HIDDEN

Tattoo Shop Mystery series author Karen Olson's HIDDEN is the first book of a new series featuring a woman who has spent 15 years hiding from her criminal-hacker past with zero carbon footprint, only to be discovered on Block Island, where she's been living as a bicycle tour guide and painter without a cell phone or bank account.

Nicole lives off the grid. She doesn't have a license, passport, or bank account. She definitely doesn't own a computer. In fact, Nicole hasn't even stepped off of her refuge, Block Island, in twenty five years. She's hidden from the world and she likes it that way. Because every alternative to seclusion and secrecy is a different level of Hell. Because Nicole doesn’t use a computer not because she’s afraid of it, but because she’s afraid of what she—a badass hacker in her past life—would do WITH it.

When the last person Nicole wants to see suddenly reappears, using a name he knows will draw her out, Nicole knows that her time hidden is now ending. What follows is a thrilling attempt to escape from an island that is no longer a haven, but suddenly a prison.

In this taut novel, Karen Olson manages to weave the past and present, giving a fascinating glimpse into the complex world of identity protection, regrets, the constant unease of the fugitive. You can try to hide from your past, but it will always find you.

Karen E Olson, who lives in Connecticut, has had two mystery series published (one by Berkley set in a tattoo parlor, and one by Mysterious Press) and is the editorial coordinator of the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine. She won the Sara Anne Freed Memorial Award, was a finalist for the Gumshoe award, and nominated for a Shamus Award.