Terror rides into Fiddler Falls, Saskatchewan, in a hummer, the “color of bright yellow birthday balloons.”But “you can’t judge a fellow by the color of his car,” Roland Emery observes ironically, just moments before the occupants fire a deadly weapon, disintegrating the tree that stands between them.
Next, Liparulo introduces the Fuller family; Tom, the sheriff, his wife Laura, and their brave, ten-year old son, Dillon. It’s the good sheriff’s job to stand up for the town, to protect them and his family from the visiting evil.
In the meantime, Hutch and three of his good friends, fly in by helicopter to begin two weeks in tents in the Canadian wilderness: camping, fishing, and bow hunting in isolation, without means to contact civilization.
Early the following morning, Hutch slips into the woods with his bow to hunt caribou. Kneeling in the grass at the meadow, readying his aim, he hears the sound of an engine, “something like a big truck or a powerful ATV.”
In true Robert Liparulo style, Deadfall plunges into the last moments of a character’s life; humanizing him so the reader begins to care about him, even though she can only know him through his terror, his pain, his humanness. And then the character dies in some horrible manner that thrusts her into a nightmare of mayhem.
Liparulo never eases up on his readers. In Deadfall, you can’t be sure who will survive, if anyone. It’s definitely “white knuckle intensity” till the very end, which, despite 470 pages, comes way too soon.
Read DEADFALL You’ll love it.
Vicki Talley McCollum, SavVy ReViews (c) 2007
1 comment:
Hi, Vicki! Thank you for the kind words. I'm glad you liked it. This is my favorite of the books I've written (are we supposed to say that about each new book? ah, it's true at least now). I fell in love with the characters--even some of the ones who didn't make it. I appreciate the attention you're giving it.
Blessings,
Bob
Post a Comment