The Hidden Things by Jamie Mason

Returning home from school, Carly Liddell is followed by a man who pushes into her home as she enters.  Carly, who is just fourteen, reacts by instinct and her repulsion and beating of the man is captured on the home video.  The police are impressed and post the video and before you know it, it goes viral and Carly is everybody's heroine.

Everybody except her stepdad, that is.  John's biggest secret is also revealed in the video.  Four years ago, he tried to sell a picture.  Not any picture but a true Old Master, stolen years before from a museum and somehow acquired by his father.  John found it in his father's possessions when he died and knew just enough to know it was valuable.

But the sale went wrong and people died.  Now the video has shown the picture hanging in Carly's foyer and lots of people are interested.  The man who arranged the purchase for his employers and whose friends were killed.  The woman who was John's partner and who he left for dead and who has been living under the radar for four long years, not even able to let her family know she was alive.  The man who accidentally fired the gun and who will never let John alone.

Now all of these people know exactly where John is and where the picture is.  John's marriage of convenience can't shield him any more.  Can he manage to pull off the sale and escape for good this time?  Will the purchasers finally get their revenge?  Will Carly and her mother find out about John's background?

Jamie Mason has written a thrilling adventure that is full of twists and turns.  Her forte is writing characters that the reader can believe in and whose actions, though misguided, seem realistic as a choice.  As the story unfolds from these multiple viewpoints, the reader will find their sympathies changing from moment to moment and eagerly await the outcome.  This book is recommended for thriller and mystery readers.