Title: Hide and Seek

Author: Andrea Mara

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Publisher: Bantam Press

Publication Date: 4th August 2022

Rating: 4.5/5

Cover:

Summary:

CLOSE YOUR EYES

The game of hide and seek is over, everyone has gone home, but little Lily Murphy hasn’t been found. Her parents search the woods and tell themselves that the worst hasn’t happened – but deep down they know this peaceful Dublin suburb will never be the same again.

COUNT TO TEN

Years later, Joanna moves into a new house. It seems perfect in every way, until she learns that this was once Lily Murphy’s home. From that moment onwards, a sense of dread seems to follow her from room to room.

AND WHEN YOU OPEN THEM, YOUR CHILD IS GONE

As Joanna unravels the secrets at the heart of this close-knit community, her own dark past begins to resurface. Because she thinks she knows what really happened to Lily – and if the truth gets out, it might be her undoing…

Review:

This is my second book by Andrea Mara, who is fast becoming an auto buy author for me, and both have been fabulously compelling and twisty. The story takes place in the Dublin suburb of Rowanbrook and the narrative is split into two timelines: one in 1985 when little Lily Murphy went missing during a game of hide and seek and one in 2018 when Joanna and her family move into their new home in Rowanbrook, a home which used to be Lily Murphy’s. Joanna, who has a dark past of her own, becomes obsessed with Lily’s disappearance and begins to investigate what really happened all those years ago.

I was totally caught up in this twisty mystery full of suspicious and intriguing characters. Both timelines are equally compelling and as the reader delves deeper and deeper into the lives of this community, they find out no one is quite what they first appear to be. Mara weaves a spiderweb of secrets and then slowly reveals the connections between and motives of this fantastic cast of characters. A satisfying, dark and gripping novel full of suspense – I would highly recommend to fans of domestic thrillers!

✶✶✶✶.5

Thank you so much to Anne Cater of Random Things Blog Tours for inviting me on this tour and organising it. I kindly received a copy of the book from the publisher. My review is entirely my own honest opinion.

Buy the book:

Waterstones | Blackwell’s | Amazon