Melanie Golding

This was a unique and intriguing blend of suspense, police procedural, and Celtic folklore. I greatly enjoyed her previous novel, LITTLE DARLINGS, which first featured main character DS Joanna Harper.

On a December afternoon, a toddler is discovered alone outside a shop, while at the same time across town a man is attacked and left for dead in his bathtub. Joanna has quite a complex puzzle to put together to figure out how these two are connected. The truth is more bizarre than she could ever imagine.

THE HIDDEN was a well-written book with compelling and realistic characters. I enjoyed the addition of the selkie legend too. It's a slow burn, but dark and mesmerizing at the same time. Thank you to the publisher for sending me an ARC of this book. Opinions are my own.… (altro)

My best friend bought me audible for Christmas and she could not wait to give it to me so I have been digging for gems since I got it. This is one of those gems in the Plus Catalog. Lauren Tranter is the new mother of twin boys, Morgan, and Riley. She is overwhelmed, experiencing postpartum depression and if that was not enough, one of the nights while she is still at the hospital, a young woman with twins wants to exchange/take her babies. Lauren runs away and hides in the bathroom and calls the cops. Of course, no one can find the woman and her babies. They all think it was Lauren hallucinating. She is tired, she was given medications during delivery so the conclusion is that she was imaging the whole event. DS Jo Harper reviews the report the next morning and something about the event pushes her to meet Lauren and to further investigate it. Jo believes Lauren. She knows something happened to Lauren at the hospital. Sadly, her boss does not agree with her and using the police resources is not something he wants to agree on. Jo does not want to leave the case and she starts using her own free time to follow some leads. What I loved about this novel the most is the folklore details that the author infuses in this modern tale. Lauren quickly becomes an unreliable narrator and it adds so much more to the story.

Then the unthinkable happens her twins are missing and or stolen and Laurens fears come to life. The span of the children being gone is very short and the children are quickly found, still in the stroller, looking the same and unharmed but the new mom knows they are not her children. All and all this read is worth the time and energy and is very uniquely written.
… (altro)

i really, really liked this. the writing is crisp and the tension is high from early on. we learn pretty early on who "the bad guy" is so this isn't about that, and i'd clocked him almost immediately. but there is so much here about family, community, morality, mental health, relationships, motherhood. i loved the way she wove folklore throughout (it probably helps that i'm more familiar and partial to the selkie story) and probably my favorite part of all is not really knowing if constance is really a selkie or just thinks she is. i just love the way that was handled. i would definitely read her again.… (altro)