Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide – an electrifying, heartpounding, truly unputdownable thriller – a bestselling debut from talented newcomer, Gabriel Bergmoser. ‘A truly terrifying, breathlessly exciting novel. It gut punches you in the first few pages and doesn’t let you recover until the final, thrilling climax. An extraordinary book.’ M W Craven’An original and high-octane read, it makes … Deliverance look like Picnic at Hanging Rock.’ The Times/Sunday Times Crime ClubFrank is a service station owner on a little-used highway who just wants a quiet life. His granddaughter has been sent to stay with him to fix her attitude, but they don’t talk a lot.When a badly injured young woman arrives at Frank’s service station with several cars in pursuit, Frank and a handful of unsuspecting customers are thrust into a life-or-death standoff.But who are this group of men and women who will go to any lengths for revenge? And what do they want? Other than no survivors …?A ferociously fast-paced, filmic, visceral, tense and utterly electric novel, unlike anything you’ve read before. Set on a lonely, deserted highway, deep in the Australian badlands, The Hunted is white-knuckle suspense matched to the fast-paced adrenaline of a Jack Reacher novel and the creeping menace of Wake in Fright. This is unmissable reading.’This slice of outback noir is …. at once exhilarating, gleefully vicious and totally, race-to-the-finish-line unputdownable’ Observer’An audacious walk on the wildest side of outback noir … a vivid thriller.’ Sydney Morning Herald’A perfectly paced, thrilling read with an unrelenting sense of dread and menace …building suspense at every turn of the page. Crime and thriller readers will love this savage Rottweiler of a novel that will clamp its jaws around their throat and shake them to the end.’ Bookseller+Publisher’Tough, violent, suspenseful and peopled with great characters,The Hunted could well be the Australian thriller of the year. This is Jack Reacher for adults.’ Canberra Weekly
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Melbourne author Gabriel Bergmoser hits the ground running in his high-octane horror thriller, The Hunted. We’ve only just been introduced to Frank and his granddaughter Allie, along with a couple of customers at Frank’s refueling station off the side of a long, desolate stretch of road in the Australian Outback, when an injured woman named Maggie pulls up to the pumps, deliriously begs them not to call the police, and promptly passes out from blood loss. Hot on her heels are a group of men seeking to reclaim her. When Frank refuses to hand over the stranger, so begins a long night of violence as these hunters lay siege to Frank’s business and home.
The first half of The Hunted is split into two parts, Then and Now. In the present-day, Bergmoser walks us through the siege and the victim’s responses. Those chapters devoted to Then detail why, exactly, these outdoorsmen are after Maggie and why they’re so hot to reclaim her. By the second-half, Maggie’s timeline has synched up with Frank’s, and it’s a furious assault to the finish.
The Australian magazine Canberra Weekly likened this book to a Jack Reacher title, but good lord, is that ever a soft and weak comparison. Maggie is one hell of smart and resourceful heroine, more akin to Sharni Vinson’s protagonist in the 2011 horror film, You’re Next. I’m not sure if it’s a deliberate ode, but at one point in The Hunted Bergmoser even makes a neat little riff on the ‘masked predator’ trope that’s an inverse kin to that of You’re Next’s storyline. If so, then bravo to Bergmoser!
The Hunted also feels like an ode to Jack Ketchum, particularly Off Season. While Bergmoser doesn’t quite reach the level of detailed, unrelenting graphic violence Ketchum churned stomachs with, The Hunted can be awfully vicious and the action scenes here are potent and heady. Bergmoser shows a keen knack at scripting various cat-and-mouse games, and the tension is more than enough to get the blood pumping and keep readers worried over the fates of those involved.
While there’s plenty of senses-rattling carnage, Bergmoser is smart enough to put his characters first. We worry about them because he’s subtly built them into real people. In addition to be an inspired heroine, Maggie has an objective we can understand and feel empathetic toward. Frank and his relationship to his family, particularly Allie, feels natural and relatable, and we warm to him by degrees as Bergmoser shades in his history amidst all the bloodshed. The Hunted, in fact, is built around a Family First mentality, and we see how this belief plays out against various mentalities and points of view. These characters, both good and bad, are motivated by their families, for better or worse. It’s family that fuels these characters fights for survival, and drives the unrepentant savagery.
The Hunted is a hard-hitting horror siege book, one that’s as rugged as the Australian Outback it’s set in.
What an action-packed read this was I was on the edge of my seat throughout this tense horror/thriller and this was definitely one that had me biting my nails and perched right on the edge of my seat throughout.
This story takes place in the Australian outback and it’s told from a few different sources.
Each individual here having a purpose and adding their own piece to the unfolding story.
So Frank owns a run down roadhouse and house in the middle of nowhere.
He finds himself agreeing to take his teenage granddaughter Allie in for a few weeks for his estranged son.
When an injured girl turns up at the roadhouse bleeding and in a mess trouble is not far behind.
Frank, Allie, some innocent bystanders along with the mysterious girl all find themselves fighting for there lives in a night filled with bloodshed and terror.
The girl in trouble is Maggie and we get to relive her back story and just how she ended up in this situation through a series of flashbacks.
We are taken through each step of her journey.
Along with all the whys and what-ifs.
So this was tense and gripping and I couldn’t put it down.
Be prepared for some dark and graphic stuff as this story definitely doesn’t pull its punches.
This was bloody and intense and I managed to read this in one sitting.
It’s well written and one I will not forget in a hurry.
I enjoyed this one much more than I was expecting and I do recommend especially if you like edge of your seat thrillers meshed with vicious horror.
I voluntary reviewed a copy of The Hunted.
Reviewed By Beckie Bookworm
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