Title: Hideout
Author: Louisa Luna
Genre: Mystery/thriller
Rating: 4 out of 5
Alice Vega has made a career of finding the missing and vulnerable against a ticking clock, but she’s never had a case like Zeb Williams, missing for over thirty years. It was 1984, and the big Cal-Stanford football game was tied with seconds left on the clock. Zeb Williams grabbed the ball and ran the wrong way, through the marching band, off the field and out of the stadium. He disappeared into legend, replete with Elvis-like sightings and a cult following.
Zeb’s cold trail leads Vega to southern Oregon, where she discovers an anxious community living under siege by a local hate group called the Liberty Boys. As Vega starts digging into the past, the mystery around Zeb’s disappearance grows deeper, and the reach of the Liberty Boys grows more disturbing. Everyone has something to hide, and no one can cut to the truth like Alice Vega. But this time, her partner Max Caplan has his own problems at home, and the trouble Vega finds might be too much for her to handle.
I enjoyed this read. I liked that there were actually two mysteries here; what happened to Zeb and what the Liberty Boys were up to. Strong writing and vivid characterization hooked me in, but let’s be honest: Alice Vega is not the easiest character to relate to. She’s very prickly, standoffish, and analytical, which makes her come across as cold, but I like the effect Caplan has on her. This is a bit of a dark read, but it’s an engrossing one.
Louisa Luna lives in Brooklyn. Hideout is her newest novel.
(Galley courtesy of Doubleday in exchange for an honest review.)
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