The Secrets You Hide

by Kate Helm

[Leah]

The Secrets You Hide is an absolutely magnificent novel. I didn’t know until I started it that it was written by Kate Harrison, whose books I love, and it’s really good to see her back writing fiction. This is her thriller debut and she has hit it out of the bloody park. I genuinely loved this book so much, it caught my attention straight away and I finished it in just a few sittings. I can see why this is Bonnier’s biggest debut crime launch for 2019, I can already see it being a Richard & Judy book or something similar, it is going to be big, let me tell you. Sometimes you just click with a book and that’s what happened to me, with The Secrets You Hide. It was a thrilling ride from start to finish, especially there at the end, it went places I didn’t actually expect, and I love a good misdirect.

The Secrets You Hide is all about Georgia, a courtroom artist who can see when people are guilty and draws her pictures accordingly. Running from her own past, she’s offered the chance to re-visit one of her old cases for a portrait book being published by a major publisher and she decides to go back to her very first case as a courtroom artist, where a man named Jim Fields saved two kids in a fire set by his son, Daniel, and that killed his wife, Tessa. But the town of Ashdean is one of those towns where everyone knows everyone and soon Georgia isn’t entirely sure Jim Fields is the man everyone makes him out to be.

The plot of this novel is fantastic. I loved how we had a vague idea, firstly, of what happened to Georgia and her family, it’s not left up in the air for a major reveal two pages before the end; but I also loved diving into the Fields family and the town of Ashdean. Georgia may have “just” been a courtroom artist, but she has a bloody good nose for a good story and since she thinks she had an affinity with Daniel Fielding during his trial, she’s determined to figure out the truth of what happened that night once and for all and it’s so compelling. It’s so nice to read such a straightforward thriller, with a reliable narrator. Yes, there were a few twists and turns – I didn’t see any of them coming and the one about Georgia in particular threw a proper spanner into everything I had believed about her thus far, but not in a bad way, if that makes sense?

Georgia absolutely drives this novel and I really liked her character, her perseverance, her spirit to learn the truth no matter what, especially since she could have just left it as it was, painted Jim Fields and let that be that, you know? But when Georgia smells blood, boy does she go after it and it’s incredible. Sure, it’s almost a bit of a distraction technique so she doesn’t have to face her own past, but it’s still incredible nevertheless. I properly admired her.

The Secrets You Hide is so well written. I already knew Kate Harrison was a fantastic writer, but this is something else entirely. We have so little to go on, but whispers and rumours and Georgia’s own beliefs, and yet this novel runs at such a rapid pace. You’re so invested in the story, as if you’re alongside Georgia yourself. I was so into this novel, I could barely put it down. The narrative is just fantastic. I can see The Secrets You Hide being on all of the bestseller lists and all of the reading group lists next year and it is so well deserved. Kate Helm is an incredible writer and I am SO glad she’s back with a new novel because this was absolutely magnificent and talent like hers needs to be read by all.