HIDDEN

A woman’s criminal past catches up with her.

For 15 years, the woman known as Nicole Jones has lived on Block Island, off the New England coast. The year-round population of 1,000 swells to 20,000 in the summer, and Nicole manages to make a living by giving bike tours and selling her paintings in a local gallery. None of her friends know of her past as a computer hacker still wanted by the FBI. Nicole’s cozy life falls apart when her former lover and partner in crime arrives on the island. Assuming the name of Zeke Chapman, an FBI agent in love with Nicole who was murdered in Paris, her former accomplice, who convinced her to hack into bank accounts and transfer funds to him, insists that she go back to hacking to reimburse him for the money he lost years ago when their scheme went awry. Unfortunately, a mobster is also interested in her whereabouts, and her peaceful existence turns into a dangerous game of cat and mouse. Although Nicole has not touched a computer in years, her addiction to hacking comes back when Zeke brings her a laptop, and she contacts her old mentor for help and delves into the past in an effort to extricate herself. Her closest friend, Steve McQueen, offers to marry her and does everything he can to help her, but only she can rescue herself from the law and the criminals.

In a stand-alone much darker than the books in her Annie Seymour series (Shot Girl, 2009, etc.), Olson provides thrills and spills as her resourceful heroine uses her considerable skills to escape her past.