This book starts off as a mystery and ends as a horror story. Joe returns to his hometown, which he hates, to be a teacher. Why would he return to a town where he has such unhappy memories? The town is strange too. The house Joe moves into was recently the site of a murder, his high school friend committed suicide at their high school and Joe carries around a creepy doll that belonged to his sister when he was young. The old mine in town holds the answers to these questions.

Like many others, I too, saw a Stephen King homage. Part Stand By Me/Pet Cemetery and at one point a little bit of Exorcist. That said, because of Tudor's writing ability, it still comes off fresh and original. Good read.

What Worked For Me
-I’m a big fan of Tudor’s writing style. I love the banter, the dark humor, the well-executed multiple timelines. Even though I felt like the pacing was a little too slow for much of the book, I still wanted to keep reading. There’s just something compelling about it.

-Joe. Joe was not exactly a likable character, but I actually liked him a lot. He comes across as an underdog and how can you not root for the underdog? I loved his sense of humor, even it was kind of dark. He’s had a lot of bad things happen in his life and I liked that even though he kept making a lot of bad decisions and was pretty cynical, he still had a sense of hopefulness.

What Didn’t Work For Me
-So, you all know how much I hate it when a surprise supernatural element pops up in a story. I go from reading a believable mystery/thriller to something I can’t take seriously. I honestly think this would work much better marketed as Horror instead of Mystery. I mentally just put it in the Horror category and so it didn’t bother me as much as something like this normally would.

-While there were some surprises at the end of the book, I didn’t really see the point in some of them. It’s hard to explain it without getting spoilery, but I really felt like what happened in Arnhill when Joe was young and why he’s back were the heart of the story, and tacking on an extra reveal at the end that you didn’t even realize you were supposed to be trying to figure out seemed unnecessary.

Overall
Overall, I did enjoy The Hiding Place. I liked the writing and the characters – namely Joe. However, the supernatural angle and the unnecessary final twist did sour me a bit. Still, I think fans of Tudor’s previous work will enjoy this one, as well.

Overall Rating (out of 5): 3.5 Stars

My thanks to Crown Publishing, Netgalley, and the author C.J. Tudor for the chance to read and review this e-book. Truth is that I despised Ms. Tudors first book-Chalk Men. I felt it was an obvious theft of quite a few Stephen King books. I still feel that way. Yet, I thought I saw something in this author that would and could get better. So, not being a complete dumbkins, I decided to keep her in my radar. I'm glad I did! I really enjoyed this book. She's getting better at building her character's. It's still lacking, but so much better than before. About the 70% mark, I did get a few wee bit angry because I thought it was drifting off into S.K. territory.Ala/Pet Semetary. Did it? Yes. Some words were almost spoken Verbatim from the s.k. book. Almost, not quite. Does that still count? Well, yeah. Course it does. Thing is, that Ms. Tudor doesn't seem to be a deep thinker. No, she may think deep thoughts, but what she comes out with on paper is not quotable. It's all surface. That's actually fine with me, because she may eventually come up with something that blows my mind! I give this book 3 stars. Mostly because I believe Ms. Tudor will get better. I look forward to the next book!

I was giving the opportunity to read and review this novel from Netgalley. I was in love with The Chalk Man so i was hyped to get this one! This novel follows a mans return to a small mining town to confront his past. The characters were like-able and relatable, which makes you feel Joes fear as we transcend through his past. It was fast paced and had a supernatural component which i absolutely loved. As we follow Joe through his past and present we are brought through hell and back with all kinds of twists and turns along the way. Joe has many enemies in this town and i was on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what happened to him all those years ago and the truth was more horrifying than i imagined. As with all epic thriller novels this one is armed with not just one but two plot twists at the end. I could not put this book down, i highly recommend reading this book.

When I read author C.J. Tudor's debut novel "The Chalk Man" I was blown away by her "Stephen King-like" writing style, where I had noticed she incorporated some very similar themes of King's into the book. Since I had eagerly devoured King's earlier works during the 70s and 80s, I appreciated Tudor's homage afforded to her famous predecessor. I rated "The Chalk Man" 5 stars and voted for it in the Goodreads Choice Awards. So, when I saw a new offering from C.J. Tudor I pounced upon it.

While I noticed multiple King homage in "The Chalk Man", I wasn't expecting such an outright copy of a theme this time from of one of Stephen King's best known books..."Pet Cemetery". Yes, I rejoiced in the King similarities in her debut book, but I frankly became a bit cynical when I realized what this book was about. Though lacking in originality due to its pilfered plot, Tudor manages to flesh out her own version that will give you the willies. Trust me, when you hit about 50% into the book, you will experience claustrophobia and sheer dread. It became so frightening and overwhelming that I nearly stopped reading the book, but I persevered.

The book takes place in a bleak and sooty former mining town called Arnhill in England. A lot of strange things have occurred during the decades, concerning the death of children. Oddly enough, though, there doesn't seem to be any children buried in Arnhill's church cemetery. There is a former colliery site that is cordoned off with fencing, but sometimes kids sneak through gaps and trespass. There have been plans in recent years for building a country park or housing on the former mining site, but the local board seems to always stall on the matter. Joe Thorne, now an adult, returns to Arnhill, where he re-connects with childhood gang members and re-visits their shared dark secret.

If you've already read Stephen King's "Pet Cemetery" or perhaps have seen the movie, you'll well know how frightening the premise of this book is. I don't want to ruin the surprise element for those yet to read this book, but to quote one of the most famous lines from Pet Cemetery..."Sometimes dead is better".

Well this one has taken me a bit of time to collect my thoughts. It is a quite a bit different from The Chalk Man, it has a much darker feel and mystical elements. I will also tell you that I will never look at a black beetle again without getting the shivers!

Once again there is a young man returning to the town he grew up in. Joe Thorne has a dual purpose to his return, he needs a job, teaching, and he will never get over what happened to his little sister Annie. Once all is revealed you will have a hard time getting her out of your head as well! He wants revenge and an ending to what seems to be “happening again” in this town.

Joe starts a job teaching English at the school in the small town of Arnhill in Nottinghamshire. He finds few people who are happy to see him back and one in particular who wants him gone in one way or another.

There is a shroud of mystery about the town since a mining accident in the 1940’s took the lives of 18 men in “the pit”. Joe revisits this site again, a place that his group of friends found another entrance to when they were teens. Something terrible and unexplainable happened there and Joe wants it sealed forever. “I walk slowly around, breathing deeply, trying to keep myself calm. This is just a cave. The dead cannot hurt us. Bones are just bones. Shadows are nothing but shadows. Except shadows are never just shadows, they are the deepest part of the darkness. And the deepest part of the darkness is where the monsters hide.”

This book was a slower start, I think I was into 50% before the book took off for me. But I know this author and was willing to wait. I’m glad that I did. C.J. Tudor excels at character development. I feel as though I really know Joe and some of his old high school friends, Chris, Stephen, Marie. There are some great twists in this book but they come more from the characters than the plot, but that’s a good thing. It seems easier to turn a plot one way or another than to help us understand how people can hide their inner selves.

I’m still ruminating about the ending, I have some questions that I’d really like answers to, but perhaps that is the author’s intent. I recommend this to anyone who loves intelligent, character driven mysteries, with some added “chill” factors.

I received an ARC of this novel from the publisher through NetGalley.


Will post to Amazon upon publication

Oh wow. Put some time away for this book. It has all the ingredients for a terrific psychological thriller.

No spoilers from me. Book is great with lots of lies, deception, tragedy, and twists. Also, loved the unpredictable ending. Can't say enough great about this. Read it today!!

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this fabulous book.

Joe returns to his hometown, Arnhill to settle some debts and lay some ghosts to rest. Arnhill holds many things that Joe wants to forget- suicide, murder, and an abandoned mine that started the whole thing. Joe needs to settle the past because what happened to his sister, happened to another resident of Arnhill and Joe knows who is to blame.
Working as a teacher at the local academy, Joe fights against his own demons while trying to figure out what is happening around him.
A good story full of twists and turns. I would recommend to anyone who likes a little ghost story.

*I received an advanced reader's copy in exchange for my honest review.

This new book shows that The Chalk Man was no fluke. The writing is flawless, the story suspenseful and propulsive, the characters believable and complex and the atmosphere dark and creepy. Joe is a teacher. He's a compulsive gambler and borderline alcoholic but he truly cares about his students. He has a secret and he's willing to destroy lives but... maybe those lives deserve to be destroyed. There is no black and white, only grey. The plot takes truly surprising turns and I didn't know where it was going. One teeny tiny comment I have is that a part of the story reminded me too much of a Stephen King classic, so it was not truly original in that regard. Other than that, I loved this novel. The dialogues are so believable that they only made me root for Joe. His sense of humor lightens up a very dark story. I can’t wait to see what Tudor does next.
I chose to read this book and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. Thank you, NetGalley/Crown Publishing!

But sometimes, there is no choice except the wrong choice.

Finding a review for C.J. Tudor’s second novel while it was still available for request on NetGalley was like finding a dinosaur bone in my back yard. It was a pure gold find. C.J. Tudor had me taken with The Chalk Man, I found it to be original and genius. In fact, one of my favorite reads for the 2018 year. Any category with this story available for the Goodreads Choice, it received my vote. So as you might expect, my expectations for her second novel The Hiding Place or The Taking of Annie Thorne (I’ve seen a few titles for said novel) were higher than Everest. And as we all know not all who attempt to reach the top of Mt. Everest make it….

The Hiding Place had a great deal of potential. Much like The Chalk Man, Tudor replicates a similar feel in this novel. Presenting readers with chapters from current times and past times. And our narrator is a man haunted by his childhood who needs to come to terms with the facts of what happened. Joe Thorne (our narrator) returns to his hometown to face down a recent occurrence that is too familiar for comfort. From there, you are taken down a winding path of mystery and lies.

Unfortunately, I am sad to report that this book didn’t quite thrill me like I had expected. It had great potential and reveals, but I found most of the book to be subpar…if that. My biggest issue being the first 70% of the book nothing really happens. He moves back home. He goes to the bar. He goes to work. He hints cryptically at the past. Gets beat up occasionally. And then hints cryptically some more. That in a nutshell is most of the story. Don’t get me wrong, I understand setting up a story especially in a mystery like novel. But that could easily have been done in the first quarter or hell the first half of the book. And let me clarify, this part of the story and writing itself isn’t bad or boring. But it isn’t anything special either. This attitude might yield from adoring The Chalk Man so greatly. Maybe my hopes were too high? I wasn’t necessarily let down hard, but my expectations weren’t quite met until a certain point. And that point was the last 25% of the story.

I don’t really care for any of the characters in the story either. Our narrator, Joe Thorne, isn’t exactly a likable guy. While I felt for him at points while he was a child, I still was confused about his character overall. Is he a victim? Is he a psycho? Is he just an asshole? However, I will state while he isn’t exactly a good fella, I could still connect with him as a reader on some level. So there is hope! But as far as the rest of the characters, we aren’t working with a lot to like there.

C.J. Tudor seems to incorporate bullying a decent amount. Much like in her debut, bullying plays a fairly interesting role in the actions or lack of actions of our characters. She is able to grasp and portray a rather clear image of these situations. I sincerely hope that this talent doesn’t come from experience. But she never fails to make me hate kids and their ability to show their mean ass ways. Which I really appreciate when an author can invoke some emotions out of me, whether it be anger, sadness, or happiness. It still takes talent from the writer.

Lastly, I found certain characters of the story to be a bit random. Like these characters stick out like a sore thumb throughout the story. It seems like they come out of nowhere, play a fairly minor role in some of Joe’s story. They felt a bit forced to me. Like the ride was going smooth, but got a bit bumpy. I am curious to read other reviews and see if they had similar feelings. Overall, I don’t feel like these characters I’m discussing were integrated well into the overall story as much as they were integrated for convenience of tying up some loose ends.

While this story wasn’t what I had hoped for, I am still excited to follow C.J. Tudor’s career and future novels. She is obviously incredibly talented and has a knack for the mystery thriller genre. Thank you to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for the advance copy. While this story wasn’t my favorite, I’ve read other reviewers who weren’t thrilled with Tudor’s debut praise this second book endlessly. I am curious to see how the ratings will pan out with that tidbit.

A very good ghost story couldn't put this one down highly recommend it. First book I have read by this author would highly read another one

Wow! Really loved this. Creeped me out so badly that I had a hard time falling asleep the night I finished it. I'm usually not a fan of the supernatural creeping into a book where I don't expect it but it wasn't too much, it was just right.

A bit thriller, a bit ghost story, a lot enjoyable! A great story told by a fantastic storyteller made this one very hard to put down.

Joe Thorne unwillingly returns to his small hometown of Arnhill after he receives a message telling him that it's started again. A shocking murder suicide appears to be linked to his sister’s disappearance all those years ago. Joe takes a job, under the guise as the new English teacher, and finds that not much has changed since he left. Running out of time and searching for answers, Joe is forced to face his past, the truth about Arnhill, and what really happened to Annie.

The Hiding Place is the exciting...and creepy new novel by C.J. Tudor. I enjoyed The Chalk Man so I was very excited to start reading this one. After reading the synopsis, I wasn't really sure what to expect but nothing could have prepared me for this. Although this novel appears to be listed primarily under the mystery/suspense/thriller genres...which it is…it should definitely be listed under horror as well. This element of the novel may not appeal to everyone, especially those not realizing it has a paranormal element, but for me it was just an added bonus. This was a turn on all the lights kind of novel for me and I read quite a bit of horror. The main protagonist is an anti-hero, which the reader quickly discovers has a hidden agenda. Arnhill is a creepy unwelcoming town with a dark and disturbing history including the disappearance of children...and sometimes their return… such as in Annie's case. Let's just say I had some exorcism/pet cemetery flashbacks with her character. I really liked the subtle parallels between some of the characters from Joe's past and present and how that tied into the lore of the town. Nobody is who you think they are, nothing is what you expect it to be, and it all adds up to a novel you will not want to put down. Mysterious, suspenseful, and seriously creepy, this needs to be on the top of your TBR list for 2019.

This book was very captivating. I was hooked from the first chapter. Five starts. I enjoyed the characters and the story so very much.

3.25 Stars (rounded down)

Dark and Foreboding.

Joe Thorne grew up in Arnhill. He has no happy memories of his childhood and never thought he’d return to Arnhill yet here he is. He got a job at Arnhill Academy replacing Julia Morton, the teacher who shot herself and killed her own son, Ben. Joe even rents out their cottage where it happened not believing in ghosts. He has his reasons.

Joe grew up with a gang of kids who were the town bullies and most still live in Arnhill. Something bad happened back then. Something festers there, an unease, something you can feel, under your skin and on the hair at the back of your neck. It always has, and it’s not just the people.

There is a sense of angst and dread and you just know that there are things left unfinished. Joe has a plan, a for revenge and he is going to see it through.

C.J. Tudor’s “The Hiding Place” is a followup to last year’s “The Chalk Man” which I loved (and to me was a nod to Stephen King’s earlier works). Unfortunately for me, I was a little let down by “The Hiding Place” - parts of it felt familiar and very similar to “The Chalk Man” (though the pacing of that was faster), in addition, for a good 75% of this book, very little actually happened and when it did it was quite predictable. That said, this had elements of genius: specifically the characters: Joe, Annie, Marcus, and they were spot on. C.J. Tudor is brilliant at character development and she clearly has a knack for writing about the workings of small towns. Perhaps if I had not read “The Chalk Man” first, I would have liked this one more. I am an outlier here so please do not let my review dissuade you.

This was another buddy read with Kaceey!

Thank you to NetGalley, Crown Publishing and C.J. Tudor for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Published on NetGalley and Goodreads on 11.22.18.

Interesting concept, a little like Stephen Kings early novels. Mystery, suspense, and a little supernatural horror thrown in. Joe returns to his hometown after 20 years away, the mystery builds up over time because you aren’t really sure why he left, and why he’s compelled to return, but the suspense builds up to a great conclusion. I really enjoyed the authors first novel “The Chalkman”, this second novel doesn’t disappoint!

At first, this seemed like a story where the main character returns to the town he grew up in because he felt most comfortable there and it’s time to pull his life together. Joe Thorne returns to teach at the school where he used to be a student and quickly runs into the children of his old “friends.” Trouble follows Joe from his old life and it quickly emerges that life in his old hometown was not great either. We learn about his band of five friends from the old days, mysteries around his sister Annie’s death at age 8, and the curse that seems to hang over the town of Arnhill.

I found this to be a tightly-paced thriller where I couldn’t seem to turn the pages fast enough. I was frantically trying to piece the past together while events in the present churn along at an alarming pace. There are clues that I missed along the way, always the sign of a fantastic writer. The characters are well-drawn and the atmosphere really sinks in. What really happened to Annie and is it happening again? This book is full of secrets and the ending is one that I’m still processing.

I recommend this book to those that like thrillers with a touch of horror thrown in.

*I will update my Goodreads review closer to publication date.

C.J. Tudor is a brilliant and twisted writer. The Hiding Place is a creepy thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat. I could not put this book down and I recommend this for anyone who loves thrillers.