Product Description

'I can't afford to come back from the dead.' Annabelle has had many names in her life - Sally, Cindy, Lucille. Though her father moved her from city to city from the age of ten, changing names, houses, careers and histories every few months, Annabelle never knew what they were running from. Now in her thirties, with both parents dead, she's settled in Boston. But old habits die hard and she still looks over her shoulder when she leaves her apartment, still blends in with the crowd on the subway. Then at the Boston State Mental Hospital a multiple grave is discovered. Six young girls left to die in an underground chamber decades ago, while their captor looked on. When her original name appears in the paper, wrongly identifying her as one of the dead girls, Annabelle finally knows. This was the work of the monster her father fled from. But the killer is still on the loose. And he's looked for her for a very long time. Bobby Dodge has been haunted by the Catherine Gagnon case for years. It nearly cost him his job and his sanity. As a child, Catherine was also held prisoner underground, like the victims in this latest case. But Catherine's captor was in prison when these girls were taken. Yet the similarities are too numerous to be just coincidence...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #46684 in Books
• Published on: 2007-02-07
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

Mark Timlin, INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
'A brilliant book, not to be missed under any circumstances.'

Review
'A brilliant book, not to be missed under any circumstances.' (Mark Timlin INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY )

Synopsis
'I can't afford to come back from the dead.' Annabelle has had many names in her life - Sally, Cindy, Lucille. Though her father moved her from city to city from the age of ten, changing names, houses, careers and histories every few months, Annabelle never knew what they were running from. Now in her thirties, with both parents dead, she's settled in Boston. But old habits die hard and she still looks over her shoulder when she leaves her apartment, still blends in with the crowd on the subway. Then at the Boston State Mental Hospital a multiple grave is discovered. Six young girls left to die in an underground chamber decades ago, while their captor looked on. When her original name appears in the paper, wrongly identifying her as one of the dead girls, Annabelle finally knows. This was the work of the monster her father fled from. But the killer is still on the loose. And he's looked for her for a very long time. Bobby Dodge has been haunted by the Catherine Gagnon case for years. It nearly cost him his job and his sanity. As a child, Catherine was also held prisoner underground, like the victims in this latest case.

But Catherine's captor was in prison when these girls were taken. Yet the similarities are too numerous to be just coincidence...

Customer Reviews

An intriguing, swift moving plot with plenty of suspense
Synopsis (from the blurb at the back of the book)
Annabelle Granger has spent her life on the run, her childhood a blur of new places and fresh aliases. Now thirty years old, she is living quietly in Boston - until she opens the morning paper and finds herself declared dead.

At an abandoned mental institute, the bodies of six girls have been discovered. And one of them is wearing Annabelle's locket. Working with Detective Bobby Dodge to unravel a decades-old-riddle, Annabelle embarks on a desperate collision course with her past - where a killer has been waiting years to find her, and there's no place left to hide.
~~~~~
Both the plot and writing engaged me from the first page. The trauma of having to do a moonlight flit every few years and hide behind a new identity each time is really brought home as Annabelle investigates her past. Some of the characters have apparently appeared in another of Lisa Gardners novels (Alone) but although you realise some of them have 'history' the book stands up well on it's own. However if you do intend to read 'Alone' then I would advise that you read it before 'Hide' as the story of the former is given away in this book.

Sensational thriller!
Having read a lot of predictable thrillers in my time, I started to read this book with hesitation. I could not have been more wrong. The story was thrilling and enticing and had you guessing til the very last page.

If you want a lively book from an imaginative author, whose intimate details leave the hairs on the back of your neck standing up, then this is the book for you. Lisa Gardner is an amazingly talanted writer and I can guarentee you read one of her books and you'll read them all!

Typical crime thriller
I began this book thinking it would be dull and nothing special. I was half right.
The story is suspenseful and keeps you reading right to the end. There are some strong scenes, which is where Lisa Gardner shows her skill as a writer. However this is not enough. The quality of Gardners writing is usually terrible, and she seems to have an obsession for the word "Belatedly". The characters are empty cliches, and the ending conveniently ties up loose ends, taking the easy answer. The last few chapters dragged, which is suprising as they were the only real action in the novel. I found myself not paying attention to what was happening several times.
This book is a typical crime, with the person you least suspect being the killer, and unoriginal characters. I would say read it if you fancy a simple, easy story but if your looking for originality and well written English, this book is not the place to look.