Hide Away is the first installment in Jason Pinter’s new Rachel Marin Thrillers. The opening segue of the series is an edgy page turner that revolves around one woman’s quest to keep her children safe and to ensure justice is served. This is vigilante literature at its finest. 

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Mystery cloaks Rachel Marin and her children. A horrific crime shattered their lives seven years ago, and now the single mother lives in hiding with her emotionally wounded son and precocious daughter. When a disgraced woman is found dead on an icy river, first appearances point toward a suicide. But Rachel knows differently and, much to the chagrin of Detectives John Serrano and Leslie Tally, sets out to prove the woman was murdered. 

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Pinter has crafted a tautly paced procedural with this tale. The mystery—both that of the murdered woman and of Rachel’s past—is unraveled with Sherlockian panache. The writing style is crisp and unadorned, and Rachel is a character readers can easily invest in. The deep bond of motherhood is evident on the page, as is Rachel’s penchant for and obsession with solving crimes. She is clever, though perhaps just a bit too clever on occasion, and driven by a promise to protect those who cannot protect themselves. The rest of the cast of characters have enough depth to satisfy the characters’ motivations without being a detailed character study.

 

The strength of Pinter’s story lies in the portrayal of the protagonist’s emotional struggle to balance the risk she brings to her children with her crime fighting compulsion. This is a dark, twisted mystery filled with surprising twists and evocative emotion. Hide Away is an engrossing start to a new series. 

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Highly recommended for fans of strong female protagonists, murder mysteries, and stories of vigilante justice 

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Many thanks to NetGalley and Thomas & Mercer for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review