Hidden Depths by J H Mann

Today is my stop on the blog tour for "Hidden Depths" by author J H Mann. This is a Rachels Random resources blog tour, for my stop I have my review. The book is available to buy now, ebook and treebook, on Amazon UK.


About the author:

Jason Mann is an award-winning journalist and writer living in the South West of England with Nicola, his wife, and their lively whippet, Patch. He is also a shore-based volunteer for the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution). Jason says: ‘Many of my stories are set in the wonderful county of Cornwall where truth can sometimes be stranger than fiction. I have swum and surfed there much of my life. It has been a special place for me with its legends, soaring cliffs, rugged moors and wild seas. The landscape has a raw, mystical magic. My father and mother’s recollections of rescues and tragedies on the North coast are often the inspiration for my stories. My father became one of the county’s early lifeguards after his predecessor was killed by a strike of lightning while standing in waist-deep water during a rescue.’

Social Media Links

Jason's Twitter

His Facebook

His website

and lastly Instagram

Hidden Depths by J.H. Mann
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Time taken to read - 1 day

Pages - 318

Publisher - Dark Spider Books

Source - Review copy

Blurb from Goodreads

On a wild Cornish headland, Catherine Carlyon takes a decision that will change her life forever. She is facing the bleak prospect of years in prison after being sucked into a fraud by a man she thought loved her. Catherine has found a possible way out – to disappear. But disappearing comes at a price. She must abandon her family and everything she holds dear. The greatest challenge of her life is looming, an epic adventure in the North Atlantic which will take her to her limits and beyond…Praise for Hidden 'A conventional middle-aged woman has a passionate affair, becomes embroiled in fraud and makes the desperate decision to risk all in the hope of disappearing. J.H.Mann has lovingly evoked the Cornish landscape, from the wild Atlantic coast to the bleak and threatening moors, as the setting for a gripping thriller. I loved it’ – Debi Alper, author of the Nirvana series of thrillers. ‘The real essence of the challenge of open water swimming has been woven into a finely crafted suspense novel’ – Mark Richards, long distance swimmer, one of the few people to have successfully completed the 28-mile swim between Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Perfect for fans of Ann Cleeves's Shetland and Vera Stanhope mysteries and novels by Lucy Foley and Alice Feeney. Dive into Hidden Depths today!



My Review

Meet Catherine, she is having a bad time of it, her husband has been laid off and is struggling to find another job. Sinking further into booze responsibility falls to Catherine to cover the bills, keep them afloat as he sinks deeper into a funk/booze. Her son is a typical teen and Catherine is going through the motions, until she makes a decision that brings some fun into her life, passion, challenges her morals/values and finds her sinking deeper and deeper to a dark place where danger looms on every corner.

A passionate affair, challenges to her moral code, decisions that change/challenger her as a person and falling deeper and deeper into a web of lies, deceit, criminality and even threats to her life. The book does a great job of taking a normal housewife, upstanding, good strong morals and then one choice, one affair just upends EVERYTHING and takes you on a wild rollercoaster showing how easily one could fall.

Making the main character someone you can relate to is always a good shout because it makes everything more believable therefore more shocking when it all gets so dark. The tension keeps throughout the book, knowing all she has to loose and every decision takes her another step into chaos and risks.


The mundanity of the good housewife/trusted employee just adds to how shocking it is when she does the things she does and the choices she makes. Read almost in one sitting as I just wanted to see what was coming next. Everyone has different takes on how they enjoy their books being wrapped up and it will be interesting to see how everyone take this.

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