The Hidden
Alison Knight
Secrets, nightmares, and a big black dog…
Montana, 1973.
Faye has found sanctuary in a simple cabin in the wilds of the Crazy Mountains in Montana with a dog called Bear. She’s a long way from her old life in England. But she knows that one day her peaceful life could be invaded by her enemies, and she keeps her guard up at all times.
Jeff returns home from Vietnam, a wounded, damaged hero, just weeks after his father’s sudden death. He finds hostile, secretive Faye living in his cabin and refusing to leave. The reading of his father’s will adds another layer of mystery to this woman’s presence.
The tension between them grows as Jeff tries to overcome his nightmares and expose Faye’s scars and secrets. The more he learns about her, the more enigmatic she seems.
When her enemies come calling, she needs Jeff to protect her. Can they learn to trust each other? And will Faye ever be safe?
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Set in 1973, my book, The Hidden, starts with a nightmare – one that Faye has had every night for nearly four years. It is a reminder to her that her enemies want her dead and she is never safe. This is why she has left her native England and hidden herself away in a cabin in the wilds of Montana.
Into her haven comes Jeff, a wounded, traumatised soldier, home from the Vietnam War and grieving the sudden death of his father. He doesn’t know that Faye has been renting his cabin and so when he arrives unexpectedly in the middle of the night, she greets him with a shotgun.
Thus starts a story of two people, each living with their own nightmares, unable to trust each other, neither willing to give way. Faye is unwilling to reveal her past – she is ashamed of who she was and the damage she caused. Jeff is unwilling to rest until he learns her secrets. But the more he learns, the less he is sure about who she really is.
They are bound together by a need for the sanctuary the cabin provides and the unquestioning love of a big, black dog called Bear. When Faye’s enemies track her down, she and Jeff must fight for their lives – with the help of Bear, of course!
This is my third book published by Darkstroke. Each is a standalone, but they are linked and characters from my last book, The Legacy, appear in The Hidden. If you want to know just how bad Faye was in her previous life, read The Legacy too!
Alison Knight has been a legal executive, a registered childminder, a professional fund-raiser and a teacher. She has travelled the world – from spending a year as an exchange student in the US in the 1970s and trekking the Great Wall of China to celebrate her fortieth year and lots of other interesting places in between.
In her mid-forties Alison went to university part-time and gained a first-class degree in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University and an MA in the same subject from Oxford Brookes University, both while still working full-time. Her first book was published a year after she completed her master’s degree.
Alison currently has a trio of novels published by Darkstroke. The first, Mine, is a domestic drama set in 1960s London based on real events in her family. She is the only person who can tell this particular story. Exploring themes of class, ambition and sexual politics, Mine shows how ordinary people can make choices that lead them into extraordinary situations.
The Legacy, a drama set in London in 1969, was inspired by a scene in Mine, and explores how an unexpected legacy can be both a blessing and a curse. The Legacy looks at themes of greed and expectations, and the lengths people will go to when they are desperate.
The Hidden, available from September 2021,is a romantic suspense that picks up the story of one of the characters in The Legacy. Set in Montana in 1973, two wounded, damaged people are forced together, each guarding their secrets. Can they learn to trust each other? And will their nightmares ever end?
Alison teaches creative and life-writing, runs workshops and retreats with Imagine Creative Writing Workshops(www.imaginecreativewriting.co.uk) as well as working as a freelance editor. She is a member of the Society of Authors and the Romantic Novelists’ Association.
She lives in Somerset, within sight of Glastonbury Tor.
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