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Saturday 11 December 2021

Hide by Nell Pattison

 


💥💥💥 Published 09-December-2021 💥💥💥

Description from Goodreads:

"Seven friends. One killer.

You can run, but you can’t hide…

The winter hike is meant to bring their nature group together.

Emily, the sister who never lets her hearing loss hold her back.
Lauren, the sister who always feels a step behind.
Morna, who doesn’t get on with Lauren.
Ben, whose feelings for Emily border on obsession.
Dan, the quiet newcomer to the group.
Kai, who isn’t just on the hike to enjoy the wildlife.
And Alec, the one who knows all their secrets.

As the sun sets, a gunshot rings out on the nature reserve.

One of the seven is dead.  And one of their number killed them"


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This is what I would call a slow burn - it never really ignites fully and sometimes fizzles to the point it almost goes out but, generally, it just stays at a solid gas mark 3 for the most part.

Seven members of a nature group come together for a Boxing Day gathering to watch a murmuration within a nature reserve.  Seems like a fairly innocuous and harmless way to spend a day and evening usually spent eating leftovers and vegging in front of the television and it is, until a shot rings out and one of their party is dead.

Each of the remaining six have secrets they don't want made common knowledge and therefore each have a motive for murder.  None of the characters have many redeeming features if I'm honest and it wouldn't have made any difference to me who was the victim as I didn't particularly like any of them. 

What follows is infighting which results in the group splitting up (never a good idea - have they never watched a horror film!) and suspicions falling on one person, then another, then another ... well, you get the idea.  More shots are heard, people are separated further, injuries happen, more separation and more infighting and, all the while, the secrets they want to stay hidden gradually come to light.

What I enjoyed about this book was the sense of claustrophobia and isolation that was well captured and, as seems to be the norm with Nell's books, the inclusion of a character who is deaf added something a bit different.

What I didn't like about it was there was too much time spent describing stuff that didn't really seem to add to the story and this resulted in it dragging - hence the slow burn.

I have read a few of Nell's other books and this does seem to be a pattern with her stories but there have been plenty of people who have absolutely raved about this book so please, please don't judge it from my review alone.

Remember, if we all liked the same things, it would be a very, very boring world indeed!

Thanks go to Avon Books UK and NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest, unbiased and unedited review.

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Other books by Nell Pattison I have read and reviewed:




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