She Treads Softly: See How They Hide

Thursday, December 12, 2024

See How They Hide

See How They Hide by Allison Brennan
1/7/25; 400 pages
MIRA Books
Quinn & Costa #6

See How They Hide by Allison Brennan is an exceptional, very highly recommended investigative thriller. Fans of the series and new readers will love this sixth novel featuring Detective Kara Quinn and Special Agent Matt Costa.

Two people are murdered in the same way and found with red poppies covering their bodies. Detective Kara Quinn and her partner FBI Agent Michael Harris are investigating the murder of Jane Merrifield in Oregon while FBI Special Agent in Charge Matt Costa and Agent Sloane Wagner are in Virginia looking into the murder of Robert Benson. As they investigate, they pinpoint Jane’s roommate, Riley Pierce, as the link between the two and other victims. Eventually they are able to interview Riley who has information about an isolated cult-like community called Havenwood in the Colorado mountains that might be the key to solving the murders.

Quinn, Costa and their mobile response team are on the case following the intricate case and as expected they all work together extremely well. Members of the team are fully realized, well-developed characters at this point for those reading the series but new readers can still appreciate the plot and investigation. Even the interaction between Detective Kara Quinn and forensic psychiatrist Dr. Catherine Jones softens.

The writing is excellent in this latest fast-paced investigative thriller. There is some backstory that tells the history of Havenwood through Riley's point-of-view and that of her mother, Calliope. The suspense rises throughout the investigation until the nerve-wracking, nail-biting end. The previous novels in the series are: The Third to Die, Tell No Lies, The Wrong Victim, Seven Girls Gone, The Missing Witness, and now book 6 See How They Hide.

See How They Hide is another superb addition to an exceptional series! Thanks to MIRA Books for providing me with an advance reader's copy via Edelweiss. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.