No Hiding in Boise – Kim Hooper
There’s a particular genre of fiction that feels uniquely American, stories orbiting around mass shootings, trauma and the tangle of lives left behind.
“No Hiding in Boise” enters that space with a compelling premise: one tragic night at a bar connects three women forever — a bartender who survives, the wife of a man critically injured and the mother of the shooter.
Each chapter rotates among their perspectives, punctuated by vignettes of the victims and what led them to Ray’s Bar that night. It's a promising structure, but one that ultimately left me wanting more.
The novel’s title references the idea that in a city like Boise — large on paper but small in feeling — there’s no escaping the reach of community or consequence. That concept alone had potential.
At times, the book gestures toward meaningful commentary about the aftermath of violence: the voyeurism of true crime culture, the obsession with killers over victims and the messy, uneven process of grief. But more often than not, Kim Hooper stays surface-level, opting for melodrama over deeper exploration.
Of the three main women, Joyce — the shooter's mother — is by far the most compelling. Her sections feel honest, grounding the story with genuine heartbreak and disorientation. Tessa, the bartender, is trapped in guilt but doesn’t fully develop beyond her trauma response. Angie, the wife, is the least successful character — flat and often insufferable. Her internal world feels like a never-ending spiral of passive resentment dressed up as reflection.
There’s also a curious lack of realism. The idea that Tessa wouldn’t be interviewed by police for days strains belief, especially considering the scope of the crime. Even before the shooting, almost every character seemed to be quietly falling apart. By the end, you’re left wondering if the bar was just the backdrop — or a convenient plot device — for unspooling all this unresolved malaise.
A twist in the final act attempts to give the story new energy, but it doesn’t quite land. While the flash-forward to a documentary crew a year later is meant to tie a bow on these narratives, it instead highlights how little growth or clarity the characters seem to have gained.
The audiobook features a full cast, which is ambitious. Each of the three leads has their own narrator (Devon Sorvari, Stephanie Willing and Hillary Huber, respectively) and while the performances were mostly competent, some came across as overly shrill or emotionally flat, which may have amplified my frustrations with the text itself.
Despite the tragic setup, the novel leans more into Women’s Fiction territory than I expected — less about the societal ripple effects of violence, more about motherhood and the messiness of relationships.
That’s not a bad thing, but the story doesn't quite justify its own premise. In the end, without the mass shooting and the Boise setting, I’m not sure what’s memorable about the story.
Rating (story): 2.5/5 stars
Rating (narration): 3/5 stars
Format: Audiobook (library loan)
Dates read: August 4 – August 8, 2025
Multi-tasking: Good to go. After realizing this wasn’t exactly what I expected it to be, I completed all manner of activities while listening and didn’t miss a beat.
