Thankfully, Agnes Black's "Hidden In Plain Sight" Comes Out Of Hiding

The debt we owe to the play of the imagination is incalculable. – Carl Jung

There’s a brand new author on my radar, and her name is Agnes Black. If you love Alt U that feels a bit like a swashbuckling historical adventure, the novella Hidden in Plain Sight may be exactly what you’re looking for.

This story is part one in a serialized fantasy, so don’t expect loose ends to be neatly tied and bound up nicely for you as you wait for book two. This is the introduction to a new world and to characters who have only just begun to capture my attention and imagination, as Captain Adam Morsden navigates his way through his new place at the helm of the Gyrfalcon, not to mention setting his course through the choppy waters of his sexual appetites, keeping them hidden from his crewmen, the most intolerant a group of men as has ever sailed the high seas.

Adam has just lost his lover, who also happens to be the King of Kadevar, a relationship that Adam is now realizing was destined from the start to fail given their differences in station. What would a King want with a common man, after all, when he could have so much more? Gregory’s rejection has left Adam reeling and grieving over the loss when his ship makes port in Harth, two weeks past due, its cargo now worthless to the merchants who’d contracted it, which now leaves Adam and his crew in dire financial straits.

There’s a dastardly plot afoot in Harth, one involving Adam’s first mate Harry—who has a secret of his own—Sergio, a prostitute who could be Gregory’s twin, and Eamonn—a man whose danger to Adam, Harry, Sergio, and Sergio’s half-brother Miguel, is so subversive as to be impossible to fight against. And this is only the beginning.

Filled with intrigue and danger, sword fights and sorcery, I am completely hooked. Agnes Black’s briskly paced written invitation into this new world has left me with more questions than answers, and has definitely left me wondering about King Gregory. I can’t help but feel there’s far more to him and his actions than has been offered so far. I can’t wait to find out.

I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this one to fans of Alu U/Fantasy, if you don’t mind being left wondering, of course.

Reviewed by: Lisa

You can buy Hidden in Plain Sight here: