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The Hidden Hours by Sara Foster
I was eager to start reading The Hidden Hours because I had heard great things about Sara Foster’s past books and because I was in the mood for a crime thriller. Ahead of waiting hands, the body floats. One of those ghostly white legs has a small crab that creeps down its slim line before dissipating into the shadows.
Foster creates suspense right away with the help of unsettling visuals and weaves a wide net of suspicion over everyone connected to the victim’s life. This applies to Eleanor, who serves as the protagonist of Foster’s third-person present tense story.
Hating to be alone, she shivers and hesitates to look about the room in case there are shadows being cast by something other than the furniture. She closes her eyes and thinks about the evening once more. She makes an effort to recall more of the evening, but the more she tries to catch the memories, the faster they flee, leaving everything dark and empty. The vacuum terrifies me.
I loved Foster’s portrayal of the Australian and London locales and their contrasts as Eleanor’s background is revealed through terrible memories. Eleanor’s complacency in the present tensed my involvement at times, despite the fact that this historical perspective gave the story depth and won my sympathy. The Hidden Hours’ misdirection also occasionally felt forced. While red-herrings are a vital ingredient in the mystery thriller genre, for me subtlety equates to quality.
However, Foster’s insertion of brief passages from side characters’ perspectives at the start of chapters was really successful. They added interest and a sense of urgency while also connecting the primarily home drama to the police probe. The Hidden Hours by Sara Foster is an approachable and evocative crime novel, but it’s not the sharp psychological page-turner I was hoping for.
About The Book
After the company Christmas party, Arabella Lane, a senior executive at a children’s publisher, is discovered dead in the Thames on a chilly winter morning. Nobody is certain if she leaped or was prodded. Eleanor, the office temp, is Parker & Lane’s newest employee and the only one who might be aware of the truth.
Eleanor left Australia’s outback for London to escape the effects of her tragic background, but now disaster seems to follow her everywhere. To her dismay, she cannot recall the pivotal moments preceding Arabella’s death, moments that could either prove or disprove her guilt.
Eleanor is driven deeper into the murky, scary world of blame, suspicion, and guilt as she desperately tries to recall her missing hours and piece together what happened that fatal night.
Eleanor worries that she can’t even trust herself because she is caught up in a hail of allegations, let alone those close to her. She’ll soon be in a race against time to figure out what happened that night, learning just how dangerous certain secrets may be in the process.
The Review
The Hidden Hours
9.5 Score
This is a well-written and suspenseful whodunit - a nice combination between a traditional British slow-burn mystery and a more American style fast-paced psychological thriller. I always love a good amnesia story and this one had a different twist than usual that I wasn’t expecting. The characters are especially well-written and the ending was a surprise.
PROS
- Surprising and deep.
- Excellent Suspense.
- Gripping psychological thriller!
- Twisting, turning tale of deceit!
CONS
- Poor Writing.
- Thin Plot.
- Annoying Character.
- Totally Disappointing.
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