Callie Brown is a television journalist, and for a school
reunion she and her Australian friends are invited to trek
Middle Earth. New Zealand in its stunning majesty awaits!
Callie is doing this because the guy she thought was
taking
her to Italy took someone else instead. Why, though, has
everyone else agreed to hike all the way to POISON BAY?
Bryan Smithton is the trip's organiser, and he insists
everyone wear proper hiking gear. These are no small
mountains, and the national park is out of coverage. The
group have come from Brisbane or Sydney but Bryan lives in
this location now and is keen to show it off. Jack Metcalf
is filming on his little journalist's videocam, but the
trek becomes a scramble on trackless jungle cliffs. The
women silently cope with blisters and scrapes. They're not
all as fit as Bryan, and it's hard to cope, especially for
diabetic Rachel. Ten days of exhaustion and sprains later,
they're ready to be picked up at their remote destination
-
but Bryan has taken leave of his senses, and declares that
nobody will leave alive. He wants revenge for harm done,
ten years ago at school. Will the wilderness do his job
and
kill them all, or will anyone survive?
As well as putting their meagre survival skills to use, we
see the group finally sharing stories about what happened
to them all, back in the last year of school. The past
really has come back to haunt them. They were only
teenagers, and can't be blamed for making immature,
dramatic or fearful decisions - but Bryan did blame them,
and kept his anger bottled up to poison his thoughts. Now
Poison Bay might be the last place any of them will see.
Unlike a TV show, this is not a contest - but this group
isn't much of a team.
Flash floods, icy water, dense rain, landslides, an
avalanche of snow and thieving mountain parrots are all
part of the adventure. There's also someone malicious
among
the trekkers, as if life wasn't difficult enough. This
story had me gripped from early on and never let up.
Rachel's mother knowing of her daughter's diabetes,
insists
on a search - but Bryan has misled the rescuers as to
where
to search. So we see the process of a rescue hunt get
under way without knowing if it can do any good.
Belinda Pollar has artfully created
a chiller set in this riveting landscape, while showing
that the most dangerous territory of all is human
relationships. POISON BAY has to be one of the best
thrillers I've read in a long time, a must-read for lovers
of outdoor sports. You won't want to put this one down
until the very last page.
“The Maori call this place Ata Whenua—Shadow Land.”
Television reporter Callie Brown likes safe places with
good coffee. But she joins friends from the past on a trek
into New Zealand’s most brutal wilderness, in the hope of
healing a broken heart.
What she doesn’t know is that someone wants them all dead.
Lost in every sense of the word, the hikers’ primal
instincts erupt. Surrounded by people who have harbored
secrets for a decade, Callie must choose the right ally if
she doesn’t want to be the next to die...
“A breathtakingly fast-paced and original eco/wilderness
thriller.” Karin Cox
"If you want to go to sleep early, don't start this book
at night; you'll find yourself avidly turning the next
page in the small hours wondering who is next and whether
it will be the killer, or the beautiful, savage wilderness
of New Zealand's Fjordland that will be the cause of the
next death." Leisal, Amazon reviewer
"I felt I was there, with the (gradually dwindling) group,
smelling and seeing, touching and experiencing savage
nature in all her glory for better and worst." Marianne,
Amazon reviewer
Eight people were in the room when a beautiful teenager
died. Ten years later, they are together again, invited to
trek into the wild heart of Fiordland National Park, New
Zealand. Most are not athletes, so why have they agreed to
come? Old loves and old rivalries reignite as the group
begins to disintegrate.
They were told their expedition would establish an
alternative to the famed Milford Track. By the time they
understand that its true purpose is much more sinister, it
is too late. Far from the reach of outside help, they must
face a deadly wilderness and a murderer alone.
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