A brand new thriller writer! Woohoo. With just enough complexity and depth to take this above your average airport read, but not sophisticated enough to put it in the John Le Carre genre, this is a great page turner to get stuck into. There are some cliched/suspend belief aspects to the story line, but as we all know we never let this get in the way of a good read.
The novel is told in alternating first person chapters by Allison, a young woman living in California estranged from her mother, and Maggie, said mother who lives in Maine. The story opens with Allison having survived a plane crash in the mountainous terrain of Colorado. Fortunately, it is summer. Her pilot is dead. We find out pretty quickly that her life is in danger, and she is on the run. She has great survival instincts having, conveniently, done lots of camping as a child, so grabs enough food – muesli bars, first aid essentials, water, spare clothing and off she goes.
In Maine her widowed mother simply does not believe that her daughter has been killed in a plane crash and sets about finding out what has happened, why there is no body. Her mother instinct is very strong – not only has she not seen or heard from her daughter for two years, she also quickly finds out that Allison’s life in California has taken an unexpected and alarming turn.
It would be easy to turn this sort of story into something unrealistic and ridiculous, with far too much good and bad luck happening along the way, both in terms of the action, and of the relationship between mother and daughter. But it never does – always a story of integrity, toughness, courage and survival. There are a few ‘really?’ moments as Allison storms her way through the unforgiving terrain she finds herself in, one step ahead of the bad guy – bit like a female McGyver – but it is still immensely readable and riveting, with a great conclusion. Already I can see a movie or TV series. It will be good!
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