The Hiding Place

Nora Robson was a writer living in Montreal.

J. Robert Janes is a man of many talents. First and foremost, he is a geologist and a mining engineer. When he turned his pen from science and technology to fiction, he tackled the difficult field of children’s literature. Using the technique of adventure-mystery, he wrote in a style that has been described as “falling somewhere between the Hardy boys and The Lord of the Rings.” More recently, Janes shifted from children’s stories to adult mystery and adventure.

The Hiding Place is the story of Jordan Ashley, a beautiful woman who, until she was assaulted and raped, was a successful fashion model. Jordan, in an attempt to conquer her trauma and terror, is living in an old house in New Carlisle in the Niagara district. Janes surrounds her with a group of off-beat characters, none of whom seems stable or normal. There’s her husband, Duncan, for example. He may or may not be dead. Then there’s Percy Sangster, her employer, who molests young Lolitas; Viet Nam veteran Mike Hanlon; his wheelchair-bound wife, Laura; and their blossoming eleven-year-old daughter, Ellie. The reader can sympathize to a certain extent with Jordan’s fear of the retarded Toby Masterson and with her mistrust in others like Monica Breckenridge, Elizabeth Channing, and even the policeman, Bill Meadows. Her cameraman, Ken, keeps reappearing in flashbacks and, when he finally comes on the scene in reality, Jordan confesses her attraction for him. Despite their long acquaintance, however, and Ken’s protestations of love, Jordan doesn’t trust him totally.

Throughout this slow-paced mystery novel, Jordan is on a quest to identify her rapist and find a hiding place for herself. The abundance of characters and the rambling flashbacks are, at times, confusing. Nevertheless, the reader does feel compelled to stick with it in order to learn the worst. The ending is something of a disappointment, but it is perhaps inevitable.