SHORT REVIEW: THE HIDING SEASON by A. C. GLASS
Ava Glass made a strong debut back in 2022 with her spy novel Alias Emma about newly minted MI5 agent Emma Makepeace. Now, writing under the name of A. C. Glass, she is moving more into the romantic suspense field with The Hiding Season, (Penguin, 26 March 2026).
The premise of The Hiding Season is reasonably simple. Maya Landry is in desperate need of a fresh start after the financially draining breakdown of her marriage. Alone and heartbroken, she finds work as a caretaker at an exclusive ski resort for the elite in the mountains of Montana. Quiet and empty in the summer months, it’s the perfect escape. It is all going well until she finds a body in one of the lodges. There’s no cell service on the resort, and by the time she’s able to find a signal and call the police, the body is gone. In fact, there’s no evidence a body was ever there at all. Doubting her own sanity she is willing to let it go until an attractive stranger tells her that she is the next in the killer’s sights.
The Hiding Season starts at a brisk pace, and Ava generates a good deal of suspense over the opening section. Without giving away too much of the plot, the pace slows a little in the second part with a change in location, although Ava does ramp it up for the twisty conclusion.
I enjoyed The Hiding Season. It probably did not proceed as I was expecting, but it kept my interest, and I thought that the Texas scenes were well handled and helped to ground the story. The romance elements were unconvincing for me and seemed a little tacked on, rather than emerging organically. The ending, however, bristled with tension. I also really enjoyed one of the second characters, a mysterious law enforcement officer called Amber, who stole the book for me.
In all, an entertaining read with which to pass a lazy weekend.
The Hiding Season is released in the United Kingdom on 26 March 2026 and in Australia on the same day, although limited to Kindle and audio book only in Australia. It is released in the United States on 17 March 2026 by Bantam with a different cover (below).
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a copy of the book for review.
