Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
CJ Tudor is back after her worldwide hit, “The Chalk Man”, with “The Hiding Place”, a novel just as creepy and spine-tingling as her first.
After the disappearance of his sister and the suicide of his friend, Joe is extremely reluctant to return to his hometown of Arnhill. However, when he hears of the tragic death of a local teacher and her son, he knows he must return. He is the only one with the answers. As he tries to pull off the façade of a teacher (a job that he may have received under false pretenses) and investigate the deaths, he is also trying to avoid his former “friends”, and the secrets they shared together. However, Arnhill is a small town and soon enough, word has spread that Joe is back. His ex-friends decide to make it very clear to him, (through vandalism and physical assault) that he is not welcome, and although Joe should leave, he knows that what happened to his sister has happened again. Because it is not his sister’s disappearance that was tragic, it was her return.
As similar to “Chalk Man” was in style to the great Stephen King, “Place” also had its King-like charms. A small group of young, wannabe thug teenaged boys (and one girl) discover an abandoned mine and, of course, begin to explore it, causing chaos and destruction in their wake. Years later they reunite, not necessarily accidentally, only to find that similar chaos has once again unleased on the town. The similarities to It are there, but Tudor makes it her own.
Each character is damaged and arrogant (as only true horror novel protagonists’ are) , yet most of them are likable. Tudor has ensured that a reader will definitely root for Joe, and will read each page to the very end to ensure he comes out on the side of good.
A huge horror fiction fan, this novel was entertaining from the get-go. Short chapters with cliff-hanger endings, I was drawn in from page one, desperate to understand the complexities of Arnhill and its secrets. Tudor does this well, too, depicting the small mining town that has seen better days as the novel’s haunting setting.
I was satisfied with the outcome of the novel, but found the ending in itself to be a little rushed. I wanted more detail, and although the ending had its fair share of unpredictability, I still wanted more.
Tudor is a must-read for fans of Stephen King. “The Chalk Man” was haunting and downright creepy, and “The Hiding Place” also earns top horror honours in its own right. Well-written, with flavours of spine tingling suspense, “The Hiding Place” is something that should be experienced(except perhaps, maybe with the lights on?)

I was all over the place with this book. It was at times gripping, laughable, chilling, confusing, and dull, so I’m not having the easiest time gathering my thoughts and deciding on a rating.

To be honest I’m not exactly sure what the main mystery here was supposed to be so I’ll spare you from too many plot details, but basically, when Joe Thorne was a teenager his sister Annie died, following a period where she went missing for 48 hours before turning up again. Now Joe is a teacher at his old school and he has reason to believe that whatever happened to Annie is happening again. That doesn’t give you a good sense of just how convoluted this was, but I guess that’s the gist.

So that’s criticism number one: there are too many plot threads. Half of them are unnecessary and half of them are left unresolved. There’s also a supernatural element that is only halfheartedly integrated into the story, and the lack of answers we receive about this felt to me like Tudor didn’t have any of the answers herself and fell back on the lazy excuse of ‘well it’s supernatural, I don’t need to explain it.’ Since so much went unexplained, the ending was all kinds of anticlimactic, and the ‘final showdown,’ if we can call it that, was probably one of the worst thriller scenes I’ve ever read. But hey, at least Joe has no illusions to the contrary about what kind of book he’s in. “And then, feeling very much like a character in a bad thriller, I say: ‘I think we should talk.'”

And that’s another problem, the desperate attempts to overcompensate for dull moments with humor that doesn’t land. In the first half of this book in particular you could hardly go a page without cringing due to something like this:

“Never go back. That’s what people always tell you. Things will have changed. They won’t be the way you remembered. Leave the past in the past. Of course, the last one is easier said than done. The past has a habit of repeating on you. Like bad curry.”

… which was frustrating when the strongest thing about this book is its atmosphere. When your book manages to be as creepy and downright terrifying as this one can be at times, you shouldn’t sacrifice the tone for these silly throwaway lines. And the thing is, this book was properly brilliant at times. Certain scenes, particularly the flashbacks, were tense and vivid and gripping, and I had plenty of moments of not being able to put this book down because I needed to know what happened next. So in that way, it was one of the more fun reading experiences I’ve had recently. Unfortunately I was rewarded for racing through it with an altogether terrible ending.

So on the whole, where this is good, I actually think it’s better than The Chalk Man. Where it’s bad, it’s worse by far. The Hiding Place is certainly more ambitious, but The Chalk Man is more consistent. (I’ve also seen many reviews comment on the transparent similarity to Stephen King’s Pet Sematary, but as I haven’t read any King myself I can’t personally comment on that – I just wanted to mention it for everyone else’s consideration.)

Thank you to Netgalley and Crown for the advanced copy provided in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately I was a little disappointed with this latest offering from C. J. Tudor. It felt like it took forever to get started and then didn't really offer a satisfying ending.

Oh my <sigh> This is such a mixed review to write. I’ll break it down: I can easily give it 5 stars for a suspenseful story and writing style; Ms. Tudor is a great storyteller. But the stars go down from there.

I’ll give 3 stars for character development unless you like Joe being a spineless bloke who’d rather do nothing than step up to the plate; then I’ll give it 4. I didn’t like or connect with any of the characters.

It gets only 2 stars because it was too contrived; the twist that was supposed to be supernatural was a little too ‘it-was-a-dark-and-stormy-night’ for me. It reminded me of a story made up for kids around a campfire. I get it; the words logic and supernatural don’t necessarily go together, but this became hokey.

I’ll give it 1.5 stars for an ultra-contrived ending. A writer must bring everything together, but this ending had desperation written all over it. Really? We’re supposed to believe what happened to the Hursts and Gloria?

The first three-quarters was a page turner for me … suspenseful … well written. I loved it. Then things – mostly not credible – started happening to make the many twists and turns work, leaving me highly disappointed.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review The Hiding Place/aka The Taking of Annie Thorne. I was eager to read it since I enjoyed The Chalk Man; unfortunately, this one not so much. I’ll give this one a generous 3-star rating.

Favorite Quotes:

Gloria might look like a delicate china doll. But the only doll she has anything in common with is Chucky.

Simon is a bloody awful teacher, but one thing he excels at is getting under other people’s skin. If you have an Achilles’ heel, he’ll find it and nip at it like a starving terrier.

We’re all still children inside. The same fears, the same joys. We just get taller, and better at hiding things.

There are no such things as white lies. Lies are never black or white. Only gray. A fog obscuring the truth. Sometimes so thick we can barely see it ourselves.

… something changed in her, that night, when we went down there. Maybe something changed in all of us. Maybe guilt and regret weren’t the only things we brought back.


My Review:

The Hiding Place was ingeniously crafted, wickedly paced, and brilliantly executed. I cannot recall the last time I was so raptly attentive or willingly read anything so creepily mesmerizing. I tumbled right into this complex and twisted tale of deceit, regrets, and dark humor. It was chillingly realistic. I was taut with tension, hair sticking straight up, shoulders in my ears, and chewing my fingers; yet I didn’t dare put my Kindle down for fear of what would happen to the character next if I abandoned him to his own devices. The storylines were cleverly contrived and the writing was whip-smart and loaded with clever snark while it beckoned unremittingly with ruthless intrigue and cunning misdirections.

I was right there beside the irreverently flippant and rabidly waspish Joe the entire time - sometimes I was on his shoulder, other times I was behind his eyes and rattling around in his cranium. Ms. Tudor’s sharply honed words kept me present, fully tethered, and constantly on edge. I smelled the vile dankness of evil, heard the skittering of the hoards of insects, and felt his deep desperation and loathing as well as more than a few icy prickles of fear and anxiety. I was so fully engaged I even experienced a sense of claustrophobia while he was crawling through the dark tunnels.

After reading The Chalk Man, I postulated the hypothesis of C.J. Tudor being an evil genius; a theory she has more than proven. Luckily for us, in addition to her gifted intellect she also possesses exceptionally strong word voodoo, and I for one, cannot get enough of it.

As much as I loved The Chalk Man, I’m quite pleased to say that The Hiding Place was a bit of a departure from the author’s debut, in a couple of amazing ways. First, I felt that it was much darker and creepier (always a plus), and second, I also greatly enjoyed the touch of the supernatural. Since C.J. Tudor’s previous novel was a straight-up suspense-thriller, this fantastical element might turn out to be a deal breaker for some, but as a speculative fiction reader by nature and habit, I welcomed it with open arms.

The story follows Joe Thorne, a middle-aged school teacher who returns to his home town of Arnhill in order to settle an old score. It’s not what he wants—but it is what he must do. After hearing about a shocking murder-suicide involving a mother who brutally killed her teenage son before shooting herself, Joe fears what happened to him all those years ago is happening again. So he gets a job at the high school he used to attend, replacing the very same woman who committed the crime, and also starts renting an abandoned and dilapidated cottage in town, living in the very same house where the horror took place. All these decisions are calculated moves on Joe’s part. He has a plan, and it requires integrating himself back into the community so that he can track down a few old “friends” still living in Arnhill—those who were there on that day so long ago, when something terrible and strange happened to Joe’s beloved younger sister Annie.

But Joe has plenty of secrets he’s hiding too. His gambling problems have made him some dangerous enemies since leaving Arnhill, and they’ve followed him home to join the ghosts of his past in haunting him. As expected, his return has not been met with overwhelming enthusiasm either. Joe hung out with the wrong crowd as a youth and did some pretty bad things. Being in Arnhill again means reconciling himself with the wretched teenager he once was, as well as confronting the truth of what happened to his little sister in that abandoned old mine where he and his gang discovered the real meaning of terror.

In a way, The Hiding Place can be seen as a redemption story for our protagonist Joe, who finally realizes he’s run from his past long enough. Sure, there are selfish reasons for returning to Arnhill, but he’s also ready to face up to the things he’s done wrong and to try to right them. Something is rotting at the heart of his home town, which could be a combination of corruption and something more uncanny or preternatural—whatever it is, it’s a vicious cycle that needs to be stopped, even if it’s already too late for Joe and his family.

Admittedly, it wasn’t until the story was well underway that I felt fully invested in it. But that’s not to say the introductory parts of this novel were slow or uninteresting, because quite the opposite is true. In fact, the opening scene is gripping both in its disturbing imagery and mysterious intensity, which sets the tone for the rest of the novel. Instead, the reason for the plot’s delayed takeoff has everything to do with how carefully and deliberately information is doled out. Joe plays all his cards close to his chest unless he absolutely has to share the details, so at the beginning, most of the story’s intrigue was driven by simply the desire to know more about him: Why is he really back in Arnhill? Why do all his old friends seem displeased with him showing up again, and what happened to cause this falling out? Why is he so evasive when it comes to certain topics in his past like his sister Annie, or the baffling circumstances behind the car accident that he was involved in when he was younger? What does any of this have to do with the gruesome murder-suicide? And what was the meaning of the puzzling message written in blood at the scene? So many questions were teased, and while they certainly kept me reading to find out more, it wasn’t until the answers started coming that I finally found myself completely drawn in.

I also continue to be impressed with C.J. Tudor’s writing. While her setup may require a bit of patience, she is a natural storyteller, with an incredible way with words. I loved the measured pacing with which she revealed information, and the way she described certain things. Ultimately, I found some of the more mundane (as in earthly) character-related drama to be less interesting than the supernatural elements (others are correct in that some of them are quite reminiscent of classic Stephen King) but in the end, that’s due to the kind of reader I am and the stories I prefer. I understand some might not like the vagueness of the details, but in this particular case, I was happy that we were left with a bit of ambiguity.

Overall, I liked The Hiding Place just as much—and in some respects, a little bit more—than The Chalk Man. I can see Tudor becoming my new go-to author for thriller-suspense mysteries, especially if I’m looking for something with a good dose of creep factor.

"Happiness is overrated; it’s far too short-lived, for a start. If you bought it on Amazon, you’d demand a refund. Broke after a month and impossible to fix. Next time will try misery—apparently that shit lasts forever."
Joe Thorne left his hometown under a cloud of grief and guilt. Never to return, or so he thought. Part time teacher, full time heavy drinker and gambler, he tries to block out what happened all those years ago, and some days he even succeeds. When he gets a strange message that reminds him of his tragic past, and with nowhere to escape his mounting gambling debts he heads home to Arnhill to hide from the thugs who want to collect, and to uncover what really happened all those years ago.
Most of the people who remember Joe are not happy to see him, and slowly we learn why the feeling is mutual. I loved the flashbacks to Joe's childhood and the supernatural overtones.
C.J. Tudor has officially cemented her place on my list of must read authors.
5 out of 5 stars

The Hiding Place / The Taking of Annie Thorne (Pick your title!)
Someone mentioned in their review that this felt a lot like Pet Cemetery. Well, I haven't read that book. I did read another book recently about people who left and then came back. Thankfully this book did a much better job of telling the story. I liked how the main character, Joe, was stuck between not wanting to come back to his childhood home, needing to hide out from the people he owed money to, and really wanting to know what had happened all those years ago. This is life, people. Problems do not come along on a singular basis but instead gang up on a person. In this case, it was a limping English teacher who lost his sister and father in a car accident many years before. Ms. Tudor did a terrific job of describing the present and the past and the relationships that overshadow everything that happened.

Holy balls can C.J. Tudor write a good book!

Honestly, The Hiding Place is probably the creepiest book I have read since…well…The Chalk Man. You can’t help but being pulled in to this dark and disturbing story.

Amazing authors like King and Hill can scare you but Tudor will leave you deeply unsettled and chilled to the bone.

I don’t freak out easy when it comes to horror but I read this book in one sitting…alone…at night. Literal goosebumps and worth every second.

I know I’m keeping this review short and sweet but I honestly did not find one single flaw with The Hiding Place, other than the fact that I’m going to have to buy this twice; one US cover and title and one UK.

In short: Buy. This. Book.

You might need to sleep with the lights on for a few days, but it’ll be worth it!

Thanks to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for providing me with an early copy of this book to read and provide my own honest opinions.

This book surprised me, in a good way. While the story was intriguing and well-written, I thought the term “thriller” didn’t apply to it for most of the book and only anticipated there being one big twist at the end. Then things took a turn. The end of the book not only got super creepy but it delivered 2 great twists that I didn’t see coming. This was a fast read and it did not disappoint!

Good mystery story, but not a great one though it did get better towards the end. Others have mentioned how similar it is to one of Stephen King's books and I do have to agree. It was not one of my favorite of his books as it was too eerie in one regard that was hitting too close to home for me. I didn't have that problem with the Hiding Place, but it did bring unwanted memories.

Other than that, I thought it was a good read, but not one that grabbed me and made me want to stay up and read all night.

Going back to your roots to try to correct a wrong, get closure or for other similar reasons usually leads to a situation that is not what you expected in spite of the little voice in your head that asks why you bothered to go back and expect anything different.

Thank you NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book a lot. I was needing a good thriller and it was a pleasant surprise to find there was a little horror added in as well. I thought Tudor did a wonderful job describing the small town and the people within it. It was extremely realistic and I really loved the descriptions of the cottage. I was able to picture it easily which made it all the more creepy. I wish the book would have gone more into the urban legends/myths and what exactly happened to the children. I was wanting more from that storyline. Overall, I give it 4 stars. This was my first C.J. Tudor book, so I am excited to read The Chalk Man next.

WHAT THE WHAT!?! Okay, I'm sorry. Let me calm down (lol). I mean this in a good way, so bear with me.

There is a book on my list of books I have read in this life that "scared" me and that was a book I read many, many years ago called Hellfire by John Saul. I remember reading that and glancing around me while reading as if something was going to jump out at me.

Well, here is book number two on my list. I don't even know where to begin. First, I have to admit that this is usually not my typical genre, but I read Tudor's first book, The Chalk Man and really enjoyed that. So, I was excited to see she had another book coming out. Secondly, I enjoy a LOT of books but only a few stick with me. I have mentioned in my other blogs that when I read I am automatically imagining what I am reading. I've always done it. I don't do it on purpose, it just happens, and while reading this, I felt like I was "seeing" a well done horror movie. Also, once again, a few times, I glanced around the room in unease while reading.

This story centers around the disappearance of Joe's sister Annie when they were young. The slogan on the book says, "The worst day of his life wasn't when his sister went missing. It was the day she came back." WELL, to me that didn't mean what I thought it was going to. Plus, the book is about a lot more. Childhood memories, regrets, secrets, addictions, trying to make amends and more!

Come on, now! What more can you want in a book? It was a lot of fun being creeped out and also flipping pages to find out what in the world was happening. I highly recommend this read even if this isn't usually your thing. It usually isn't mine and I had a great time reading it. Thank you to NetGalley for the advance copy. Get yours February 5, 2019!

Tudor's wit and talent are clear, as is her love for Stephen King, but her sophomore work felt loosely constructed. The Hiding Place (now known as The Taking of Annie Thorne) is narrated by a hard-gambling teacher who's on the run from his debts, and possibly a dark secret connected to the town where he grew up. When he arrives at that town, it seems that someone or something does not want him there. But can he stop the past from repeating itself?

Can you go home again? Can you go home and solve the mystery of what happened to your sister? That's what Joe is about to find out when he heads back to Arnhill. Bad things are happening there, again, and Joe is determined to deal with his demons, both real and imagined. No one wants him there, especially not his old frenemies. He's taken a job at the local school after a teacher there killed both herself and her son. Why? What's the deal with the mine, which has been closed since men died there in the 1940s. Be aware that there's a supernatural element to this that you might find surprising, or annoying, depending on how you view those things. I found it surprising but it worked for me. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A very good read.

Joe Thorne finds himself pulled back to his childhood hometown. A place filled with tragedy, regret and mystery. He walked away from Arnhill years ago, vowing never to look back. With his life in shambles, Joe finds himself back at the place where it all started to go wrong. Summoned by an anonymous email that he couldn't ignore Joe goes home to finally get answers to the mystery that has plagued his life - what really happened to Annie? .

Tudor has a brilliant mind for bringing small town life and its characters to life. I devoured the creepy backstory of this little town. A tiny dot on a map that outsiders may never have heard from. Yet, those who dwell there are shrouded in the town's eerie, unexplained mystical mystery.

It's been said this book has an early Stephen King vibe and it is definitely true. From the moment you open the book you are pulled in by a horrific opening scene and Tudor never loosens her grip on you. The entire story has that creepy, check under your bed, look behind your shower curtain and peer under the toilet lid vibe. I LOVED it! I could not stop turning the pages. I was drawn in by Joe's flawed but definitely likable character. This was a man marked by his past, living with demons and struggling daily. I enjoyed his witty, inner dialogue. I felt the tension and suspense build as he worked to uncover the truth. And the truth he was searching for - the ending - left me agape for a moment.

I must read The Chalk Man which has been on my TBR pile for too long. I have no doubt that I have been firmly made a fan of Tudor's writing. Bring on the creepy and horrific - I excitedly welcome it. I'll simply be sure to read all her books with the lights on.

I read The Hiding Place by C.J. Tudor with a couple of our Traveling Sisters and it really made for an interesting discussion and it was one that we had mixed feeling with. Not amongst us but with the way we felt about it. It was hard not to make comparisons to Stephen King while reading this one and maybe that had a bit to do with the way we felt about the story.

Putting that all aside it’s also hard not to compare this one to her first book The Chalk Man and I did really enjoy that one however I did have a nagging feeling about that one that I carried over to this story. After reading this one, how I felt about The Chalk Man changed a bit. I wanted darker and creepy with the supernatural. I found the supernatural elements in both stories to be confusing and didn’t really think it was balanced with the humanity and human behavior to the story. I was left asking what was supernatural and what was people just behaving badly.

I haven’t read to many books by Stephen King but what I have read I thought he masterfully balances the supernatural elements to the story to the humanity of the characters. Making his stories darker and creepier. So for me, I think that feeling that this story might be similar to Stephen King’s plots might have affected the way I felt about the story.

Wow, this was one creepy story! I do believe CJ Tudor has stepped things up a notch since writing The Chalk Man. I love a good mystery and the addition of a main character with a past always brings a certain appeal. Add in the suspense and this story does not disappoint.

High school teacher Joe Thorne is headed back to his old stamping grounds--the place where he grew up and vowed to never return. Right away we learn that Joe has some bad blood between old friends of his. Joe also has had some family tragedy. More recently, he is running away from other troubles, which is how he ends up back in the town he never wanted to see again.

There are very few likable characters in this story. As the book unfolds, readers also discover that not every one is the person they seem to be. As Joe gets deeper into the connection between past and present, things get very intense and at times, very dark.

For sensitive readers, triggers include bullying, gambling, and physical violence.
This book will give readers the shudders, so may be best not to read when you’re home alone!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Crown Publishing to allow me to read an advance copy and offer my honest review.

This was a really quick read for me, which is saying something because I have to really squeeze in my reading time. I ended up finishing it within 2 days. Definitely a good suspense/thriller with a homage to a certain Stephen King book. I've seen mixed reviews on this because people didn't care for the supernatural aspect or they didn't expect but I didn't really go in expecting anything and I was fine with the way the book went. It was different then just your normal twist of it going from seeming like one thing but turning into to a cliche. I don't think it was a twist or anything what happened, at least not to me, but that didn't take away from the story. Anyway, I enjoyed this very much as well as C.J. Tudor's last book "The Chalk Man so I think this will be an author on my radar for new releases. Thank you for the chance to read and review this book.

“A life full of promise. But that’s all life ever is. A promise. Not a guarantee.”

With life, one day your “in,” the next day you’re out. No one understands this better than, Joe Thorne. Joe never thought he’d return to Arnhill, not after everything that happened. However, Joe knows he can only run so long and only have so many hiding spots before he must face the inevitable - his past. Joe is about to learn that the past, unlike the dead, only stays buried for so long.

The Hiding Place is a creepy, satisfying read that deliverers many unforeseen twists and turns. 4 stars for this one!