What would it take for a loving mother to leave her young child in the middle of a street during one of the coldest days of the year?

A young family lives in a secluded penthouse in London: Gregor is a charming father and Constance a troubled but loving mother to their little toddler. In comes Ruby, a chance encounter, and she becomes almost like a second mother to the child, attracted by Gregor's charm and intrigued by the mysterious Constance. Then Gregor ends up almost dead in his bath and both woman and child are running for their lives. What happened? By coincidence, it is police officer Jo who is assigned to the case, who happens to be Ruby's sister.

Little by little we learn that nothing is as it seems, and all the characters have their troubled pasts and hidden truths. The one thing that stand out is that Constance believes she is a selkie, a creature that can live on land as a human and at sea as a seal. It is up to the reader to believe this or not, as the story can easily be read as a complex mental health issue of Constance, or even that she is part of a cult living on the Hebrides. Either way, the child is in danger and needs saving.

The book reads easily, and the characters and surroundings are well detailed. However, the lead character - Ruby - is very unlikable. She is stubborn, makes all the wrong decisions and she could have avoided both her very complicated family life and the whole situation with Constance if she just would have done the right thing. The selkie folklore contributes nicely into the story, something that I wouldn't have expected and I was intrigued by it.

I've hovered between 3 and 4 stars, but I'll settle with 4, as I must say I that even if there are just too many coincidences to make it fully believable, the plot is original and I genuinely liked it.

A sincere thanks to Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for providing a copy in exchange for an honest review.

First of all, I’d like to thank Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for the digital arc of “The Hidden” by Melanie Golding.

This book intrigued me because not only was it a mystery/thriller, but it also had elements of folklore weaved into the story. This is a multiple POV story following Ruby, DS Joanna Harper, Constance and “The Injured Man.” There is a lot going on in this book. We have Ruby, who entangles herself into the lives of a man, his ex and their child. We have an attempted murder that DS Joanna Harper is investigating. We have Constance, who disappears abandoning her child. We have a terrifying psychopath evading the police. Plus all of it is shrouded in Selkie legend. I had some trouble getting into it because it felt a bit fractured from all the jumping POVs. Also, there were only a couple of chapters with Constance’s perspective which bothered me be because she was the most interesting of the lot. Overall, it gets bonus points for being a unique spin on a typical thriller with the folklore aspect adding an almost magical realism/gothic vibe to it. I did find the male protagonist truly terrifying as well, which made my thriller loving heart happy. 3.5 stars.

I couldn't put this one down! I don't know where to begin with this thriller thrill ride. Twists and turns, surprises to keep you on the edge of your seat. Melanie Golding knows how to keep readers engaged.

Thank you Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for the eARC.
A small girl is found abandoned in a little seaside town. The police were called, but the mother arrives within 20 minutes and after interviewing her, the police decide to let the pair go.
Lucy has cut contact with her mother and sister, DS Joanna Harper, furious after a fight at Christmas. But on the plus side, she has met an attractive young man, Gregor, who happens to live right opposite her apartment and the two tentatively start a friendship. He lives with Constance and their daughter, Leonie, but says the relationship is over. Constance has severe mental issues and Gregor wants to look after both her and little Leonie (I loved her!).
I don't want to give anything away, so will just say it was hard to put this book down, with a psychopath and quite a few twisty and very tense moments.
Definitely recommended!

I loved the last book I read by this author and this one was no different. A great thriller with twists that will keep you reading late into the night!

The Hidden by M. Golding, published by Crooked Lane Books, is a stand-alone, captivating story about loss, gain.
The story is losely based on old folktales and to be honest, it took me a minute to get into the story. It was like reading three books at the same time.
Lenie, the abandoned toddler,
Constance, the vanished mother,
Ruby, the caretaker and mystery,
Joanna, the detective,
Gregor the mystery man who was found in his bathtub.
It's just too much going on.
But the writing is good and Iliked the characters just fine. An ok 3,75 stars read.

Not the biggest fan of detective POVs, but you add some cult like behaviors and I'll read anything. This is writhing with myths, a murder mystery and oddities. I don't know if I'll read any other DS Harper books, but I genuinely enjoyed this one.

I loved Melanie Golding's last book and so I jumped at the chance to read this one. It did not disappoint. This enchanting and darkly mysterious tale is told in third person from multiple viewpoints. It also begins with a crime and a disappearance, and we see things unfold from the past to the present. In the hands of some writers this could easily be confusing but it flowed very well here. The book starts out with intensity and you immediately find yourself rooting for Ruby, even though you know nothing about her or how she came to be in the situation she is in. Her sister, an officer, is the one who has to investigate the case that has entangled Ruby and left her on the run. And then there is the mysterious Constance, who seemingly doesn't officially exist and claims to have come from the sea. Melanie Golding's books combine suspense and folklore and leave you wondering what is going to happen next. The characters are extremely well written and unique. I look forward to whatever she writes next and can easily say she is one of my new favorite authors.

As a mystery, The Hidden is cleverly done and well paced. As an addition to the cultural conciousness, Golding weaves folkloric pieces into her plot seamlessly and, interestingly, respectfully.

An interesting thriller with a supernatural element. Theme of motherhood. ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

I loooooved Little Darlings and this book was no different. A beautiful blend of fiction and folklore intertwined in a story with plenty suspense to keep you guessing.

Melanie Golding is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors in this genre.

Amazing read!

I was so excited to settle into this because I loved the author's first novel and I was not disappointed. This story blends a folkloric tale into modern character's lives, all the while building really interesting characters that I was perfectly happy to follow through the story. Then, right at the halfway mark, everything I thought I was reading flipped upside down and just propelled me through the last half of the book and I felt like I just couldn't read fast enough. I hope there are many more to come from this author - I believe I may have just found a new favorite.

3.5 stars

An evil charmer, a selkie, an off-the-grid child, & a naive neighbor get caught up in a massive web of deception & danger while a police detective with personal conflicts of interest in the case breaks protocol to solve it. This is a dark book, the story getting progressively darker as the story unfolds. The writing is gorgeous, the atmosphere lovely & ominous, & the characters simultaneously sympathetic & a bit repulsive for varying reasons. If you like subtle thrillers with folkloric elements, I recommend this. Best to avoid if domestic violence & abusive relationships are a trigger for you, though.

[What I liked:]

•Several chapters start out with quotes from 19th C novels about selkies that give atmospheric hints to the main story. It’s a cool extra touch that I think adds a lot to the narrative, it didn’t feel gimmicky to me.

•I’m not the hugest fan of parallel timelines/flashbacks, but it works okay for this book. It helps the pacing to reveal twists & secrets at key points, & keep the intrigue ramping up as the police investigation progresses. The story is slower-paced than some thrillers/mysteries, but it really worked for me for this particular story.

•It’s hard to sympathize with several of Ruby’s choices, though her character development solidly contextualizes her decisions. Her character portrayal is skillfully written. I don’t approve, yet I get why she did the things she did. Constance’s motivations for her actions are harder to rationalize, to wrap my head around, though; even though in a detached why I get that she felt there was no other option.

•The tone & atmosphere of the book fit the story really well. I appreciate the nuance, the gradually escalating sense of dread, & the careful construction of Constance & Ruby’s living situations. This is probably the best, most well-written aspect of the novel.


[What I didn’t like as much:]

•There’s a lot of suspension of belief needed for this story to work, & for the most part it worked for me. But there were moments that pulled me out of the story a bit: a mother abandoning her child just because of homesickness, the complexity of the main villain’s dastardly deeds so perfectly concealed for so long without being found out, a police detective rather recklessly breaking the rules & compromising investigations while their colleagues just go along with it, etc. It’s a lot to ask the reader to suspend belief for, & probably the weakest point of this book.

CW: murder, abusive relationships, domestic violence, alcoholism, mental illness, child pregnancy/statutory r*pe, child abuse

[I received an ARC ebook copy from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. Thank you for the book!]

I haven’t read Melanie Golding’s first book, Little Darlings, so I wasn’t prepared for this book to be a mix of fantastical and police procedural. This type of book may work for others, but it didn’t work for me. To add to the destabilizing effect of this mashup of genres, is constant flashbacks. DS Joanna Harper is investigating the assault of a man found in his bathtub. He’s in a coma, and Joanna discovers that this case is connected to her estranged daughter, Ruby, who is estranged from the family.

Joanna and Ruby’s family situation is very strange--Ruby was raised as Joanna's sister, as Joanna was only 13 when she gave birth to Ruby. Joanna’s mother is an alcoholic and the unique situation in their past lives creates a fraught family backstory for Ruby’s troubled present.
In the past, Ruby is becoming fascinated with the man in the apartment across from her, who turns out to be the man who has been found bludgeoned in his bathtub in the present. When Ruby finally meets him, Gregor, we also meet Constance and Leonie, Gregor's ex-girlfriend and child. According to Gregor, Constance is suffers from severe mental illness. According to Constance, she is part of clan Roane, descended from the Selkies. Selkies are mythical creatures that are seals in the water and human on land. This is where the book totally lost me. I really didn’t connect with this book at all, and the convoluted mystery at the core of this story was not appealing or interesting.

DNF sorry I just could not get into the characters. I was up to a few chapters but not sure how Constantine’s chapters fit.

Being an Irish and Scottish girl, I love the folklore of the selkie wife, and this book puts an excellent modern spin on the legend.

Constance disappears after Ruby promises to take care of her daughter, Leonie. Soon, both are wrapped up in an unexplainable crime and Ruby is running out of time to save Leonie. There are a lot of twists and turns, some more grounded in reality than others, so I don't want to give too much away.

Overall, this was an interesting book and I was entertained.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of The Hidden.

I really enjoyed the author's first book, Little Darlings, so I was excited when my request was approved.

The author's trademark style of blending myth and reality is told through the tale of the selkies and focuses on a mysterious woman named Constance, her young daughter, Leonie, and a talented violinist named Ruby.

This is really a story about the relationship between mothers and daughters, how society views women, namely mothers and the lengths mothers will go to protect our children.

I wanted to like this more than I did, and though I enjoyed the myth of the selkies, it didn't factor too much into the story, which I found discouraging, since I wanted more fantasy/fairytale elements.

Also, there were too many moments of disbelief suspension I was forced to accept such as:

1. Wouldn't a selkie have better radar for detecting a predator?

2. Gregor's technological prowess for spying on his victims

3. What are the odds Ruby and Constance find themselves tangling with a killer who is so good with spyware?

Character development was good, not great and Gregor is an unremarkable, unmemorable villain.

I did enjoy the author's afterword when she talked about how she wanted to write a story not just about the selkies but about the unspoken truths that some women leave their children, a fact most people would find abhorrent.

But, aren't there exceptions? And, would we judge these women if they did, given the terrible circumstances these women may be living in?

Food for thought.

I liked how the "real world" and the selkie mythology both get woven seamlessly together in this novel. It held my interest, though I wanted more closure with the ending (even though I'm sure it was written that way on purpose).

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read this book early!

This was a 3.5 star book for me.

I really liked the concept, and I liked the different view points in the book. I couldn’t really get attached to any of the characters though - I did love Ruby the most, along with Constance.

I couldn’t get along with Joanne at all, so I found myself skimming through her last few chapters.

Overall a loved the idea, and I’m always up for folklore-like stories, it just didn’t hit me the way it should have.

I do think there will be people who will absolutely adore this book, it just wasn’t my type entirely!

This book was very similar to the first supernatural mystery "Little Darlings" by this author. It weaves in elements of fantasy with realism and attempts to make the events ambiguous, when really there's no question. DS Joanna Harper is back from the first book, investigating the death of a man found barely alive and bleeding out in his bathroom. He remains in a coma, unable to point to his attacker. The more Joanna investigates, the more it looks as if her estranged daughter, Ruby, is involved, along with a young girl who is not her child.

Ruby was raised as Joanna's sister, as Joanna was only 13 when she gave birth. No one seems to think that's ridiculously young and disturbing, which I happen to find disturbing. The father is only briefly referenced as a teenager of indiscernible age, who neither is prosecuted for statutory rape nor made to financially assist the child. Why purposely have her as such a young teenage mother, yet never include realistic elements like the therapy she most definitely would have needed? Sure, their dysfunctional family life is discussed but never in a 'Joanna was victimized' way, just in a 'our family is so weird' way.

Anyway, the story is told from both Joanna and Ruby's points of view, and through Ruby's in the past, we see her developing fascination with the man in the apartment across from her. They soon meet and we discover this is Gregor. Upon visiting his apartment, she meets Constance and Leonie, Gregor's ex-partner and child. According to Gregor, Constance is agoraphobic and mentally unwell. She claims she is Roane, a clan descended from the Selkies. Essentially, they are seals that at certain times can become human and walk on land.

Of course, it's never outright stated this way - Constance only uses words like 'family' and 'my people' even though the full mythology is explained to the reader. Ruby and Gregor never directly realize Constance thinks she's part seal, because otherwise, Ruby wouldn't believe Constance and try to help her get home - where she met Gregor and was abandoned by her 'people' when she didn't come back in time from her night spent on land. That's how Ruby ends up being a suspect in Gregor's attack and discovered by Joanna and her team.

It's a pleasant read, but you have to suspend your disbelief because it's not written as if it's purely fantasy. It's just vague enough that the author seems to believe everything could be explained logically, if you choose to view it as such. There are too many impossible parts, though - maybe that just frustrates me because I'm not a fan of fantasy and like to discover there was a rational explanation all along. Either way, it held my interest and made me want to stick it out to the conclusion, however unbelievable I may have found it.