Mackenzie is the Detective in smalltime Lakemore. She is known for being rather reserved, not much of a mixer and this does not bode well when one is part of a team. Right now Lakemore is facing their biggest unsolved crime - an abduction of a young woman daughter of one of the founding fathers of the town as it were, and a very big cheese both for the town and everyone else.

Finding Erica is top priority, and when one year exactly on the date of her abduction another girl coincidentally her best friend disappears the town is galvanized into action. Something has to be done and fast. The second girl is a nobody, and the action is slow but when Erica's body is discovered a couple of days after the second girl's abduction, Mackenzie and everyone on her team knows that time is running out for Abby. Further enquiries uncover that during September of the two previous years, two girls were also reported missing and through very convenient channels, the files got buried, misrepresented and forgotton.

Now four girls are missing and the onus is on the detectives to discover who is responsible. A bizarre finding of a few clues leads them to all the leading citizens of the county and the head is very very reluctant to allow for even questioning let alone arrest. How the detectives are going to go ahead with this elite few is the question facing them. Especially since everyone is in awe to them, obliged to them for their jobs and even the whole town is dependant on them for their living.

Corruption found in police and politics abound everywhere. Magnified here. How do you get around it and still do your job to the best of your ability is the problem. Nice police work, small town politics, corruption all found in this story. Captivating reading.

There is a LOT going on in this book, a debut for this author.

Mack Price is a tough, organised police officer who has had a great deal of trauma in her early life. She marries Sterling and things are good for a while but then the wheels falls off. She spends most of this book pushing him away and I got annoyed with her behaviour towards him - it was very teenage girl-esque. It wasn't until later that I understood why she was so angry with him, but in a mature relationship it seems to me that you need to discuss things, not play mindgames with your spouse.

The case is very gripping and lots of different strands come together in a clever way. Some scary situations too!

This book has some very good bones but is let down by strange turns of phrase and idioms not being used correctly. There is a LOT of pouting going on in this book (and that is by the men!) and I was thrown off right at the beginning when the girl was described as having tiny feet - and it turns out she was 12 years old! I don't know about other people, but my feet were nearly the same size as my mothers by the time I was 12..... The descriptions of the facial expressions versus what they were trying to convey was really odd and jarring and interfered with my enjoyment of the book overall. There were a lot of people at Mack's workplace who got overly bent out of shape - I wouldn't like to work with a group of police officers who were so touchy, myself.

I don't like to be negative to debut authors because it is tough writing a book, I know this. However, this book could have benefitted from having a lot more editorial input, I feel. I liked the book, but I am not inclined to read another by this author because of the abovementioned issues. Even with the cliffhanger at the end of this book! Sorry :(

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture.

With her own dark secret to hide, Mackenzie Price (Detective Mack Price), struggles to keep up the façade of being a strong, fierce policewoman who is unfazed by anything. She’s also obsessive in her behaviour – following a rigid routine in her investigations and being a neat freak.

Faced with having to solve the case of a missing young girl, whose rich friend went missing exactly a year before, Mack tries to keep it all together. Memories from her childhood, her teetering relationship with her husband and the betrayal from her closest friend and colleague only add to the pressure of making sure that young Abigail is found alive.

I would be giving away too much if I went into the story. Suffice to say it kept me absolutely riveted as the plot unfolded so dramatically. There was so much at play in this story – small town politics, power play, blackmail, young romance gone bad, the gap between rich and poor, possibilities of corruption within the police department – and yet it was woven together so seamlessly!

There were so many characters in the story, all of them believable. Mack’s character despite her flaws and vulnerabilities is quite remarkable. The by play of the relationship between her, her husband, Sterling, and her friend and colleague Nick is pretty riveting too and makes me want to know how that turned out.

Nothing prepared me for the end! I can’t wait to read the next book in this series.

A great debut novel!

My thoughts about this brilliantly written,outstanding police procedural, mystery thriller, was just fantastic. With hardhiting powerful story, that has suspense and mystery. The characters,are just amazing in this book. Debut author Ruhi Choudhary's Hidden Lake, takes you on a journey, about dark hidden secrets about, what happens in a small town, that will give you chills. What I loved about the story, was the main character's Detective Mackenzie's character,who puts the puzzle pieces together, about what really happened to eighteen-year-old Abigail's disappearance, when she went missing, was just remarkable. Detective Mackenzie's has had a difficult past, when she found out what happened to her father, was just outstanding. Debut author Ruhi Choudhary's writing style is just mindblowing, loved how Ruhi has written, a fast tensed gripping story, that truly is beyond excellent, and the characters shes has written, is truly magnificent. A well written masterpiece,that gave me goosebumps,when I was reading it. Highly recommended. I would like to say thank you to author Ruhi Choudhary, and Publishers Bookouture, for giving me a chance, to read and review, this hardhiting nail biting mystery thriller.⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐💥💥💥💥💥

Thank you to Bookouture for letting me take part in this tour and for my copy of this book via Netgalley. I love a good crime novel and finding new favourite authors so I jumped at the chance of reading from a debut author.

Detective Mackenzie (Mack) Price did not have the best start in life. Her father was a drunk and abused her mother. At 12 years old she helped her mother bury her farther in the woods behind their house. The trauma of this has never left Mack. She is still suffering the effects of this now. Mack is a good detective. She cares and is determined. I really liked Mack and I felt really bad for some of the personal issues she has. I just wanted to give her a hug.

The case in this book was quite the mystery. I honestly had no idea where Ruhi was going with this one. I was so stumped. There were so many pieces of the puzzle but none of them seemed to fit! Ruhi does a very good job with the pace of the story. I was gripped the whole way through.

I am now dying for the next story in this book because I have so many questions about Mack and what is going to happen next to her. I also want to learn more about her past. What happened between when she was 12 and now. Oh, I need to know!

A great start for a new series that made me turn pages as fast as I could.
It's a complex, gripping and highly entertaining thriller with plenty of red herring, twists and turns.
Mac Mack is a well written, damaged and complex character that fascinated me and I couldn't help feeling for her. The cast of characters is well thought and interesting.
The author is a good storyteller and the mystery was solid and kept me guessing. I loved to try to put together the different pieces of the puzzle but the story kept me guessing till the solution.
I was also fascinated by the descriptions of the small town, bleak and quaint at the same time.
I was an engrossing and unputdownable read, highly recommended.
Many thanks to Bookouture and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

3.5 stars!

This is definitely a fantastic start to the Mackenzie Price series. I love Mack as a fierce female detective who refuses to back down when it comes to solving cases and getting justice. It is evident from early on that Mack is broken and has had a lot to overcome in her life, but that made her even more gritty and someone I loved to root for.

The plot is propulsive, which I think the short chapters really helps. You get just enough information each chapter to hook you but not the onslaught that makes you go back and reread.

Overall, this is a great debut, and I am intrigued to see how the series continues.

Thank you to Bookouture for the blog tour invite and providing a review copy. This did not influence my review. All opinions are my own.

So this is a new series with a female detective known as Mad Mak. once again it is the stroy of the damaged detective though her trauma is pretty bad. Though I think the author overplayed her PTSD and her issues with her husband. At a certain point I was screaming in my head" just talk to him". That being said it was an enjoyable mystery and I think this series has a lot of potential. Though also not a fan of the big last page drop!

My love for finding new mystery/crime series is well-known to anyone who has read this blog. It should come as no surprise, then, that I am happy to let you know I have found another one!

Detective Mackenzie Price has quite a family history. The book opens with an event that would be scarring to anyone. It is interesting, then, that Mackenzie chooses to go into law enforcement. But that is somewhat typical of many of these heroines: a pivotal event provides them motivation for future choices.

I thought that the author astutely tackled Mackenzie’s memories and the influence that the event had on her. The thoughts that plagued Mackenzie were woven naturally into the plot, which was effective.

The case is fairly standard, but the author does a terrific job of not giving away everything all at once. The reader is able to put together the pieces as Mackenzie does, which is always more fun that knowing more than the characters (not that there is anything wrong with that style, but it’s always interesting to see how different authors approach policework).

Not only does the author drop hints about the case itself, there are also glimpses of potential relationship issues, both personal and work-related for “Mad Mack” (as her co-workers call her). Again, this is very effective because the author doesn’t give the reader a big exposition explanation, just little mentions here and there that hint there is more going on that we have yet to learn.

To say this was a page-turner is inadequate. I was definitely intrigued and drawn in by the style and the plot. This is quite a stellar debut, and I absolutely think that Mad Mack will be one to follow in future books.

Quite an interesting police procedural with Mackenzie at the helm. Disappearing teens had me interested at the blurb, and the author Ruhi Choudhry’s writing kept my curiosity marching ahead with a swift pace.

Missing teens who were best friends saw Mackenzie finding the link between them. She was known Mad Mac for nothing. I liked how thorough she was in her investigation. Ably supported by Nick, it was wonderful to see the budding and sometimes hidden chemistry between them. And Mac was married. Not only did the crime get to me, her personal life too did.

The beginning was explosive to say the least; it sure gripped my eyeballs and made it pop. Never seen a cop go through this kinda past in any of the police procedural. And this year, I have read a lot. So that was saying something. The story had subplots over a great plotline, the twists kept coming left, right, and center. Mackenzie’s compelling way of investigation kept me thoroughly invested in the story.

What could I say about Mac?! She was flawed, her past seemed to have sealed many a secret inside her. Her childhood saw her avoiding confrontation in the adult life. I wanted to poke her to make her face the truth. At least, let me know the truth of her relationships.

The writing allowed me to don the Detective cap up to a certain point. I got overly involved in the story, so I had to just enjoy the book and not solve the crime. And I couldn’t guess the perp. The ending was unbelievable. It made me dance in joy and to quote my friends in the blogging world. I was pretty chuffed.

Great plotline, clues and red herrings, many twists, a flawed main character with determined to solve the mystery at any cost made this an entertaining read.

Hidden Lake by Ruhi Choudhary is a captivating debut novel and the first in the Detective Mackenzie 'Mack' Price series. She find herself back in a town she bowes ahe would never return to. Mack returns as a detective in the town and finds herself investigating a missing girl which bears too much of a resemblance of another missing girl from a year ago.Both girls have disappeared from the same small town so Mack is sure that it could possibly be the same perpertrator for both girls.
This case, for Mack, is much more complex than people would think. The incident that made her vow never to return causes flashbacks still now. It doesn't help that she finds herself needing to search some woods that are terrifyingly famiiliar to her.
An explosive and exciting story that held my attention from the start. A thriller mixed with a police procedural that had that many twists and red herrings throughout, these definitely kept me alert! One minute I thought I had it cracked, only to find out I was wrong and had to try and work it out again.The story is told primarily from Mack's viewpoint and her back story is cleverly unfolded as the story develops. All I shall say is, she has had a tragic life. This shines through in her work, always wanting to get to the truth and justice for the victims, no matter how rich or poor they are. Mack works just as hard for both victims and I really like that in her.
A great opener for what is promising to be a cracking series, will look forward to the second instalment. Thanks to Bookouture and Netgalley for the ARC so I can take part in the blog tour today.

Hidden Lake is the opening novel in a new series that features Detective Mackenzie (Mack) Price of the Lakemore, Washington Police Department.

Twenty years ago, Mack returned home from school to find her violent dad bleeding excessively on the kitchen floor. Now she is back in Lakemore working as a detective. Eighteen year old Abigail Correia has disappeared exactly one year after her friend Erica Perez was last seen, and Mack is leading the investigation. As the town conceals facts and secrets, can she find Abby?

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Hidden Lake with its explosive plot and many twists. The novel is told almost entirely from Mack’s viewpoint so I got to know her character well. This style of narrative worked as it allowed me to get involved in the investigation without any additional knowledge. Running parallel with the investigation, the novel concentrates on Mack and her mental state using present day flashbacks to reveal important events in her past. I enjoyed the explosive plot with its many twists and cliffhanger sentences. The author, Ruhi Choudhary used red herrings and misdirection with great effect, leading me down certain paths, only to blindside me later. Protagonist Mack is heavily traumatised by her past and she’s to be admired for her open-mindedness and determination.

Hidden Lake is a fantastic début and a very compelling start to the series, and I confidently recommend it as a worthy read.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Bookouture via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

Mackenzie Price had a difficult childhood, afraid to come home as she never knew what the situation between her parents would be. Now returning home, as a Detective with the Lakemore P.D., the memory of her last night at home still haunts her. A teenage girl has been missing for exactly one year when another girl goes missing. Meanwhile, Mack is questioning her marriage, but there is no time right now for her personal life as she needs to find the girls before it is too late, or is already too late? An absorbing police procedural with a strong female lead doing the best in her job while showing the personal side of a cop’s life. An interesting last-minute ending which makes me eager for the next book. I received an advance review copy at no cost and without obligation for an honest review. (by paytonpuppy)

A really good start to a series. Mack is a brilliant character. She is complicated and hard to work out with a unique back story. The plot is really good and the tension made this a compelling read. I hope there is more to come in this series

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

The trauma when Mackenzie Price was only twelve years old followed her on a daily basis – it didn’t take much to trigger the memories that she’d never told a soul about since then. Twenty years on, she was a good detective with Lakemore PD – nicknamed Mad Mack – and when a young woman went missing, twelve months to the day from her best friend’s disappearance, Mack was determined to find the person responsible. But with work and digging deep, they discovered other girls had also gone missing – always in September. What was going on? Why was it happening?

Mack’s life with Sterling, her husband, was a fragile one and Mack’s mind and body kept him at a distance. Her life revolved around her work to the point of ignoring everything else, even her own health. Sterling was worried about her, but she pushed him further away. Her fellow detectives put more and more on her shoulders, believing she would find the answers…

Hidden Lake is the 1st in Detective Mackenzie Price series – and her debut - by Ruhi Choudhary and I quite enjoyed it. I found the repetition of the events to Mack’s past became a bit wearing after awhile as it was quite detailed at the beginning. Mack’s own mental health seemed to be an issue – she was certainly flawed – but no one else (of her peers) appeared to see it. And the relationship between Sterling and Mack was nothing less than weird! The plot was intriguing and the dynamics, especially between Mack and Nick, fascinating. A good crime read for the author’s debut. Recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

Hidden Lake is the first instalment in the Detective Mackenzie ”Mack” Price series and all things considered this is a promising opening episode. Mack Price is a detective currently employed by the Lakemore, Washington Police Department when she is assigned the case of eighteen-year-old Abigail Correia who is missing. It bears all the hallmarks of a case from a year ago: the disappearance of Abigail’s high school friend Erica Perez and given they both vanished from the same small-town community it seems unlikely that two different perpetrators are responsible. Then deep in the local woods, a body is discovered. We also learn that Mack had vowed never to return to Lakemore due to an incident that changed her life forever. She was only twelve years old when she returned home from school to find her violent alcoholic father bleeding profusely on the kitchen floor; her mother, who suffered terribly at his hands, had eventually snapped and killed him. They buried him in the woods; the same woods Mack has to search for missing Abigail. Despite being a survivor she frequently has flashbacks to the traumatic experience which still impacts her so much to this day.

This is a captivating cross between a police procedural and a thriller and from the opening pages, it had no problem holding my attention. There is plenty of intrigue, excitement and a plethora of twists and turns; there is also a superb use of misdirection through well placed red herrings that lead you into one way of thinking before ripping the rug out from under you and you realise you've been fooled good and proper. The plot is explosive and the fact that it's told primarily from Mack’s perspective allows you to effortlessly become immersed in the story which makes it a more enjoyable experience. It also allows the author to provide a backstory for Mack the main protagonist and central figure and it's quite a harrowing life she has led. Mack is a broken woman but her determination to get justice for the victims shines through and I particularly appreciated that, despite the majority of the police force almost ignoring Abby Correia’s disappearance because she is from ”the wrong side of town” and the majority of resources going to Erica’s investigation due to being part of the rich elite, Mack treats them both as equally important. Many thanks to Bookouture for an ARC.

This was a good book, interesting characters and storyline and well written. wish it hadn't ended with a cliff hanger but overall was a good book

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

Detective Mackenzie Price Book 1

When she was just twelve years old, Mackenzie Price came home to find her father bleeding to death on the kitchen floor. She will never forget that night, nor what her mother wanted her to do. Now, twenty years later, Detective "Mack" Price has returned to Lakemore despite vowing never to return. When eighteen year old Abigail Correia goes missing, Mack is convinced that the case is linked to Erica Perez who disappeared exactly one year ago.


What a fast paced and twisted read this is. The first book in a new series. Mack is a flawed detective who has her own secrets. This is a gripping page turner. The ending was a little far fetched but it's still a decent debut novel. The book is well written. The characters are well rounded and believable. The story covers: violent death, rape, mental health issues and domestic abuse. I'm looking forward to reading the second book in this series.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Bookouture and the author Ruhi Choudhary for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Oh my WOW! This debut for Ruhi Choudhary knocks it out of the park. The characters are complex. Mackenzie is so well written that readers connect with her from page one. Nick is also a very interesting character. Their relationship is complex and I want to see how it develops both professionally and personally. I can't wait to see what becomes of Sterling as well.
The case Mack and her team are investigating is full of intrigue, suspense, and stunning twists. I honestly didn't see that conclusion coming.
I will definitely be reading the next book. This author is going on my must read list.

This is an excellent debut novel by the author. It has everything you want in a thriller. Fantastic plot, relatable characters, plenty twists, a fast pace, well written and a brilliant ending. A real interesting read with a lead character of Mack, a flawed detective with her own secrets. I would recommend this book and look forward to the follow up.Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.