The Hidden starts with a young man running away from his frailties, his dissolved marriage and his child, hoping to escape mental images of himself as a coward. Ben Mercer is an archaeologist who is running away from his life by going to a new place and a new graphic in his mind. He wants to destroy all that is in him from his past, and he very nearly does it. He is not willing to become a part of anything that is around him in his new life, and by being that way he seeks to leave that behind as well. He becomes enthralled with getting back into his past field when an archaeological team comes to town. He ends up waiting table for them and cooking their food, while working as a serving person in a meal house in Greece. Is he capable of becoming part of this team, or has he squelched his reputation so badly that they don't want anything to do with him or his "moods" and the "dishonor" that he carries in his own mind?

What does the team need and what are they looking for, the history of Sparta or someone to chase and destroy on their own terms and turf?? It seems as though they have found both targets when Ben joins them. The book reaches a chilling finale, and is full of obsession and terror games as played by Max Eberhard and the "team" that is with him. Ben starts to find himself and become a better person for the pursuit of Sparta, but will the team and the rest of the players in the story find their way out of the mindset of unbridled terror they are looking to unleash? The Hidden is what goes on in the deep recesses of the mind and history that should always be Hidden...

I personally found this book very hard to read because, being American, and this book being published in England for an English audience, there are differences in grammatical style and styles of pleasure reading. There were no quote marks on the conversations, no he/she said tags to tell you who was talking, and that made the book very hard to follow for me. I sort of liked the story line, but it was not a mystery per se and was very dry, with little humor or light moments. It was always sort of filled with a sadness that was overwhelming to me as a reader. The Sparta parts of the story were good and interesting, but a lot of the background of Ben and his life, while necessary, could have been better inserted into the story, to my way of thinking. But maybe that is simply because I am "that American" whom this book was not really written for. I love the history of Greece and Sparta and have always wondered about how they could have done so much with so little, but this book doesn't really give any new answers to that question.

Make no mistake, Tobias Hill is an excellent writer and can put a good story together It is just that there is an American way that we do things here in the States whose absence can distract from the story, as you try to figure out who is talking and what is happening, because you lack finesse in grammar from an English standpoint. If you have a strict English background from a writing standpoint, you may really enjoy this book, as it plays more to your sensibilities.