Hidden follows on the heels of Emma Kavanagh’s debut psychological thriller novel, Falling. A second novel is a tricky beast – can the author do it again? Can they build on the success of the first? Can it follow in the same genre without being too much the same?

Kavanagh has succeeded with Hidden when other authors haven’t. Similarly to some series on television, the novel starts with the crime and then takes the reader back a stage, to the start of the action. Rather than peeling away the layers to get at ‘who dun it,’ Kavanagh builds up the layers, so that we get to the ‘why’ he ‘dun it’. And who actually did it. Clever stuff, with multiple viewpoints.

In Hidden, a gunman is stalking the wards of a local hospital. He’s unidentified and dangerous, and has to be located. Urgently.

Police Firearms Officer Aden McCarthy is tasked with tracking him down. Still troubled by the shooting of a schoolboy, Aden is determined to make amends by finding the gunman – before it is too late. To psychologist Imogen, hospital should be a place of healing and safety – both for her, and for her young niece who’s recently been admitted. She’s heard about the gunman, but he has little to do with her. Or has he?

Kavanagh uses her years of experience training police forces and military units on the psychology of life threatening incidents, to give credence to her work. The tension builds, and never lets up.

Hidden – Emma Kavanagh Published in paperback by Arrow   £6.99