Surprised to learn that her adoptive father, Samuel, has a brother, freelance photographer Amanda Blake visits Jay Blake at his religious retreat in Montana. It doesn’t take long for her to discover that the Holy Tribe of God is something far less than it pretends to be, that Jay is far from the religious man he feigns to be, and that something extremely improprietous is taking place within the walls of the religious compound.

Amanda, much-too-easily swayed into giving Jay large sums of money [purportedly to take care of the children], continually returns to the compound, and cannot understand Jay’s reluctance to organize a search for a missing ten-year-old boy. When she takes matters into her own hands, she puts herself in jeopardy.

Can Amanda find the missing boy? And why is Jay so reluctant to search for him?

“Hidden” is the third offering in the Amanda Blake series, following “The Deadly Caress” and “Deeds of Darkness.” Amanda is a gold-star champion at making truly horrific decisions [she believes she’s been roofied but continues to see the person responsible because “she could say nothing about being drugged as she had no proof”]. Seriously?

Throughout the telling of this particularly sleazy tale, there are hints [but no further background information] that something bad happened to Amanda sometime in the past . . . presumably, it took place in one of the two previous books in this series.

The story, strong on religious cult leaders distorting religion for their own nefarious gain, also includes human trafficking, beating women, sadistic sex, and child abuse. And, as if all that weren’t more than enough, the excessive overuse of unnecessary, offensive, vulgar language makes the reader cringe . . . repeatedly.

Sensitive readers might want to do themselves a favor and skip this one . . . . ( )