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Mallory Quinn is fresh out of rehab when she takes a job as a babysitter for Ted and Caroline Maxwell. She is to look after their five-year-old son, Teddy.
Mallory immediately loves it. She has her own living space, goes out for nightly runs, and has the stability she craves. And she sincerely bonds with Teddy, a sweet, shy boy who is never without his sketchbook and pencil. His drawings are the usual fare: trees, rabbits, balloons. But one day, he draws something different: a man in a forest, dragging a woman’s lifeless body.
Then, Teddy’s artwork becomes increasingly sinister, and his stick figures quickly evolve into lifelike sketches well beyond the ability of any five-year-old. Mallory begins to wonder if these are glimpses of a long-unsolved murder, perhaps relayed by a supernatural force.
Knowing just how crazy it all sounds, Mallory nevertheless sets out to decipher the images and save Teddy before it’s too late.
Synopsis: Barnes & Nobles
My review:
Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak is a spine-tingling psychological thriller that will keep readers guessing until the very last page. The story follows Mallory Quinn, a recovering addict who takes a job as a nanny for the Maxwell family. Young Teddy Maxwell has a habit of drawing disturbingly violent scenes – a woman being dragged and buried; another being strangled. He claims his imaginary friend Anya acts these scenes out and he must document them.
While the parents brush off Teddy’s drawings as harmless childhood imagination, Mallory senses something more sinister at play. When the images become increasingly graphic, the truth about Anya’s origins begins to unravel, putting the family in grave danger.
Rekulak’s masterful storytelling draws you in from the start, aided by his inclusion of Teddy’s unsettling sketches within the book. The pacing is fast, the characters complex, and the plot threaded with tension. Hidden Pictures is a one-sitting, edge-of-your-seat thriller that will appeal to fans of psychological suspense. I’ll certainly be picking up more of Rekulak’s spine-chilling work.