The Hiding Game is Louise Phillips’s first departure from her Dublin-set Kate Pearson series. The tale revolves around Heather Baxter, a Boston-based attorney hired to defend a young nanny charged with murder when the infant in her care dies from Shaken Baby Syndrome. The return to her seaside hometown outside of Boston dredges up the horror of Heather’s past—the twenty-five year old unsolved mystery of her mother’s rape and murder. 

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Heather shares the narrative role with her mother and a varied cast of different perspectives. She is an engaging protagonist, empathetic and determined, intelligent and successful, compassionate and wounded. The writing is eloquent and steeped in vivid descriptions. While the wide cast of characters who lend their voices to the narration is disorienting in the beginning, the pace of the plot is swift and driving. 

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As she unravels the mystery of the infant’s death, Heather finds haunting links between her mother’s murder and her current case. This is a legal thriller at its finest, thoroughly researched with all of the theatre of the courtroom grippingly portrayed. The small town murder mystery, both past and present, is suspenseful, tense, and gritty. 

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This is a dark, emotional tale of mothers and daughters, of the agony of losing a child, of how fraught innocence is, and of how the damage of childhood molds us. Grief and guilt, loss and revenge drive this courtroom mystery. The Hiding Game is a visceral tour de force of a thriller. 

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Highly recommended for fans of courtroom dramas revolving around small town murder mysteries