Hidden Pictures – Jason Rekulak

Mallory is delighted to have a new job looking after gorgeous four-year-old, Teddy. She’s been sober for a year and a half and she’s sure her new nannying role in the affluent suburbs will help keep her on the straight and narrow.

That is until Teddy starts to draw disturbing pictures of his imaginary friend, Anya. It is quite clear to Mallory and to Teddy’s parents, even in his crude childlike style, that the woman Teddy is drawing in his pictures is dead.

Teddy’s crayons are confiscated, and his paper locked away. But the drawings somehow keep coming, telling a frightening story of a woman murdered… and they’re getting more sophisticated. But if Teddy isn’t drawing the pictures anymore, who is? And what are they trying to tell Mallory about her new home?

Book Info: Print length: 384 pages. Publisher: Sphere. Publication Date: 10 May 2022

Jason Rekulak is the author of HIDDEN PICTURES (coming May 2022) and THE IMPOSSIBLE FORTRESS (a finalist for an Edgar Award). For many years he was Publisher of Quirk Books, an indie press headquartered in Philadelphia, where he ghost-wrote many odd books that may or may not surface on this page, depending on the metadata. Today, Jason is an active member of Writer’s Guild East and Mystery Writers of America. He lives in West Philly with his wife and children and too many pets.

My Review.

Stop whatever you are reading and buy this book NOW. HIDDEN PICTURES is one of the best thrillers I’ve read in recent years. It’s outstanding.. but don’t take my word for it.. look what Stephen King said “I loved it. The surprises really surprise and it has that hard-to-achieve propulsiveness that won’t let you put it down. And the pictures are terrific!”

This book ticks every single box for me and then some! We have creepy kids, unreliable narrators, killer twists and characters you can’t get enough of and I can’t stop thinking about this book weeks after I’d finished it. This is DEFINITELY going into my TOP 10 BOOKS of 2022.

Mallory Quinn is a recovering drug addict living in a “half-way house” when she is offered the opportunity to look after a 5 year old boy called Teddy who has recently moved to the USA from Barcelona with his family. At first glance everything appears wonderful, Mallory and Teddy form a sweet relationship, his parents Caroline and Ted are supportive of Mallory’s past and provide a loving and supportive environment and she begins to feel safe and secure.

However being a thriller you can’t expect everyone to live happily every after and for nothing sinister to happen can you? Little Teddy loves to draw pictures (which are brilliantly scattered throughout the book) and he also has an imaginary friend called Anya but when his cute drawings start becoming dark and depict a dead woman Mallory starts to get concerned and begins to dig into the background of the town convinced this could be related to a murder several decades earlier.

That is ALL I am going to say about the plotline as you need to read this for yourself without me blathering on and giving away spoilers.

If you are looking for an UNPUTDOWNABLE, PAGE-TURNING, BUM-CLENCHING, DARK, CREEPY and completely BRILLIANT thriller then I would recommend Hidden Pictures 200%.

Rating: 5 out of 5.