The Hidden Girl

June 30, 2014
In this intriguing psychological thriller from British author Millar (Accidents Happen), Hannah and her musician husband, Will, move from London to a remote Suffolk village. Hannah feels an enormous amount of pressure to get the house in order quickly, because her hopes of adopting a child turn on a bureaucrat’s approval of her new home. When Will heads back to London for work, Hannah winds up snowed in, with spotty cell service. Over a wintry few days, she begins to realize that the villagers are “hiding something” about a local woman named Elvie. Meanwhile in nippy London, Will, a particularly sympathetic and nuanced character, wonders if living with Hannah “in the middle of nowhere” is for him. Can Hannah get to the bottom of the Elvie mystery without jeopardizing her dreams of family life? Her obsession with the adoption is at times laid on with a heavy trowel, but that is a small flaw in a generally emotionally compelling novel.