The Hiding Place by Amanda Mason

Synopsis

Nell Galilee, her husband and twelve year old step-daughter Maude rent a holiday cottage by the sea, needing time and space away from home. Nell grew up in this small, wind-blown town and has mixed feelings about returning, and it isn’t long before she is recognised by a neighbour, seemingly desperate to befriend her. The cottage has been empty for some time, and from the start Nell feels uncomfortable there. Something isn’t quite right about this place . . .

Maude, furious about being brought here against her will, soon finds herself beguiled by the house’s strange atmosphere. There are peculiar marks in the roof beams above her bedroom, and in another room, a hiding place, concealing a strange, unnerving object.

As the house gradually reveals its secrets, Nell becomes increasingly uneasy – and Maude spellbound. But these women – and the women that surround them – are harbouring their own secrets too, and soon events will come to a terrible head . .

Review
The Hiding Pace by Amanda Mason is a chilling and atmospheric slow burner. After receiving an invitation from her cousin to their wedding anniversary, Nell takes her husband Chris and stepdaughter Maude to her home town of Whitby. Chris rents them Elder House, a refurbished house that Nell feels as far too big for just the three of them, and doesn’t feel particualry homely. As a sense of unease settles over the family and tensions rise, Maude becomes intrigued by the atmosphere of the house and the strange markings on her bedroom ceiling, further fuelled by those who live around them. Secrets, both of the house and of those who live around Elder House reveal themselves with shocking consequences.

I love Whitby and it’s history so this book sounded perfect for me. The Hididng Place is very much a female led book, that looks at the different relationships women have as mothers, grandmothers, daughters and friends. Nell hasn’t been back to Whitby since her father died a few years previously, no longer having any ties to the town, but the invite from her cousin gives them to have a chance as a break as a family with Chris’s daughter Maude. From the start we are aware of tensions in the family, with Chris almost trying too hard to make everyone happy, and it is almost as if the house is feeding off that negative energy. Maude is feeling lost after being expelled from school and due to her mother having just had a new baby with her new husband, she is taking out her anger on Nell and decided to take the room in the attic to be on her own. In the attic she is drawn to the strange markings on the beams, there are also marks on the paneling in Nell’s room, add to this the sounds of footsteps and Elder House is a character in her own right, slowly giving up her secrets to Nell and Maude.

Amanda Mason keeps the tension and underlying malevolence throughout, not just with the house but also with the characters and the secrets they keep. Carolyn Wilson lives opposite Elder House, says she remembers Nell from school, although Nell isn’t quite sure herself, and Carolyn is trying far too hard to be friends. Maude befriends Kym, whose grandmother lives near Elder House, and she has her own personal interest in the history of Elder House, so being in the house with Maude fuels her research. Amanda Mason’s setting of Whitby was wonderful, with the ruins of the Abby, spooky atmosphere and an old house with a very worrying history. I will admit that my heart was in my mouth at certain points in this book especially as the book built up to it’s conclusion.

Deliciously dark and chilling, The Hiding Place is the perfect read for this time of year as the cold and autumn mists roll in. A house full of secrets and unusual carvings, family tensions, and a malevolent atmosphere make for a brilliant read and one I highly recommend.

I would like to thank Zaffre Books and Tracy Fenton from Compulsive Readers for the invite to be part of this blog tour in return for my honest review.