The rush by Michelle Prak

The tension hits in from the very beginning – a lone woman is driving in outback Australia, trying to reach home before a freak storm hits. Ahead of her on the road, she sees a body. When she pulls up to investigate, the man reaches out and grabs her arm!

Meanwhile, four young travellers, sharing a road trip from Adelaide to Darwin, start to get on each other’s nerves. Hayley and Scott have selected two random companions to help share the costs of the trip. While they joke that this is Wolf Creek country, a country where serial killers can roam, the laughs start to pall as the storm moves in, and things start to go wrong.

And then there is a group of bikies, for whom intimidating the lonely pub owner threatens to become more than just a bit of fun.

The stories interweave, told from different points of view, each chapter building pace, as the threat of violence seems about to explode. This book has it all: the wild and lonely outback, the threatening natural elements, sinister characters, and young naïve people unaware of what they are getting into. It is a Wolf Creek story, with a twist. The tension builds until the last pages – readers who enjoy mystery thrillers won’t be able to put it down.

Themes: Thriller, Mystery, Outback, Danger, Assault.

Helen Eddy