While I did enjoy reading this book the ending for me was disappointing.

There are two storylines that run throughout this book, both about the main character Eleanor. Eleanor is living with her aunt and uncle in London and is the only known witness of a woman's death. The only problem is she doesn't remember much about that night. The other storyline tells of Eleanor's childhood and the problems she encountered and how this has affected her today. I was hoping that in the end the two storylines would clearly fit together and it would make sense how they related to each other. There is a general conclusion about how Eleanor sees how they relate but it seems a bit disjointed.

I received a free ARC of this novel from the publisher via Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Eleanor is a 21-year-old with a lot of life already behind her. She has travelled to London from The Middle of Nowhere, Australia, to start over and try and free herself from a traumatic childhood, which just won't leave her alone. She's already dealing with a lot and to top it all off, she turns up at work one Friday morning to discover that in between the office Christmas Party the previous night, and the meeting that morning, her boss, Arabella, has turned up dead in the Thames. There is one major problem, Eleanor can't remember several hours of the previous night.

The Hidden Hours slowly uncovers what happened during that part of the night that Eleanor can't remember. Each chapter starts with a little scene which tells the story from someone else's point of view, but the main part of the story is Eleanor's. It alternates between the fallout from Arabella's death and events from Eleanor's childhood which shed light on how she became the person she is today. Why she makes certain choices and behaves the way she does.

At a lot of points I wanted to scream at Eleanor to speak up, Just Say Something! But I had to keep reminding myself that she's come from a vastly different place than I have and she doesn't trust people the way I do.

The writing is good, the characters well-drawn and the mystery is plausible. There were a few possibilities as to who the culprit could be, but the answer wasn't obvious and the clues were held back until right at the end.

I enjoyed this book at would recommend it to people who like a mystery, without any blood and guts and creepy serial killers, and who like to read about complex characters and what makes them tick. It's a psychological thriller with a focus more on the characters than on the mystery itself. Another great offering from Sara Foster.

Hi there, thank you for the chance to read this, but I realised I have not enjoyed her previous work and do not wish to try this one after all.