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This is the story of Maggie Bradford, thrice married, singing super star and mother of two. We join the story as Maggie sits in her prison cell awaiting her trial for the murder of her third husband. For the police the death of Maggies latest husband is just a step too step far. Three husbands and three deaths. Can coincidence be stretched that far? The police think not. Joanna has just moved into a beautiful home in the Dublin suburbs with her husband and kids. All is well until she finds out from her next door neighbour that her new house was also the former home of Lily Murphy; a three year old who disappeared following a game of hide and seek nearby in 1985. The corpse at the centre of the murder inquiry is that of a down and out young junkie, living -- and dying -- in utter squalor. I never saw the ending coming and her ability to make me as a parent think about what it would be like to lose my child was truly terrifying. Any parent will feel their stomach drop when the story unfolds before their eyes!
innocent childhood game given a horror movie coating, sinisterizing the phrase "come out, come out, wherever you are..."The only problem now is I’ll have to wait for Mara’s next release but the good news is she’s signed a deal with Transworld for two more books! Daka Hermon's "Hide and Seeker" was supposedly a book for readers between the ages of 8 and 12....what the hell!!? No way would i ever give this to an 8 year old to read....nope. Daka writes of a game that we have all played and played over and over again growing up and she makes it out to be one of the most terrifying and scary games ever.....how you ask can the game be a terrifying race for your life? Did you ever think, "what if I cheat or break the rules?" These kids do exactly that and their lives will never be the same ever again!
The adult(s) overseeing us would sit on the porch chatting, napping, drinking, telling us to stop hitting one another Welcome home parties are supposed to be joyful affairs, particularly when the guest of honor went missing for a year. But nothing’s how it’s supposed to be at Zee’s party. Justin, Lyric, and Nia were always Zee’s closest friends but something horrible must have happened while he was away. He doesn’t talk about it, but he acts like he’s haunted. To pass the time at his party, the kids play a game of hide and seek . . . and that’s when the trouble starts. Any rules established at the beginning get broken, and that causes the evil Seeker to pull those rule breakers into its nightmare realm where fears become reality. It’s up to Justin to think on his feet, help his friends, and find a way to beat the Seeker at its own game. The only trouble is, he has fears of his own. And now they’re seeking him out.This was a great way to escape reality and I found myself devouring this book a lot faster than I thought I would. If you are keen on a twisty psychological thriller that slowly untangles a web of half-truths then this is the book for you. Seven days. That is not a long time. You must be better than the others at hiding and maybe, just maybe, you could be the winner! This was a wild little book that's being compared to Fantasticland and Hunger Games. I've not read Hunger Games but, for me, this is no Fantasticland. It just can't compare with Fantasticland's brutality. If I had to compare this to another book I would say it reminded me a bit of Reprieve by James Han Mattson due to the social commentary and the fact that while both are marketed as horror novels they aren't actually overtly frightening. They seem to be making you think more about the characters than the actual jump scares. Personally, I don't mind it. I don't need to be splashed with guts and gore to gain enjoyment from a horror novel. I'm not so much into creature features anymore but this was exceptionally well written and I cared enough about some of the characters that I enjoyed the ride from beginning to end. If this sounds appealing then I strongly suggest giving it a try because you could do a whole lot worse in this genre. 4 stars! I had been eagerly awaiting this book, and unfortunately for me, it was not the book I was expecting. This novel will have widespread appeal, but it employs a genre/trope that I don't like and so I was disappointed once I got midway through and figured out what was going on. Spoilers (but not major ones) below: Fourteen competitors, the list is approved, seven days in an abandoned amusement park, cell-free zone, sleeping outside is part of the game, a cash prize, houses of fun and terror. It's a "horror reality show".
I have read every single one of her books and have never been left disappointed... and dare I say it, but I think this latest one could be her best yet!!!! However, my irrational fears aside, no one does thrillers quite as well as Andrea Mara. I've loved all her other books (some only slightly more than others) so when I got an advance copy from Netgalley I started reading straight away. Overall, many people may enjoy this book, it just was not for me due to subject matter that I don't care to read.It's taken me a long time to come to grips with how I feel about this book. I liked a couple things and I really disliked some things. Unfortunately, the bad override the good. In Hide and Seek Detective Inspector John Rebus is confronted with the top and bottom of Edinburgh society. hide-and-seek may not be a team sport, but any Survivor-savvy strategist knows the importance of forming alliances, and some of our merry band will approach this adventure like any other reality-tv scenario—speechifying and working their angles for the hidden cameras, but they will soon discover that the stakes are higher than advertised, the game is rigged, and—far from being a random selection process, the contestants have all been chosen because of the one thing they all have common.
June 2018: Joanna Murphy (mother of 3) moves into a new house in the SoCoDu suburbs, only to learn that it was the home of Lily Murphy before she disappeared. it's less graphically brutal than i'd anticipated, but more psychologically brutal, an emotionally effective survival story of class divide and the entitled elite driven by the same "some people are disposable" philosophy as The Most Dangerous Game and Good Rich People, but with more monsters at the story's center. Overall this worked for me, and I had a good time reading it, despite its flaws. I'd definitely read another horror novel from this author in the future! year-old Joanna forfeits her career to become a SAHM (girl, 11; boy, 9; girl, 3) when she and her husband, 49, move into a house in a closed community where he grew up outside of Dublin. Further, I promise this is it for complaints, the horror aspects were kept too obscure. I wanted more. I liked the build and tension initially.As usual a brilliantly conceived and tautly plotted thriller from an author at the top of her game.
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