Hidden

December 7, 2015
Olson (Shot Girl and three other Annie Seymour mysteries) starts more strongly than she finishes in this thriller about an enigmatic woman in hiding. The 40-year-old person who now calls herself Nicole Jones abandoned her old life 15 years before the book begins. She has exiled herself to Block Island, off the coast of Rhode Island, where she works as a bike tour operator. Nicole, who has assumed a new persona along with her new name, has settled into a comfortable routine, hanging out mostly with her closest friend, Steve McQueen (no relation to the actor), who hopes that their relationship will become more than platonic. Gradually, the reader learns exactly what led Nicole to vanish and why she has cut herself off from the outside world. Inevitably, Nicole must deal with the fallout once Steve and the others she has come to know on the island learn that she's been less than honest with them. The character interactions are of more interest than the overly familiar plot. Agent: Josh Getzler, Hannigan Salky Getzler Agency.

September 15, 2015
A woman's criminal past catches up with her. For 15 years, the woman known as Nicole Jones has lived on Block Island, off the New England coast. The year-round population of 1,000 swells to 20,000 in the summer, and Nicole manages to make a living by giving bike tours and selling her paintings in a local gallery. None of her friends know of her past as a computer hacker still wanted by the FBI. Nicole's cozy life falls apart when her former lover and partner in crime arrives on the island. Assuming the name of Zeke Chapman, an FBI agent in love with Nicole who was murdered in Paris, her former accomplice, who convinced her to hack into bank accounts and transfer funds to him, insists that she go back to hacking to reimburse him for the money he lost years ago when their scheme went awry. Unfortunately, a mobster is also interested in her whereabouts, and her peaceful existence turns into a dangerous game of cat and mouse. Although Nicole has not touched a computer in years, her addiction to hacking comes back when Zeke brings her a laptop, and she contacts her old mentor for help and delves into the past in an effort to extricate herself. Her closest friend, Steve McQueen, offers to marry her and does everything he can to help her, but only she can rescue herself from the law and the criminals. In a stand-alone much darker than the books in her Annie Seymour series (Shot Girl, 2009, etc.), Olson provides thrills and spills as her resourceful heroine uses her considerable skills to escape her past.

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December 15, 2015
For 15 years, Tina Adler has been living on a remote island off the coast of Providence, Rhode Island, pretending to be someone called Nicole Jones. To the public, she is a missing person; to the feds, she's a criminaland not just any criminal. As a teenager, Tina hacked into a handful of hefty bank accounts, narrowly avoiding capture. On the island, she enjoys living a normal life until her old lover and partner-in-crime, Ian, shows up, bringing the feds with him. Their love affair and the unsolved mysteries that surrounded their final heist together come barreling into the present as she avoids arrest once again. Olson uncovers Nicole's past in increments. Much of the exposition is devoted to Nicole's regret, nostalgia, self-loathing, and emotional isolation, which, though repetitive at times, make her, overall, a compellingly flawed character. Effective descriptive writing, coupled with the reflective protagonist, give this thriller a contemplative feel while not sacrificing suspense. With two more installments on the way, the story isn't over.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)