By: Kate Helm
Narrator: Emma Powell
10 Hours, 45 Minutes
ISBN: 9781666615012
Publisher: Dreamscape Media
Publication Date: 09/06/2022
Format: Audiobook
My Rating: 4.5 Stars (ARC)
Georgia Sage has a gift: she can see evil in people. As a courtroom artist, she uses her skills to help condemn those who commit terrible crimes. After all, her own brutal past means she knows innocence is even rarer than justice.
But when she is drawn back into the trial that defined her career—a case of twisted family betrayal—she realizes that her own reckless pursuit of justice may have helped the guilty go free.
As Georgia gets closer to the truth behind that case, something happens that threatens not only her career but also her sanity. At first, she fears her guilt around the events of her terrible childhood is finally coming back to haunt her, but the truth turns out to be even more terrifying...
My Review
"Atmospheric!"
Kate Helm's debut THE SECRETS YOU HIDE is a spellbinding taut, twisty blending of psychological, legal, and investigative crime thriller told from the perspective of the mysterious Georgia Sage—a courtroom artist with a dark, troubled past.
Georgia Sage has a gift: she can see evil in people. As a courtroom artist, she uses her skills to help condemn those who commit terrible crimes. After all, her brutal past means she knows innocence is even rarer than justice.
Georgia had a tragic childhood. Georgia comes to realize that everyone has their secrets. What happened twenty years ago? She was a tragic survivor. Her mother, her brother Pip gone, and her dad is in prison. Why was she saved?
She prides herself in helping put away criminals with her drawings in the courtroom. The courtroom scenes are vividly created and the creation of Georgia's images are descriptive. Her skill in capturing poses and expressions has the potential to influence opinions and outcomes. Both good and evil.
When Georgia gets pulled into an old trial, she is determined to pursue justice.
However, she starts second-guessing herself with visions and hallucinations. Is she going crazy? Soon she learns she may be going blind with "Best disease."
About BEST Disease: Friedrich Best presented a detailed pedigree of the disease in 1905, Best vitelliform macular dystrophy, or Best disease, is hereditary retinal dystrophy involving the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE and leads to a characteristic bilateral yellow "egg-yolk" appearance of the macula.
Not a good thing for someone whose life needs her eyes to draw and perform her duties as a courtroom artist. The doctor said she had been using adaptive strategies as a workaround, but her site is slowly failing.
I LOVE legal and crime thrillers and courtroom dramas. This one also crosses into psychological as well as medical and literary fiction. The book is very well done, and the writing is superb. I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator, Emma Powell, delivered an outstanding and engaging performance.
I also enjoyed the artistic side of the book with the portraits and the many layers, which serve as a metaphor and parallels with the characters' lives in the novel to be peeled back and unraveled.
The author keeps you glued to the pages, and as a reader, you are dying to find out what happened in Georgia's childhood and why she is haunted, changing her name and life. This part of the story was the most intriguing.
As a side storyline: Jim Fielding. Is he lying? Jim Fielding hero who rescued two kids from a fire in his house but could not save his pregnant wife. A fire his son went to prison for starting. Georgia is revisiting the storyline of Jim Fielding, a case from her past, to paint a portrait for a book commission (she has to revisit one of her first trials) where she was the artist.
Who was guilty, and did the right person go down?
Georgia uses her art to dig deeper into the case as a distraction technique from her life, slowly unraveling in front of her. She is a bit of an enigma and complex with survivors' guilt.
THE SECRETS YOU HIDE appears to be the author's debut crime thriller writing under Kate Helm, a pseudonym for author Kate Harrison. The novel is very deep and thought-provoking and enjoyed listening. I look forward to reading more from this author.
Thank you to #DreamscapeMedia and #NetGalley for an ALC to listen to, review, and enjoy and for introducing this talented author.
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 4.5 Stars ✨✨✨✨💫
Pub Date: Sep 6, 2022
About the Author
Kate Helm was born in Lancashire, and worked as a journalist covering courts and crime, before becoming a BBC reporter and producer in news and current affairs. She also wrote documentary and drama scripts, including the BBC1 programme: Angel of Death: The Story of Beverly Allitt. Kate Helm is a pseudonym for author Kate Harrison whose non-fiction and novels have been sold in 20 territories and sold over 800,000 copies. Kate lives in Brighton, this is her first book under the name Kate Helm and her debut adult crime novel. http://kate-harrison.com/ @KateWritesBooks
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