‘Hide
And Seek’ by P.S. Brown is a crime thriller. One thing to note about the author
is that this is his first book. However, for a first attempt, let me assure you that this is not going to disappoint you. The book has a 200 page beautifully
carved plot. Let me warn that this review has spoilers. :P So you should stop
here if you are going to read this book.
The story begins with Gavin who is murdered
by forcing him to drink glasses of sleeping pills dissolved in water so that it
looks like a suicide. There is a conversation between the murderer and Gavin,
which includes a mention of Excellent Eight. We realize that both the murderer
and the victim are a part of this group and that the culprit is expecting the
rest of this gang to arrive for the funeral so that he can finish them off too.
Then, the story is skipped to the funeral scene that is described through the
eyes of the protagonist ‘Peter Stevenson’ who also turns to be a member of the
Excellent Eight. We get introduced to the other members of the group which
include Laura – Peter’s childhood sweetheart; Michelle Heron and Colin Clark – who are a couple; Steve Jenkins; Peter
Perkins - who was referred to as Cas to prevent confusion and whom the
protagonist is close to and Cheryl Stimson – who is a gorgeous woman. The
protagonist has a wife Jannie and a son. Suddenly, we find the protagonist
sleeping inside an empty cabin in the woods on the outskirts of the city. Despite
his throbbing unusual headache, he manages to escape the cabin. He finds
himself in the woods where once during hide-and-seek he had gotten his leg
stuck inside a hole and had to wait for hours till a bearded guy rescued him.
He reaches Michelle and Colin’s home, which is empty. None of the beds had been
slept in and he finds a note from Colin asking him to call on a given number when
he reaches home. The Sheriff, Michelle’s father makes an entry here enquiring
about his pregnant daughter and ends up pointing out that the number on the note
is not Colin’s neither is the note handwriting. After he leaves, Peter gets a
phone ringing, which shows his name on the caller ID.
The caller identifies himself as Celo
and informs him that the members of his gang including Peter were drugged the
previous night. The rest of the gang were tied up in various spots across the city
and Peter had to find them on time if he wanted them alive. As proof, he had
chopped off Colin’s arm and kept it inside the oven along with a bunch of keys.
Peter was warned that if he involves anyone else in the game, he will lose all
his friends. Celo would be providing him with clues, which only the members of
the Excellent Eight can solve to find a particular place. Each place has
gotten that particular member trapped there which was a bad memory in their childhood.
Celo gives Peter his first clue for Colin, which was an apartment where the
group used to go and shoot gobstoppers. Colin had injured his leg in one such
excursion. He goes to the said apartment but he was too late and Colin was thrown
out of the 10th floor of the building right in front of his eyes.
The people in the apartment complex spot Peter and believe that he was the
culprit. Peter manages to escape and gets the next clue. It was for Cheryl in a
bakery near their school. They used to buy cakes and other goodies from here
and she used to buy the most. Here she was discovered packed naked into a hot
burning oven. Luckily, she is saved on time and Peter calls up an ambulance.
Due to his break-in in the bakery, the police get a silent alarm and arrive
pretty early. However as Peter couldn’t waste his time explaining to the police,
he had to escape from the police again making people believe that he is the
murderer. The next clue is for Michelle in a firework shop where they were once
caught shoplifting. They had stored the fireworks in Michelle’s coat and she
had gotten the most scolding. Here, Michelle was bound to a chair and when the time
was up, the plan was to shoot fireworks on her. She was saved on time but like
in the previous case, the police are tipped off and they start ransacking the
shop. Michelle doesn’t buy Celo’s story and gives up on Peter which results in
another chase. Again, Peter escapes and he gets the next clue for Cas which is
his school sports room where Cas had once injured his leg. Peter breaks into
the school and is attacked by Cas who mistakes Peter to be the attacker. Peter
is blown unconscious and an hour later gets woken up by Celo’s call. He was
informed that Cas had attacked Peter and hence Celo had to intervene and kill
Cas. Much to Peter’s horror, Celo announces that he has ten minutes to save
Laura who is in a pet store which was her favorite as a kid. Peter had to
steal a car to reach the store very late. Laura was kept in a tank that got
filled with water in due time.
The last clue was for Steve, which was
a car junkyard on the outskirts of the city. Steve had once nearly fallen into
the machine as they were playing unknown that somebody had forgotten to switch
it off that day. Steve was tied up inside the crusher and luckily gets saved.
Unlike Michelle, Steve believed about Celo and advised Peter to inform the
police. But Peter was waiting for the final call where Celo had promised he
will reveal himself to Peter. As Peter gets his final clue which is the cabin
in which he woke up that day morning, Steve had gone to the city and blurted
out everything to the cops. Peter, notices a trap door in the cabin which he
had ignored in the morning. He goes down into the basement, where he notices
the complete setup of the cruel game he had to play. Something seemed familiar
about the place but he couldn’t recollect it. He also finds a medical
certificate and a hospital badge in his name. The police arrive and he gets
arrested for the murder. Later on, a psychiatrist talks to him at the police
station. He was asked about the incident in the woods and gets informed that
instead of hours, that man, Robert Paulson had kidnapped Peter for fifteen days
and had kept him locked in a cage. Peter was suffering from dissociative
identity disorder which made him behave as two personalities, the other being
Celo. Peter was reported missing last year, and his wife and son had died
before that in an accident. Robert was released from prison that May and they
believed Celo had killed and buried him under the same cage. For the past six
months, Peter was living as Celo in the cabin, which belonged to Robert and had
planned out all these murders. There was no SIM in the phone, thorough which
Celo had contacted Peter. It was just Peter talking to himself. The story ends
with Peter regretting everything.
Ok, so I kind of gave my best in
giving you a pretty short review of the book. Though the idea of a Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is not a
new one, overall, the book was a good page-turner. I recommend this book to
people who like short crime thrillers and do not expect a heavy plot. Please do
not pick this up if you are expecting a Dan Brown kind of thing. Kudos to the
author!!!
My
rating: 3.0/5.0
Cheers
until next time sweethearts!!!
