ZOOLOO'S BOOK TOURS | THE HIDING | ALETHEA TURNER

 

Hello Everyone!

Today, I join Zooloo's Book Tours again to have a look at The Hiding by Alethea Lyons, an urban fantasy set in the City of York

BOOK REVIEW

THE HIDING 

BY ALETHEA LYONS

 

 

About the Book 

 

“On its face, The Hiding is an enthralling adventure of demons, spirits, witches and their hunters. Within its secret rooms, it’s an examination of identity and community and the very real magic therein.”

—Rae Knowles, Author of The Stradivarius & Merciless Waters

 

“A delightful weave of supernatural mystery and family drama, balanced against a tale of found family and pain.”

—Alexander James, Author of The WoodkinArcane archivist 

 

Harper has always been plagued by dreams of grotesque creatures and bloody deaths. When she bumps into a ghostwalker in the Shambles and has a visceral experience of his execution, she knows it’s a foretelling. Yet fear of the Queen’s Guard stops her speaking out. When her vision indeed comes true, the unusual markings on the ghostwalker’s corpse, combined with his neatly excised vocal cords, send a ripple of terror through York.The witch hunt is on. As the body count rises, Harper knows her magic is the only way to find the killer – if she can avoid being hanged as a witch. To protect both human and supernatural, Harper walks the thin line between their worlds. She and her demonhunter foster-sister form a multi-faith team with a forensic scientist, a spirit Harper accidentally summoned, and a techno-witch, to catch the killer before more people die. 

 

 REVIEW

The Hiding is an urban fantasy set in an alternative York where humans live in an almost Medieval setting with a modern twist. In this York, the church is still in charge, alongside the secular Queen’s Guard.

The story centres around Archivist Harper de Santo who, along with her demon hunter sister Grace is tasked by the Archbishop of York to solve a series of inexplicably grisly murders after Harper foretells the death of a Ghostwalker.

Afraid to speak out due to the fact that witchy powers may get her a visit to the Drop of York, Harper discovers secrets about herself and the church.

Lyon’s writes an interesting urban fantasy that is both a noirish murder mystery and a story of self discovery as Harper wrestles with the growing burden of her powers.

Throughout the book, Lyons evokes a gaslamp fantasy where the city of York is just as much a character as its human counterparts. She regularly uses various different locations in the city to move the story along.

The fantasy itself is really interesting, particularly the idea that the country is still ruled by the church and its superstitions, even though this is a modern church that has fancy gadgets, and will employ these against the fae creatures that come through the veil.

Alongside that there are some interesting snippets of information about how the country is in the current situation that it is in, and there are various points in the story that Lyons teases that there has been some catastrophe that has happened, although this is never really explored and it gives scope to be expanded in further books.

The characters themselves are fairly standard to be honest, particularly the side characters. However, this is the first book in what is possibly a longer series, and again there is scope for the characters to be explored in greater depth in further books.

The pacing of the book is generally quite fast paced. It does falter a little in the middle as we get to know Harper a little more. However, it picks up towards the end as the clues to the puzzle start slotting into place.

The Hiding is a good introduction to the series and is a solidly enjoyable debut.

 

 

 

 

 

 Alethea’s Bio

 

 

Alethea (she/ze) writes various forms of SFF, with a particular love for science-
fantasy, dark fantasy, dystopias, and folklore. Many of her works take place at the
intersection between technology and magic. She enjoys writing stories with subtle
political and philosophical messages, but primarily wants her stories to be great tales
with characters readers will love. She also has soft spots for found family, hopeless
romances, and non-human characters. Her short stories can be found in a variety of
publications and links for these are on her website.
Alethea lives in Manchester, UK with her husband, little Sprite, a cacophony of
stringed instruments, and more tea than she can drink in a lifetime.
Bonus content for The Hiding & other works can be found on her website:
https://alethealyons.wixsite.com/stories/seerofyork
Social media: https://linktr.ee/alethearlyons

Alethea’s Links
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alethearlyons/
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/AletheaRLyons
Twitter : https://twitter.com/AletheaRLyons
Website : https://alethealyons.wixsite.com/stories

 

Book Links
Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/201746891-the-hiding
Buy Links - https://mybook.to/thehiding-zbt