Sunday 30 August 2020

Book Review of 'Hiding', by Calle.J.Brookes


This book is a sizeable read with 344 pages and has an interesting mix of concepts. An FBI saga, with a personal twist, with love and emotions thrown in, plus a killer gang hunting for hidden treasure. That's quite a heady mix of themes.

Characters

There are far too many characters to enjoy a comfortable read. Somehow, it is as tough as an Agatha Christie novel that makes great demands on your memory.

More difficulty is posed when too many past details are crammed into every new character, soon after they appear. This person is married to that guy's sister or brother and has four or five siblings, plus all the names and history with details of each of them...the reader is confused and completely exhausted to process the barrage of unrequired information.

If there is something called over-characterization, this must be it. Every other page turns up new characters and delves deep, too deep into each. In her enthusiasm to keep a connect between the 16 books in the series, the author has over emphasized the characters in the single ones. The book would have been a lot easier to digest if this had been avoided. 

Funnily enough, every other character is involved with or married to some colleague or the other of the opposite gender they work with.

The thing about Kyra, the protagonist is that every odd guy seems to be irresistably attracted to her. Despite her being small and tiny, according to the descriptions accorded to her by the males. The protective instincts of the male gender is over hyped.

Storyline

It is tough to fathom the powerful FBI running and hiding through half the book, only to retaliate after reinforcements arrive towards the climax. It would have been better to showcase Kyra Dillon as a kick-ass woman, trained to take better care of herself from her criminal attackers, without having a man like Cam (a joker, by his own admissal) to be her shining armour prince at regular intervals. 
It is however refreshing to have a male protagonist who is different from the run-of-the-mill suave, dark dangerous types, although he has the perfect body that seems like a prerequisite for the chief love interest.

The treasure-seeking angle of the story, in underground caves and the landscape reminded me of the famous five series of Enid Blyton.

Conclusion

Overall, the book can be read once. I rate it 2.8 out of 5.

Did you like my review? Let me know in the comments.

Keep reading, readers. And stay safe too. 

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