The Hiding Place

i would at most give this book 3 stars..... because the characters in this story are quite established. however, the whole story, if considered from the view of a crime story, or murder story, is not so successful. when the story has gone like two thrids already, the inspector was still in total darkness and confusion, trying to run around to question different people to get more infomation, and he had a few wrong guess already. then suddenly, within the last like 30 pages, he jumped right to the conclusion, oh this is the one!!!! let's go to catch him!!! for me, even after the police has caught the person and plainly said that this guy is the murderer, I was still like?????? what??? how did you get there???? last scene, you were talking with your ex-wife about the baby, then, suddenly next second, you came out with the inspiration that this is the murderer, and rushed to the school to catch the guy right on the spot......???? excuse me?????? where is the logic??? what is the reason that caused you to be convicted that you should arrest that guy?????? basically this inspector is as nonsense as the inspector in Father Brown series, who is made as the contrast to show how smart Father Brown is. but the point is that, the inspector in this story is the main charater, not the bat exaple... so you have to who in a logic and reasonable way that you arrest the person with the porper evidence....otherwise, you know.......

i like the way the story is presented to the readers, with two lines going in a parallelled way, one is going in the present time, while the other line is to tell the history in 22 years ago, about the boy Ben who was found in the crypt. the author is quite good at telling the story, and know where to pause, which causes the reader to continue to be fully immersed in the scene provided. especially when the murder of the boy Ben happened, at that huge rain night, the atmosphere was filled with intensed horror, which caused the readers to closely follow the runaway of Ben from the other three who were chasing after him in a scary "hide and see". 

 Inspector Fleet: 典型的伟光正男主角，国产刑侦剧里面的第一主角，充满正义感，但是同时又被腐败的官僚系统所辖制，往往在追寻真相的过程中受到来自上级的种种压力。但是仍然一腔热血地往前冲，直到抓住真正的凶手。我觉得这本小说里最多余的就是他和前妻破镜重圆的感情戏，好鸡肋啊。就好像咱们电视剧强行加戏的女主角，把他的前妻Holly戏份都删掉，完全不影响整个故事。我都不知道为啥非要给男主安排这段感情戏。而且最鸡血的是，前妻怀孕的孩子不是他的，所以他不仅要跟前妻复婚，还要喜当爹，答应会对于这个不知道哪个男人的孩子视如己出。我就有一种吃了一口苍蝇下去的感觉。你还不如跟你的拍档Nicky好呢。。这个前妻也是很奇葩的，虽说她是在不知情的情况下当了小三，跟一个有妇之夫睡了几次，然后发现人家有家庭就及时分手了，分手之后发现自己怀孕了，然后就突然莫名其妙跑回自己前夫家里来哭诉，还睡了一个晚上。这一幕真是看的我叹为观止啊？莫非真是我老了，跟不上时代的潮流了，完全不理解这里面的脑回路。

Surgent Nicky：Fleet的拍档，两人一起追查这个22年前的案子，然后中途被凶手关了禁闭。其实我反倒是比较磕她和Fleet的CP。一开始其他警察发现湖里的尸体，以为是她的时候，我还真是难受了一把，以为她真的就这样领了便当，好在最后被及时救出来了。Nicky虽然也是在单亲家庭长大，但是由于受到爱的关怀，所以没有其他几个小孩那样长歪。其实我觉得他们两个最后说的那句话挺对的，如果这4个孩子在成长过程中受到一点点的关爱，他们应该就会走上一条完全不同的道路。

校长Harrison：我都不知道他到底算是个合格的父亲呢还是造成这一系列悲剧的不称职的父亲。Harrison做了那个有钱人学校的校长，这个学校的校训选的很不错，引自四福音里，主耶稣对门徒说的话“精明如蛇，灵巧如鸽子”。但是这种寄宿学校，一般里面都是各种问题，里面的学生多半也是比较有问题的。校长费劲功夫把自己的儿子送进这个学校，但是由于怕他会被其他学生联合起来霸凌，就给儿子改了名字，还要求在学校一定要装作彼此完全不认识。但是儿子不理解父亲为啥要这么做，因此就怀恨上了自己的父亲。但是后来杀了人之后，还是得去找自己爸爸来善后。这个父亲其实也是很爱儿子的，虽然我觉得爱的方式是不太对，很有问题。但是还是得乖乖滴给儿子善后，处理事情。

Father Steigne：这个学校的chaplin，故事的坏人团本来就是针对他制定了一系列计划，要给他安上丑闻，想趁机把学校搞垮。最后Fleet把他叫去警局问话的时候，我几乎以为他就是凶手，被Fleet说的，我也几乎以为他当时发现了Ben不小心打开的Crypt，然后把Ben送下去杀了，蛮合理啊，因为他可能发现其他几个学生在故意搞自己。结果发现，唉呀？不是的？所以这是作者故意误导的吗？

总结，书荒可看。故事的精彩程度可能就在那几个高光场面了吧

The Hiding Place Simon Lelic Penguin Audio