The Hidden Things
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- £11.99
Publisher Description
Inspired by a real-life unsolved art theft, this “startling, smart, vivid” (Tana French, New York Times bestselling author) thriller follows the fallout from a viral video that exposes a hidden crime and pulls four desperate lives into a deadly hunt for a stolen masterpiece.
In just twenty-eight seconds, a home-security camera captures fourteen-year-old Carly Liddell fighting off a brutal attack at her front door. The footage goes viral, turning Carly into an unlikely hero—and revealing far more than anyone realizes. Barely visible in the corner of the frame is the clue that threatens to unravel a long-buried secret.
Carly’s stepfather is driven to protect the truth about how a four-hundred-year-old painting by a Dutch Golden Age master ended up hanging in his suburban home. An art dealer once left for dead sees a chance at redemption. A ruthless enforcer resumes the hunt to recover the stolen work for his billionaire clients. And as the pressure mounts, Carly herself begins to question what really happened—and who she can trust.
As secrets surface and loyalties fracture, the search for the missing painting turns violent. Taut, twist-filled, and darkly clever, this suspenseful novel dismantles a classic heist story and rebuilds it into a gripping mystery about family, greed, and the dangerous power of what the camera catches.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A home-security video shows 14-year-old Carly Liddell, the heroine of this suspenseful, if workmanlike, thriller from Mason (Monday's Lie), successfully fighting off an intruder who forced his way into her family's suburban home. The day after the incident, the video is uploaded to YouTube and becomes a viral hit. The video also shows the corner of a painting hanging in the family foyer 17th-century Dutch master Govaert Flinck's Landscape with Obelisk, part of the haul from the infamous heist at Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990. The author builds tension by carefully doling out the story of how John Cooper, Carly's new stepfather, came to possess the stolen painting. Meanwhile, John must contend with two people who recognize the painting in the video and have scores to settle with him. The danger the increasingly unlikable John doesn't count on, however, is the one represented by the whip-smart, courageous Carly hands down, the best part of the book. Those with an interest in the real-life museum theft may want to check this one out.
