Here at Crime Fiction Lover we tend to keep to our lane – albeit that lane has multiple offshoots and dastardly detours. But sometimes it is good to change the record and listen to a different tune. In my case, a guilty pleasure is reading the books of Nora Roberts (better known within our genre as JD Robb, writer of police procedurals with a sci-fi flavour). Roberts’ novels are slushy and romantic and the perfect antidote to all the blood, guts and gore that I devour within the crime fiction universe.
But who would have guessed that Chris Carter would be the author to combine the two? Hide and Seek is his first standalone, and fans of the dark and deadly Robert Hunter series are about to be mightily surprised by what’s between the covers.
Be prepared for a much more reserved Carter at play. Gone are the blood-soaked scenarios that make his previous series such a page turner; instead this is a story that begins in domestic violence and finishes in another place altogether. There’s very little blood and definitely no mutilation – in fact, if you were given an unnamed manuscript of the book, Chris Carter would be way down the list of guesses for the potential author.
As it opens, Samantha Stewart is in a Massachusetts court testifying against her husband, Nelson. He is a wealthy and well-known man, but what went on behind closed doors is shocking and the perpetrator soon finds himself behind bars, found guilty on multiple counts of assault and false imprisonment and sentenced to 13 years in prison.
As he’s taken down, Nelson angrily screams threats to Sam’s life. This is a man with power and influence and she’d do well to listen – which is why with the help of a sympathetic lawyer Sam creates a new life for herself, taking the name Mary Smith and, instead of using the millions of dollars awarded to her in her divorce settlement, she keeps moving from place to place, renting unprepossessing apartments for short periods and staying under the radar.
Bit by bit, Mary is getting her life together, until in Nashville she spots a man watching her who was in court when she testified. She leaves immediately, smartly employing smoke and mirrors to evade her pursuer and once again moving from one place to another, before eventually setting up home in Dogpatch, a neighbourhood filled with artists in San Francisco, California. Which is where she meets Quaddra, the man she falls in love with and agrees to marry. Cue romantic chats, hot sex and exotic holidays – with Carter channeling his inner romance writer – a combo that sat a little uneasily with this reader.
So, Hide and Seek contains none of the stomach churning set-pieces that Carter fans have come to expect and relish, but there’s one aspect of the book that is familiar. Chris Carter is a past master at creating sinuous plots and coming up with surprising twists, and while this standalone feels surprisingly tame in many respects, it also contains a tasty turn of events or two as a rich reward for sticking out to the bitter end. Wait and see!
There are plenty of authors who enjoy putting on a new writing hat when swapping from series to standalone – think Sarah Hilary, Elly Griffiths, Nicci French and of course Agatha Christie. Even Ian Rankin is returning to the standalone fold with The Heights, out in October. This is Chris Carter’s first attempt at going it alone, and it is very, very different to his usual output. For dyed in the wool followers like me, domestic noir is maybe a step too far from his usual territory – but I’ll be very interested to see what newcomers to Carter’s work think.
Lisa Gardner’s Before She Disappeared is a cracking standalone. Read our review here.
Simon & Schuster
Print/Kindle/iBook
£11.99
CFL Rating: 3 Stars
