Review: Dead Heat

After visiting her former hometown in Queensland, Australia, Georgia Parrish never expects any trouble. However, her plane is sabotaged and she narrowly escapes with her life. Why was the plane sabotaged? Why would anyone want to kill the other two passengers? Within a few hours,Georgia is thrown into a race against time in which more than her own life is at stake.

It makes a pleasant change to read a novel set in Australia. Nowadays, many thrillers are set in the UK or the USA and at times, these locales can get boring. Carver's Queensland is refreshing and interesting. As well as descriptive passages, she also succeeds in recreating authentic Australian dialogue, making the novel feel as real as possible. Carver's characters are also likeable, even those that do not appear an enormous amount, such as India Kane. The cast of characters is small and this allows the author to develop them. Unfortunately, at times, the novel seems to stretch the bounds of credulity.

The setting is a town called Nulgarra, on the coast. From Carver's description, it hardly seems bigger than a small village, yet there are all sorts of gangsters and criminals running about. Furthermore,

Georgia has never experienced any form of criminal activity before and is not linked to the police in any way, yet seems to find extraordinary reserves of resilience, determination and private detective-style cunning. She manages to deal with whatever is thrown at her without cracking and there is only a certain amount of disbelief that I can suspend. Had this been a bigger Australian town, or had Georgia a friend to help her, it might have been more believable.

Nevertheless, this is not to say that it is a bad novel. In fact, Carver has written a book with a lightning pace and plenty of suspense. Her pleasant characters and refreshing setting, as well as general good writing, ought to make this book very appealing.

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Luke Croll - RAM

Book Review: Dead Heat