Hideout

An Alice Vega Novel

By: Louisa Luna

Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert

EDGAR AWARD WINNER • In this powerful new thriller, Alice Vega and Max Caplan return, uncovering a network of white supremacists in their search for a long-lost counter-culture hero.

"Alice Vega is sensational—I want to see lots more of her." —Lee Child, #1 New York Times best-selling author

Alice Vega has made a career of finding the missing and vulnerable against a ticking clock, but she's never had a case like that of Zeb Williams, missing for thirty years. It was 1984, and the big Cal-Stanford football game was tied with seconds left on the clock. Zeb Williams grabbed the ball and ran the wrong way, through the marching band, off the field, and out of the stadium. He disappeared into legend, replete with Elvis-like sightings and a cult following.

Zeb's cold trail leads Vega to southern Oregon, where she discovers an anxious community living under siege by a local hate group called the Liberty Boys. As Vega starts digging into the past, the mystery around Zeb's disappearance grows deeper, and the reach of the Liberty Boys grows more disturbing. Everyone has something to hide, and no one can cut to the truth like Alice Vega. But this time, her partner Max Caplan has his own problems at home, and the trouble Vega finds might be too much for her to handle.

Louisa Luna understands suspense, tension, and character like only the best writers in crime fiction do—and she may well write the best interrogations in the genre. Hideout is pure adrenaline and Luna's most intimate thriller yet, a classic cold case wrapped in a timely confrontation with a terrifyingly real network of white supremacists and homegrown terrorists.

©2022 Louisa Luna (P)2022 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Luna takes the usual private eye tropes and imbues them with added resonance. Vega is an excellent investigator who doesn’t bounce back right away from physical harm, and her relationship with Cap earns its complexity. I know I’ll be reading more of this series, and you should, too.”–Sarah Weinman, The New York Times Book Review

“Exhilarating. . .Vega’s PI partner, Max Caplan, lends support, but it is the no-nonsense Vega who carries the day. Readers will want to see a lot more of this kick-butt hero.”–Publishers Weekly

“Vega. . . returns with a fury that singes the corners off the pages. This is the third Alice Vega novel (after The Janes, 2020), and they just keep getting better, thanks to brilliant characterizations and lots of surprises. Jack Reacher fans will adore her. The vengeful Alice is as intriguing as the bride in Kill Bill. Viva la Vega!”–Booklist starred review

Love the Alice Vega books.

I hope there are more books. I love them. Would be an awesome TV series, Vega and Kap.

Not as good as the other two

I loved the other two Vega stores, Two Girls Down and the Janes. This story was not as fast paced and somewhat slow is places. Also it did not flow. The whole about Cap could have been left out.

HoHum ...

I LOVED her first two books, and have been waiting for the 3rd installment, but this just fell flat for me, drawn-out and her "case" went in a very interesting direction, but it felt all over the place and didn't have the texture and depth the other two books had. The ending was a total surprise which helped, but didn't (for me) make up for the lackluster story.

Poor Effort Overall

I was turned on to Luna years ago when I read her first novel for a production company that was considering adapting it. Serious as a Heart Attack is fun, inventive and gritty. Sadly, Luna’s latest work is conventional and downright dull. The writing is loaded with fat, including detailed step-by-step descriptions of how to send a text message and other mundanities that appear to have been included to pad it out. The main character is frustratingly laconic, and something of a cardboard cutout of a “tough girl.” The central mystery is disappointingly slight
and the digressions into exploring the world of white supremacist gangs are completely lacking in nuance or surprises. It’s all so predictable and facile. The narrator, who does a fine job, deserved better.