I Know What You’re Hiding by Jack Heath

Title: I Know What You’re Hiding

Author: Jack Heath

Genre: Mystery

Publisher: Scholastic Australia

Published: 1^st April 2026

Format: Paperback

Pages: 320

Price: $17.99

Synopsis: A deadly blaze. A desperate girl. Three days to crack the case.

Everyone knows the story. Jamie George was the golden child. Her sister, Morgan, was nothing but trouble. When their house mysteriously burned down, Jamie barely survived. Morgan wasn’t so lucky.

Three years later, teen podcaster Zoe Gale receives an urgent message. Jamie needs help. She’s received a threat written in blood and a demand for cash. Instead of paying up, Jamie wants Zoe to unmask the blackmailer.

Zoe’s tangled with dangerous people before. And there’s something about Jamie she just doesn’t trust. But soon she’s digging up secrets someone would kill to keep buried …

~*~

Teen podcaster Zoe Gale is back. She’s sixteen, and has been summoned by her brother to help Jamie George, the girl who was badly burned in a house fire three years ago. The same house fire that killed Jamie’s twin sister, Morgan. Now, someone is blackmailing Jamie about what happened. So Zoe is on the case to see if she can find out why and what really happened, if the rumours she keeps hearing from people are true.

So Zoe heads off to her brother’s university during the break to see if she can find out what happened and who is blackmailing Jamie. There’s one catch though: she can’t talk about it on her podcast. The mystery is intriguing though, but finding out what truth she is meant to be revealing is frustrating. Jamie doesn’t trust anyone, let alone Zoe.

In this engaging and exciting follow-up to Zoe’s previous outing in If You Tell Anyone, You’re Next, Zoe is thrown into a world of conspiracy, psychology, and blackmail. She’s out of her depth, yet one of the most determined characters I have ever met. She’s stubborn but cautious at times, and knows how to do things, even if they’re not wholly legal. And she’s a good friend and sister, who knows how to value people and help them.

At first, it seems like a straightforward mystery. But that’s never the case with Jack Heath’s books, which often revolve around closed rooms or tight timelines for the story. Writing thrillers and mysteries for middle grade, young adult and adult audiences requires the same tropes and tools, but at different levels. And Jack does this well, bringing the things he might use in his adult books into the young adult world very well.

The timeline, indicated at the start of each chapter, means that readers know things have to happen within the set limits. I think this can make books more engaging, make people want to read on more. This is where Jack Heath excels, because he knows how to use the time limit and how to deliver a stellar, tight story that makes sense and comes together effectively. It follows on well from the first book whilst also being its own story, which makes it stand out and perfect to read after the first book, or reading on its own.

For young adult readers, this will be an engaging story, a mystery that gets under your skin and into your head. I found myself questioning everything, wondering what was really going on and who was hiding secrets. The clues were dropped masterfully, and came back into the story right when they were needed, making this a thoroughly engaging novel I couldn’t put down. It’s tightly plotted, much like Jack’s other books and has a ticking timeline that gets under your skin and into your head, pulling the story along at a great pace.

The way Jack dealt with facial differences, with the help of a wonderful sensitivity reader, Carly Findlay, ensured that Jamie’s experience was authentic and flowed well throughout the story. It’s important that these experiences are seen and written about, and dealt with properly. It was, I felt, a good addition to the crime and mystery aspect, as it highlighted the impact on victims in a significant way. Ensuring that people remember there’s no such thing as a victimless crime.

Jack’s books always deal with things in his books that raise questions, or that might make us question what we know or think. His characters are morally ambiguous; nobody is ever one way or the other. Often, they are pushed into situations that are dangerous or fraught, things that they never thought they’d have to put up with. It’s what makes his books so engaging and thrilling. The stories are compelling and there are never any easy answers with his finales either. I think this makes them effective and realistic, because there are always going to be stories and moments where we never know the real answer, never know what really happened, and lives are altered forever.

Another great Jack Heath book.