Tragedy and how one event can alter the course of your life, is central to author Heather Gudenkauf’s second novel.
Told from the point of view of four women, "These Things Hidden" explores what happens when people are bound by secrets and how far they will go to keep those secrets hidden to protect those they love.
Allison Glenn, a girl from the small town of Linden Falls, Iowa, was a high school standout destined for great things until one stormy night when she commits a heinous crime and tries to cover it up.
She fails and spends five years in prison leaving behind her family and a town wondering how things went so wrong for its shining star.
At the age of 21, Allison is released from prison. She tries to reconnect with her parents, who want nothing to do with her.
More so than her parents she is eager to speak with her younger sister Brynn. She needs to know how Brynn is doing and is desperate to have her beloved younger sister back in her life.
The shy and fragile Brynn has had to live with the whispers around town regarding her sister and struggles with the secrets of that night that never came out during Allison’s trial. She is striving to forget not only that night, but her sister as well.
The third point of view comes from Claire; a bookstore owner, who with her husband, is happily raising her adopted son Joshua.
The fourth is that of Charm, a young nursing student who abandoned Joshua at a fire station when he was an infant.
Throughout the 337-page novel how the lives of these four women are intertwined is revealed in a slow, suspenseful progression.
The reader becomes instantly enthralled in the story’s intricacies and the revelations about the role little Joshua plays in their lives.
"These Things Hidden" is a powerful and poignant novel dealing with familial relationships, secrets, overwhelming guilt and what happens when you are forced to deal with the consequences of your actions.
It sets readers’ hearts racing as they peel away at the layers of secrets and discover what these women did in the name of love to protect others and themselves.
