much pain when his sister went missing. He lies to get the job so he can be on the inside, and that’s when he learns more than he ever wanted to know.

Tudor does a good job of cultivating a sense of dread and fear throughout this second novel. If you’re a fan of the horror/thriller genre, you will not want to miss it.

About The Hiding Place

Hardcover: 288 Pages

Publisher: Crown (February 5, 2019)

The thrilling second novel from the author of The Chalk Man, about a teacher with a hidden agenda who returns to settle scores at a school he once attended, only to uncover a darker secret than he could have imagined.

Joe never wanted to come back to Arnhill. After the way things ended with his old gang–the betrayal, the suicide, the murder–and after what happened when his sister went missing, the last thing he wanted to do was return to his hometown. But Joe doesn’t have a choice. Because judging by what was done to that poor Morton kid, what happened all those years ago to Joe’s sister is happening again. And only Joe knows who is really at fault.

Lying his way into a teaching job at his former high school is the easy part. Facing off with former friends who are none too happy to have him back in town–while avoiding the enemies he’s made in the years since–is tougher. But the hardest part of all will be returning to that abandoned mine where it all went wrong and his life changed forever, and finally confronting the shocking, horrifying truth about Arnhill, his sister, and himself. Because for Joe, the worst moment of his life wasn’t the day his sister went missing.

It was the day she came back.

With the same virtuosic command of character and pacing she displayed in The Chalk Man, C. J. Tudor has once again crafted an extraordinary novel that brilliantly blends harrowing psychological suspense, a devilishly puzzling mystery, and enough shocks and thrills to satisfy even the most seasoned reader.

“Some writers have it, and some don’t.  CJ Tudor has it big time – The Hiding Place is terrific in every way.” –LEE CHILD

“With The Hiding Place, CJ Tudor has proven that she is a true master at creating perfectly dark, highly propulsive, and tightly coiled mysteries that are utterly impossible to put down. From page one, the reader is pulled in with a gathering sense of dread, and taken on an addictive, thrilling ride to the very last page.” –AIMEE MOLLOY, New York Times Bestselling author of The Perfect Mother

Purchase Links

Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble

About C.J. Tudor

C. J. TUDOR is the author of The Chalk Man, and lives in Nottingham, England, with her partner and three-year-old daughter. Over the years she has worked as a copywriter, television presenter, voice-over, and dog walker. She is now thrilled to be able to write full-time, and doesn’t miss chasing wet dogs through muddy fields all that much.

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