HE’S BEHIND YOU!!
“…get us out of here, for God’s sake get us out of here quick!”
She was still staring wildly into the scrub. Her fear seeped into his spine. There was something there in the low trees, something terrible…
It’s 50 degrees centigrade outside as John Shaw is driving over one of the most dangerous roads in the Australian outback, and there isn’t a house within two hundred kilometres. A terrified girl has run out in front of his vehicle, running for her life. Now they’re racing along the track, but someone is behind them, and he’s catching up…
Woo! A non-stop thrill-fest indeed! The author jumps right into the story so that from the first paragraph the tension starts ratcheting up. John’s driving a Honda, not built for this terrain. The Man has taken Katie’s Land Cruiser – bigger and tougher. The only advantage John and Katie have is that their car is faster, so long as the road is good. But this road doesn’t sound good at all…
Neither of them have any idea why the Man wants to kill them. In fact, they can’t even be sure he’s a man – he’s huge and hairy and smells rancid, like decaying flesh. (I think I met him up the dancin’ once.) And he doesn’t seem to be in a very good mood. They don’t have time to speculate – all they can do is keep driving and hope they can put enough distance between them to get to safety before they’re caught. But they’re heading the wrong way – straight into the danger zone – and they can’t turn round because HE’S BEHIND THEM!!!
Brilliant stuff – pure action from beginning to end. Cook doesn’t give us any explanations or much character development, either of which would just serve to slow the pace. Fortunately John knows cars and is a skilful driver. Once Katie gets over her initial terror, she pulls her weight too, and she knows more about the Outback than John. But neither of them is a superhero – just two ordinary people caught up in an insane terror. The pacing is great – it never lets up! It’s novella length and definitely one to be read in one sitting – no chapters, just a heart-pounding race with a new peril thrown in every few pages, leading up to a truly fab climax. Phew! A thriller that’s actually thrilling and isn’t trying to be anything else – great stuff! I’m off to lie down in a darkened room for a while now…
NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Text Publishing.
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Yippee Ki Yay rating: 😮 😮 😮 😮 😮
Yikes! This sounds like a lot of fun! And that hairy, smelly ‘man’ does sound quite familiar – we must go dancing at the same places 😉 Good to see a young Bruce gracing this post, too!
It is! Sheer escapism! Haha! He gets around that Man, doesn’t he? And funnily enough, my reaction is always to run too…
Can’t have a thriller without Bruce – it’s the law!
A bit of escapism is always in order, I find! I almost feel sorry for the Man. He should try his luck in Essex 😉
It’s my favourite law!
HahahaHA! But then how would we know HE was the monster?? 😉
Hahahahahaha!!!!!!! Touche. Send him to Essex at once 😀
My goodness, what a ride, FictionFan! It certainly sounds as though it’s a non-stop, lightning-paced thriller. Perhaps you should lie down, and then when you wake up, watch your grass grow for a bit or something until your heart rate slows. In all seriousness, it’s nice to have a thriller that’s not dependent on implausible superhero characters or non-step ugly violence.
Yep, just a straight chase story, but done really well! Haha! I must admit I was flicking those Kindle pages at a phenomenal speed at parts… 😉 Absolutely, and also no romance, no swearing and a complete absence of bodily functions! Bliss!
This sounds bloody great!
It is! Total escapism! Loved it. 😀
The idea of living in Australia is scary enough…Sounds like a thriller.
Ha! In the Outback, certainly! The heat would kill me long before the monsters…
I ike watching movies about (and read about them) but that is as close as I want to get.
*nods* Especially if they all smell as bad as this one!
Whoa! That is hot. Goodness. I’d die of thirst and exhaustion. Wait. Do you think it was the Wendigo? Nah. Couldn’t be. Wendy’s live in the cold, I thought. Maybe it’s a monster like bigfoot? But then…could it drive?
Bruce Willis! Always good to see him about.
I know! *faints at the thought* Thank goodness for air-conditioned cars! It was wendigo-like – maybe Aussie wendigos like the heat! And surely any self-respecting monster these days would learn how to drive? They probably all have mobile phones…
Yep! My thriller hero!
Imagine it gets that hot in places! One would need lots of water and squirt guns, I’m thinking. Plus, a few water balloons. Hahahaha. I bet you’re right. Mobile phones so they can stay in connect with the League of Monsters.
But you never finish the quote…
Squirt guns! I bet if they’d had those they could have beaten the monster easily. The stench suggests it must have had a serious fear of water… They’ve probably got a monster chatroom on the internet somewhere…
Of course not!
Squirt guns beat everything in hot weather! I bet he was scared of daily baths, too. Too bad. See? The simplest solution would’ve fetched the beast.
Humph-noodles.
D’you know, it snowed here yesterday! And hailstones! What’s going on?? I nearly took a picture to prove it…
No way!! Really? Goodness. Wow. That is a late spring.
Or early winter… *shivers*
Thrill-a-minute stuff! Sounds like one for a very slow Sunday. That hairy, smelly man has clearly haunted the dancin’ for decades. 🙂
Yep, just a wild chase story – nothing fancy, and all the better for it! Haha! He always made me want to run too…
HOW ARE THEY GOING TO GET AWAY??
(Had a good laugh over the description of your dancin’ partner. Ha!)
But DO THEY??? ARGHHHHHHHH!!!
(Haha! I think a lot of us have met him at one time or another, eh?)
Yippee Ki Yay! How very American of you!
Why are they always behind you? Killers/Madman really need to charge more often. Like Hay Yaw! And what if the killer smelled good, was dashing and had a fine set of teeth? He’d probably get real close to them and alleviate all this chasing business. Then POW!
(I suppose this is why I’m not a thriller writer. It would be terrible stuff!!!)
I admit – Americans do thrillers better than Brits! But the Aussies are pretty good too – G’Day, Mate doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as Yippee Ki Yay though…
Hahaha! I don’t know – I think it sounds as if you’ve got the basis of a great thriller there! And I must admit a nice clean well-mannered monster would make a refreshing change! I see no reason why one should let personal hygiene slip just because one is a subhuman homicidal maniac, do you?
Haha! No, no, cleanliness would be a refreshing change, indeed! Why all the hair and body funk? Leave that on the dance, I say!
We could set up a Monster School of Etiquette…
Having never been to Australia, this is basically what I assume the whole country is like all the time.
Hahaha! You better hope Sydney didn’t hear that comment… or it might start chasing you!! 😉
Glad you enjoyed this one, FF — it sounds like something that should be on my TBR. I enjoy a good thriller, and leaving off all the characterization and parts folks tend to skip in order to get to “the good stuff” seems like it works. I’m practically breathless myself, just from reading your fast-paced review, ha!
I love thrillers too, but like crime books they’ve got so long over the last few years that they end up not being very thrilling! This one is just the right length to get stuck into on a free evening. Haha! I’m still running… and checking over my shoulder… 😉
Sounds like you had a fab time with this one Fiction Fan – what a scary smelly monster/man that sounds – I’m not surprised you needed a darkened room!
Brill! I do love a thriller that’s actually thrilling! Haha! I’m still running… 😉
This sounds very exciting! Do you think it would make a good movie? Who would you cast in the leads?
I think it would make a brilliant movie! Hmm… I’m so out of touch with the current crop of filmstars I’d find it hard to pick, but two people who could play fairly ordinary people rather than superfit superheroes. It was their ordinariness that made this work so well… 🙂
Well, I’m not sure I buy “Her fear seeped into his spine.” I tend to look at body part emotions with a jaundiced eye. When the organs start emoting, it pulls me out of the story because I spend time trying to visualize what’s happening and start thinking that it’s just too silly. Now, if I were to come across this phrase when I’m fully immersed in the story, I don’t know if it would jar me or not. But I’m only one reader in a land of billions.
Ooh, doesn’t your spine ever shiver? You must be reading the wrong kinds of books! And I refuse to tell you what my liver thinks of your comment, but it and my kidneys are holding a demonstration… most uncomfortable! 😉
Well, muscles can shiver. My spine goes along for the ride. 😀 And I’m sorry about your organs. I hope they’ve calmed down and left you with some chocolate to soothe those shivering vertebrae.
My pancreas is still feeling a bit shivery but all the rest seem to have returned to their normal routine…
I’m the same way, Jilanne! One of the advisors at my grad school called it “an organ recital.”
Hilarious! That one will stick with me.
Haha! 😀
Great review! As usual, I love your rating system.
Thank you! Any excuse for pictures of hunks, that’s my motto! 😉
Huge, hairy and rancid smelling? Sounds more like a Melbourne hipster after a big night out….
Hahaha! These smelly monsters appear to be everywhere – they’re taking over the world!! 😉
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