Hide in Place Audio CD – Unabridged, 9 February 2021

Rather than going in and telling the story of he book which can be found by reading the description or many of the reviews here. This review will be more based around this work as a whole.Hide in Place is a well written and compelling storyline. The primary and supporting characters have great depth and the author makes great effort in describing every aspect of each scene bringing the story to life in vivid color in my imagination without completely bogging down the story in the process.Not only is the story interesting and compelling, but composition, structure, and delivery deserve a good deal of praise. From shifting back and forth on the timeline, to bringing past lives back into the present. It is noted that this is Emilya Narmark's debut novel. It certainly did not read like a debut novel. Far from it.The last bit of praise I can add to this book is I basically read the entire book in a day. (well, the first four chapters the night before) That in itself (for me anyhow) speaks volumes. I will be waiting for the authors next novel and I hope it will be just as good in both the storyline and it's composition.

I was looking forward to the release of this book and was definitely not disappointed.I appreciated what I thought were very different main characters. Laney and Alfie are not the usual mystery or police procedural novel subjects. Getting to know them took effort, in a good way. I couldn’t just guess what they would say or do as sometimes happens in novels written with simple characters.I also really enjoyed the way things are described, giving one a sense of being there seeing, hearing, feeling and even smelling events.While I would not want to be Laney, I am hoping that I will get to experience more of her and her life.

Laney Bird is leading a ruined life. And, slight but necessary spoiler: her life doesn’t get much better by the time you close the covers of Hiding in Place. I’m telling you this not to spoil the book for you, but to warn you that it’s the honesty of the book which raises it above the commonplace. This is a book about lives in tatters. Laney’s husband has abandoned her with their problem son. She’s had to give up her beloved job with N. Y. police and move away. Everyone she’s ever trusted has betrayed her, and now her son has disappeared. Has he run away or been kidnapped? The answer is not as clear-cut as you would think. No one seems to care. But you will, inevitably, about these seemingly luckless characters who so belong together.Is there murder and mayhem for those who like it? Oh, yes, plenty, and a plot that builds toward its inevitably ragged conclusion. You’ll be concerned about these characters long after you’ve shut this book.

It’s not just the plot that’s unusual - the main characters are unusual too, not like any I’ve ever met in detective fiction. A distraught single mother is desperate to find her suddenly missing 13-year old mysterious son. The son’s a loner, definitely not like other boys his age, and his mom’s a former detective who quit the big city force and moved to a small town to care for him. Now all her past training and all his unexpected skills must combine in a race against catastrophe at the hands of a resourceful, articulate, and bitter figure from her past. Very well done!

While I don't typically read books in this genre, I picked up Hide in Place and gave it a shot. What I found was so much more than a crime novel, a police procedural, or a psychological thriller. In fact, I found that this book could not be neatly pigeonholed into a single genre. Page after page, the author created a stronger connection between myself, the protagonists (and antagonists for that matter), and their plight. She made me truly care about Laney and Alfie. This is a brilliant, thought-provoking work.The characters are quite relatable; they felt like old acquaintances only halfway through the book. The emotions feel genuine rather than just being there to serve the plot. Unlike someone reading an action-driven thriller, I did not find myself saying "I wonder what happens next", but rather "what else can I learn about these people who feel so real?" In an age when patience has all but disappeared and literature and other media is inundated with fast-paced action and mindless chase scenes, this was a refreshing, important work of art.