Customer Reviews

Hiding in the Shadows (Shadows Trilogy)

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Will the real Kay Hooper please stand up? I have read just about every book this woman has written--yet, her last two books are so different, they have just blown me away! Ms. Hooper has outdone herself and brought her writing to a whole new dimension that I, for one, find fascinating beyond belief.

Hiding in the Shadows is Ms. Hooper's second installment of the Shadows' books. Once again, we see Noah Bishop, the FBI profiler, in a story that deals with the unknown. He has come to help his good friend, Noah MacGregor, look for Dinah Leighton. Dinah is an investigating reporter who is hot on the trail of something so big that she is not about to reveal anything until she has all the facts. Then suddenly she disappears without a trace. Mixed into this situation is Faith Parker, a friend of Dinah whom no one seems to know anything about. Faith is lying in the hospital in a deep coma of which she will not awaken from according to the medical experts. Dinah disappears and Faith awakens. Coincidence?

I thought Stealing Shadows, the first book in this series was the best I've read this year. Hiding in the Shadows, while not as intense as the first, tells a fascinating story of how souls and lives become tangled together. It is in its own rights, a great book with characters you find yourself caring about. I, for one, am eagerly anticipating the final book in this series. Hopefully, Noah's story will finally be revealed. If not, Ms. Hooper better be planning some more books in this series.

Kay Hooper, wherever you are, please continue this style of writing. Your last two books have earned a spot on the same shelf with J. D. Robb's books for being new and inventive with a story line and characters that I intend to follow as long as you keep writing.

When Faith comes out of the coma she has no memory of the accident that almost killed her, or of anything else. Her mind is a blank, but then she starts getting memories of her reporter friend Faith. She dreams of a man she doesn't know and has vision of violence all too real. She teams up with Dinah's boyfriend Kane and with FBI agent Noah Bishop and they try to solve the riddle of Faith's dreams before it's too late.

This five star psychic thriller has an ending that'll keep you thinking for weeks. I never would've or could've guessed it. It chilled me to the bone. Kay Hooper has shed her romantic past. She is a thriller writer now.

Reviewed by Vesta Irene, Number One fan of Ken Douglas, writer of Dead Ringer, Desperation Moon & Running Scared. One of the advantages of being married to a writer is that there are plenty of good books around the house. It's turned me into quite a reader of mysteries and thrillers. In addition to Ken's books you might also want to check out Blood Dreams & Sleeping with Fear, two other fine thrillers by Kay Hooper.

Faith Parker awakens from a coma with no memory of her past. In the effort to regain her memory, Faith stumbles on a conspiracy of blackmail, torture and murder.

While in her coma, Faith's friend Dinah, an investigative journalist pursuing a mysterious story, disappears. To figure out her connection to the kidnapping, Faith joins forces with Dinah's boyfriend Kane MacGregor and psychic FBI agent Noah Bishop. Together, these three people use Faith's dreams to try and find Dinah before it's too late.

The plot of "Hiding in the Shadows" is an intriguing one, but it falters from too many red herrings and an improbable romance. Only once did I gasp in wonder at a twist in the story, a rarity for a Kay Hooper book. It's clear there's a paranormal aspect to this mystery, but it's muddied by improbable decisions.
When the villain is revealed, there is no "ah ha" moment, and no real or evil reason for the whole action to have occurred.

Faith is just a bit too predictable as a "help me" heroine. She is continuously described as frail and lost, in constant need of being rescued. In fact, she doesn't develop a backbone until the last three chapters, even though Hooper keeps telling the reader how strong Faith really is.

Kane, on the other hand, is clearly suffering from the loss of Dinah. He performs ordinary tasks like eating and sleeping by rote as he searches for his lost love. You can feel his agony on every page, which only makes his sudden passion for Faith so annoying. Bishop jumps in and out of the story and feels more like a
shadow himself, rather than a character offering anything substantial to solving the mystery.

"Hiding in the Shadows" is a quick read, but not a very satisfying one. The ending leaves the reader hungry -- not for more stories with these characters, but for a meatier tale.

"Hiding In The Shadows" is the second "Shadows" novel by Kay Hooper, the first being "Stealing Shadows." I felt that "Hiding In The Shadows" was a wonderful read. I finished this novel in two days. The one thing that I love the most about the Shadow series is the psychic and paranormal activity that the author uses in helping to solve the crimes. "Hiding In The Shadows" was a blend of mystery, psychic abilities, and kidnapping. Faith Parker wakes up in a coma and wonders how she got there. She later finds out that she was drugged in her drink and she drove home and crashed. She has lost her memory totally. SHE HAS AMNESIA! She later finds out that Dinah Leighton, her only friend was the only one who visited her in the hospital. When Faith gets out of the hospital, she finds out that Dinah has been kidnapped. Faith must do anything she can do to try and find her only friend and get her own memory back before her old life catches up with her and eventually kills her. The reason why I gave this novel four out of five stars was because I LIKED STEALING SHADOWS better. "Stealing Shadows, "Hiding In The Shadows," and "Out of The Shadows" (coming October 31st) are all wonderful mysteries!

Or in this case, how many do you need in one novel? This one had three, and it was two too many. Hiding suffers from only average writing, one-dimensional characters, and flat, if functional dialogue. The villians weren't particularly compelling, and the solving of the mystery was anti-climatic. But even worse was the treatment of Faith's character at the end. After Ms. Hooper invites the reader to establish an emotional investment in the heroine, she robs the character of her happy ending in a most unsettling, and unbelievable way.

A terrible accident has left Faith Parker in a coma.

Journalist Dinah Leighton is a true friend to Faith, providing her with the love and support she needs during her stay in the hospital, until one day she vanishes without a trace...

As Faith comes out of her coma, she will have no memory of the accident, or the best friend that visited her every day in the hospital.

While Faith is struggling to regain pieces of her memory, she will have flashes of horrible violence being inflicted upon Dinah. With the help of Dinah's fiance, Kane, and FBI agent Noah Bishop, Faith must stop a horrible monster and save her friend's life before it's too late, and piece together the puzzle of deception and lies that haunt the two women.

"Hiding In The Shadows" is a page-turning novel of psychic suspense. At the core of the novel is a mind blowing plot, with enough twists and turns to keep readers on the edge of their seat.

Kay Hooper is quickly carving her place among the ranks of bestselling authors in the suspense arena.

Nick Gonnella

I have just finished reading the three books in the 'Shadows' trilogy. While I would rate 'Stealing Shadows' and 'Out of the Shadows' 4 and 5 stars respectively (the last book really was wonderful), I was bitterly disappointed in 'Hiding in the Shadows.' The concept underlying this story was disconcerting and extremely frustrating. Unfortunately, this is all that can be said without revealing the plot twist. My advice to readers of this trilogy is skip this book. The books can be read as stand-alone reads so do that, and leave 'Hidden in the Shadows' hiding.

After reading "Stealing the Shadows" by this author, I was looking forward to reading another novel of paranormal suspense by this author. While this is not a bad book, it was not as enjoyable as the other. Some of the problems with the book is that I found the two main characters to be not particularly likable. That being said, the premise of the book is an interesting one, but its execution is a little rough. Therein lies the rub.

When a young woman wakes up in the hospital after being in a come from which there was little expectation that she would awaken, she is a complete cipher to herself. After being told that her name is Faith Parker and that she was the victim of a car accident, Faith tries to put her life back together as best she can. She does not, however, have any memory of the accident or of her life before she woke up from the coma. Nor does she recall her friend, journalist Dinah Leighton, the friend who looked after her and her affairs while she was in the hospital. Now, Dinah has inexplicably disappeared, and it seems that what happened to Faith may be tied into what happened to Dinah.

As memories start popping up, and she begins to have chilling visions of what is happening to Dinah, Faith joins forces with Kane MacGregor, who is Dinah's boyfriend and a man to whom Faith is inexplicably drawn, though she had never before met him. Together, with the assistance of FBI agent Noah Bishop, they will attempt to discover what happened to both Faith and Dinah. What they discover is something that none of them had ever envisioned.

I can not believe that so many of these reviews are positive. I had to read this book for my book club, or I would have stopped reading in the first 50 pages. The fact that it was an easy read and could be finished in a couple of days was its only redeeming quality.

The characters were the same characters you'll find in any other airport novel. I think that the author was really reaching throughout the entire book to give them more dynamic personalities, but in my opinion fell short.

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone, and I have a whole bookclub of people who would agree. Instead of discussing this book, we spent the whole meeting trying to come up with future books and kidding the woman who chose this one everytime she suggested another.

This book was okay, but not as good as "Stealing Shadows". Hardly anything made since and the chartacters just weren't endearing. The ending didn't help, how strange. If you are a mystery fan you might enjoy this book. I'm going to start on the third book and hope that it's as good as the first.