The Hidden Things, by Jamie Mason (just released) is about old secrets, lies, crimes and conspiracy, involving a missing 17th century painting. The painting in question might not have ever seen the light of day (or museum) again, but for the fact that a tiny piece of it was caught on video and blasted access social media - as crime scene evidence.

Fourteen year old Carly was attacked in her home one day, as a young man, following her while she was walking home from school, forced his way into the entryway of her home. Carly fought off the attacker, who then fled. However, the attack was caught on the home security cameras, installed by Carly’s stepdad, John. While the brief video led to the capture of the attacker, John was not so thrilled about additional fallout resulting from the viral video. The film shows a sliver of a certain priceless painting, hanging in their foyer, which has been missing... •
Told in a number of POVs, the story is suspenseful as it exposes the ugly underbelly of the art theft scene. It’s not pretty, but makes for a suspenseful and enjoyable read!!


Thank You @netgalley For the ARC, in exchange for my honest opinion

A fun thriller for the social media age. Carly's story is well told and grabs interest, in particular around the idea of social media and viral videos. An interesting take on the thriller genre. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

3.75⭐ rounded up

We are told over and over again that secrets don't stay secret forever, and that's no different for Johnathan. I'm still thinking about his character and the quote that stuck with me the most was, " This situation needed a good bad guy or a bad good guy. You can decide where you’ll put me in this story". It makes you wonder if a person is only one thing.

What I loved about this book:

~Carly was one of those characters who you can easily sympathize with and root for throughout the book. Although her character had to grow up quicker than anyone else her age, her growth and strength was one of the things I liked the most. I enjoyed her character's personality and all the tiny observations she made. While others often underestimated her, she used her ability to notice what others didn't to put them in their place.

~While the plot is somewhat predictable, it was unique. I like when an author takes an event from our history and incorporates that into the story. It makes the book more realistic and usually sends me down the Google rabbit hole for awhile (spoiler alert, I googled 😂). I also really liked the epilogue and felt it wrapped up the novel well. Where it doesn't give you specific details, it gives just enough detail to come to your own conclusions.

~This whole novel was spun off of a viral video and it emphasized how social media can effect your life and the wellbeing of those around you. I feel this is an important message that needs attention, especially with the younger crowds. So many people downplay the negative effects it can have and how it can change their lives forever.

What kept me from giving this book 5⭐?

~While reading this book I found it bit to descriptive at times. While I enjoyed the writing style of the author, there were parts that could have been cut or shortened. By editing those parts I would have found it more enjoyable. I also found most of the characters unlikable (which was necessary for aspects of this book) and that caused me to have a hard time relating to this book. Maybe if there had been more about Carly's Mom or friend, I would have felt more connected. Overall I still enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who enjoyes domestic drama or thrillers.

Thank you Netgalley, Gallery Books, and Jamie Mason for a review copy in exchange for honestly review. All opinions are my own and a positive review was not required.

Hidden Things is perfect for the wired-up, social media times that abound. Looking for a fast and fun read? Hidden things is it. The author writes well and includes details that enrich and engage the reader. The main character seems like an ordinary 14-year-old teen. Hah, but looks deceive, do they not?
Carly is one cool cat. She fights off an intruder trying to break into her house. Of course, the video goes viral and Carly is the new hero for the moment. But as attention intensifies, Carly’s Stepfather becomes increasingly nervous. What is he hiding and why? The reader will be compelled to read as fast as possible in order to discover what is really going on behind the scenes of this seemingly peaceful and normal house.

Carly Lidell is not your average fourteen-year-old. She survived an attack at her own front door and in the foyer from a local lowlife by fighting back and knocking out he attacker. The whole "thing," as Carly calls it was captured on video by the home security cameras and quickly went viral. Only the corner of a painting hanging in the foyer is visible, but the video is of great interest to several people. The picture is one of the works stolen, a minor one, in the notorious robbery at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990. It seems that the painting has surfaced once before and in the process changed the lives of all involved. What could it be doing hanging in a suburban foyer? The players in this drama are Marcelline, John /Jonathan, Carly's stepfather, Owen Haig, and Roy Dorring. Four years earlier John had led Marcelline into a plan to sell the painting to an obscenely wealthy family rather than turn it into the FBI or the Museum. She nearly paid with her life and had to disappear. Owen was the agent for the family and has been obsessed with getting the art back ever since. Roy was just the sad-sack trying to make a buck, which is the entirety of his life. The viral video sets this group on a collision course. And Carly? She wants to know why her stepfather is so changed and acting so suspiciously since the "thing."

The Hidden Things is a fast-paced thriller with characters that are so fleshed out they jump off the page. Marcelline made a bad mistake and just wants her life back. John is a sociopath; Roy, a quintessential loser, and Owen can only be described as a "black hole" whose real motives are indecipherable to me. And Carly is bright, gifted, compassionate and could someday rule the world. I would give this novel an enthusiastic 5 stars, had it not bogged down a bit in the middle. Jamie Mason is a gifted storyteller with a sharp eye for characterization and pacing. I highly recommend The Hidden Things. Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery for an advance copy. The opinions are my own.

RATING- 4.5 Stars

"Sparks, fuses. Old-dynamite wrong."

I wondered about the plot at first because I'm not a big fan of art heists, but it's more than that. It's about the guilty and innocent characters and how they are dealing with the secrets coming to light from an incident caught on video.

Jamie Mason is a wonderful writer. Her descriptive prose is poetic and gives the reader a great sense of who the character is and what they are thinking.

The characters are everything from innocent to evil and intuitive to manipulative. My favorite is Carly who is fourteen and mature for her age. Not only does she kick an attackers ass which is caught on video, but she puts the most seasoned criminals to shame. 

This is a gripping read about secrets, revenge and a painting to literally die for. A great summer read!

When 14 year old Carly is attacked, it's all caught on video, but so is the bottom corner of an infamous painting that had been stolen from The Gardner Museum in Boston. Once that video goes viral all hell breaks loose! Told from multiple POV's, each related to the others to fill in the back story and develop the characters. The writing is so well done you forget your reading and not watching the story unfold before you. An Art heist, deception, greed and revenge are all at play in this riveting thriller. I highly recommend this one and guarantee that by the end of it you'll be #teamCarly too.

Thank you to Gallery Books and NetGalley for an ARC to read review and enjoy.

I must admit that I have never read any previous books by this author and I am afraid that I will not be able to finish this one. I am a little bit more than halfway through but I have gotten to a point where I just don’t care what happens to any of the characters.
This is a real shame because the book started with a bang and then kind of just sizzled out. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this advance copy in exchange for my unbiased review.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this book to review. I was immediately intrigued by the description. When a video goes viral, we don't often think about all the ramifications of that. This book thinks through one of the ramifications (something other than the original focus being seen) and takes off with that idea. I think it is a really intriguing idea. I found Carly a very likeable and relate-able character. I love the idea of a stolen painting being at the center of this book. I was disappointed, however, in that I found the book lost my interest in the middle. It was still a very unique idea and I did not count it as time lost, just not one of my favorite reads. I will try other books by this author.

2.5 stars. This was a tough book to get through for me. I loved the premise and was very excited to get started, but found that the writer's style was not an easy one for me to follow. I felt the author added so much detail and "flowery" prose that it detracted from the story. It became a chose to pick the book up and I noticed I was skimming pages to avoid the endless adjectives added and missing some important details. Great idea, difficult execution- just not my type of book.

Smart characters, strong plot, brilliant writing--a trifecta that's hard to find as a reader, but The Hidden Things has it. Different and fresh, this is smart crime fiction at its best. Highly recommend.

**NetGalley provided copy for review**

I loved the way this book starts out - Carly's attack was frightening and had me frantically turning pages. Then the story goes viral and there's a painting in the frame that was stolen years ago... then we are kind of thrown into that whole story line and it lost its grip. Overall, this was a good book, but I did feel the excitement wore off as the book progressed, although the twists toward the end were excellent.

It was an art theft that went very wrong, but that was years ago and who would think that one man’s twisted greed would backfire when a home invasion and attack on a young girl exposes the truth.

THE HIDDEN THINGS by Jamie Mason is a tense and alluring read as greed meets revenge head on and one man’s big secret is caught on video and goes viral. Proof that in today’s technology, nothing is private, double-crossing powerful people is dangerous and Karma has no expiration date.

Taut and edgy throughout, prepare to get familiar with the edge of your seat as this twisted plot unravels at the hands of a teenage girl.

I received a complimentary ARC edition from Gallery Books! This is my honest and voluntary review.

finished it this morning and still circling though my mind, playing out the various endings after the last page. Teetering on the verge of believable, 15-year-old Carly gets involved with her step-father’s multi-million dollar secret painting, and embarks on a life-changing adventure that will keep you turning pages to see what happens next.

I read - and thoroughly enjoyed - the author's debut novel six years ago, so I was excited to hear about this latest title! This book, centering around the aftermath of a shady art deal four years prior to the opening of the novel, immediately hooks in the reader. Told in five perspectives, Mason develops her characters well - even the more villainous ones have their moments of humanity. It's really an exciting book that very quickly becomes quite hard to put down. Carly, though, of all of the characters is the real show-stealer. I have a soft spot for these types of thrillers that feature "regular" people (no cops, private investigators, lawyers or journalists) and I also really enjoyed the art angle.

The book is just a lot of fun to read. Not only does it quickly grip the reader, but it really exudes a certain cinematic flair. The use of coincidence can be difficult to feel truly plausible in a novel, but Mason uses to dramatic - and sometimes darkly comedic - effect here. I can easily see this a one-sitting read! It's a lot of fun to read and I am looking forward to catching. up on the book that I missed in the interim period! I like Mason's writing and am looking forward to new releases from her as well!

3.5/5 Overall, this was a good read, but I found all of the characters to be pretty unlikable. The plot is interesting and everything goes along at a great pace, but it's just hard to really get into a book when you don't like any of the characters. The plot focuses on a missing painting and all of the various people trying to get their hands on the paining. But I kept coming back to the thought, am I supposed to want any of these people to actually get the painting? Nobody seemed to deserve it.

I loved this book. It's a fast-paced thriller with great characters and a unique premise. All the characters had unusual back stories that were as believable as they were different. Highly recommended

This mystery-thriller sports two strong women protagonists/antagonists depending on your point of view. On the other side are two men, one who apparently has OCD and another who is not a very good criminal. By happenstance, a valuable piece of artwork is shown on the internet, setting off the cat and mouse game of recovering the once-stolen artifact. One thing leads to another and the story does end with a satisfactory resolution. I would have given it five stars except there were too many instances of backstory/flashbacks for me. True, they helped tell the story, but I prefer a more linear form. It's a well-written story and definitely worth the read..

The Hidden Things is the next book you should be checking out if you're a fan of thrillers. This one is captivating from the start and never lets up. A security camera catches sight of a stolen painting in the midst of a home invasion. The painting was stolen in 1990. How did it get to hang in a suburban foyer? The story is suspenseful, creepy, and atmospheric. Readers will be pleased with the fast-pace and how fresh this novel feels. Highly recommended to readers who enjoy thrillers and are looking for something different.

"The Hidden Things" by Jamie Mason is a mystery involving a Flinck painting that was actually stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990. A home invasion attack on 14 year old Carly Liddell that was caught on home surveillance cameras sets off a string of events that ultimately affects many people. The video camera exposes Carly's assailant but also shows a glimpse of a painting hanging in her parents' foyer. This seemingly innocuous painting was actually a stolen masterpiece by Govaert Flinck painted almost 400 years ago. The question is how this painting got acquired by Carly's stepfather.

Although the perpetrator is arrested when the video goes viral, the painting is recognized by an art dealer and an enforcer hired by his clients to procure the masterpiece at any cost. Carly eventually finds herself in the middle of a web filled with deceit, lies and murder involving her stepfather. As the truth slowly unwinds, Carly unwittingly becomes involved in a high stakes operation.

This book had a very interesting premise but didn't completely hold my attention. Many thanks to NetGalley and Gallery Books for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.