Books: "Hide Away" By Jason Pinter

Hide Away 
By Jason Pinter
Thomas & Mercer;  367 pages,  paperback, $15.95; Kindle eBook, $4.99; available Sunday, March 1

Jason Pinter is the internationally bestselling author of the Harry Parker thriller series (The Mark, The Guilty, The Stolen, The Fury, and The Darkness), the standalone thriller The Castle, and two children's books.


"To what extremes would you go to keep your family safe?" is the question that Pinter was consumed by when he became a parent for the first time and felt the strength of the infinite love he had for his infant daughter. There also was an overwhelming need to protect her from all the dangers of the world.

These thoughts became the premise of Pinter's new thriller series centering on vigilante hero (and mother) Rachel Marin, which launches with Hide Away.

Rachel is an enigma, as she seems to be a typical suburban single mom, trying to balance work and life, being a good and supportive parent to her two young children - but she is anything but ordinary. Her family was shattered by an unimaginable crime seven years prior, which caused her to change her and her children's identities and move to a small town in Illinois. 

She is determined that no one in her family will be a victim again, and to prepare, she has put herself through extensive physical and mental training in combat, investigation, and surveillance.

When the former Mayor of her town is reported dead, Rachel's carefully honed deduction skills kick in. The local detectives dismiss the death as a suicide, but she sees the clues pointing to murder. 

The authorities resent her for butting in, and attempt to prevent her from getting further involved. Rachel keeps persisting to uncover the truth, which threatens to expose the secrets of her own past, and even more terrifying, put her children and herself in grave danger as she becomes the target.

Author Appearances in the New York region:

March 4 at 7:00 PM - Little City Books, 100 Bloomfield Street, Hoboken, NJ - Click here for event information.

March 5 at 6:30 PM - Shakespeare & Co., 939 Lexington Avenue (between 68th and 69th Streets), New York, NY - Click here for event info.

Why I Wrote Hide Away - By Jason Pinter:

When our daughter was one month old, we moved her out of our bedroom and into a lovingly decorated children's room. It was filled with stuffed animals, toys, books, and a pink decal above her crib of a quote from Shakespeare: And though she be but little, she is fierce. The first week our daughter slept in her room, my wife stayed up all night beside her crib on a futon. Once she returned to our room, my wife kept a baby monitor on her nightstand, allowing us to see every movement, hear every cough, every cry.

Every night, all night, my wife watched the baby monitor to make sure our daughter was safe.

By the time our daughter was six months old, my wife still stayed awake all night, every night, watching the monitor. One night I said to her, 'She's six months old. She's healthy and sleeps through the night. Why don't you get some rest?'

She said, 'You'll never know what it's like to grow something inside you, then to worry every second of every day about it existing outside of you.'

Those words hit me, hard. She was not scolding me, simply letting me know there were aspects of motherhood I could never possibly understand. Not due to a lack of love or effort or a desire to be a good father. But because, like my wife said, I could never understand the anxiety of watching the baby you grew within you breathe outside of you. You wanted to make sure your child was safe.

All night. Every night.

Soon after my wife said that to me, the character of Rachel Marin crystallized in my mind. I wanted to write a story featuring a character who was smart, strong, capable, brilliant, and skilled.

But not fearless. Not fearless by any means.

True strength, I realized, was being strong despite the fear.

Rachel Marin has two young children. Children who lived through a trauma that tore their family apart. And though Rachel is fully confident in her ability to protect herself, protecting a child is a whole other matter entirely. Because of Rachel's intelligence and skills, she feels a responsibility to being criminals to justice. But what do you do when your dedication to justice and your responsibilities as a mother conflict? Can Rachel Marin be both a vigilante and a protector?

That question is at the heart of Hide Away, and the very heart of Rachel Marin. I wanted Hide Away to be a thriller with a beating heart, with a character who had dealt with extraordinary circumstances, but also faced the same anxieties every parent does. And even though Rachel is someone you do not want to cross, deep down she is still simply a mother who watches her children sleep, all night, every night, just praying for their safety.