![\"Wicked](\"http:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/WickedRiver.jpg\")
Jenny Milchman\u2019s talent for suspense is of a very high order. I read lots and lots of mysteries \u2013 obviously \u2013 but it\u2019s rare that I read a book that makes me so squirmy I have to put it down a couple times as I read it. She reminds me of Joseph Finder, in that I had to keep telling myself that this was fiction and wasn\u2019t actually happening.<\/p>\n
The book opens at a lovely wedding, but of course, as any suspense fan knows, this wedding is not going to end well. In this case, it\u2019s not the wedding that\u2019s the problem, it\u2019s the honeymoon. Natalie and Doug have a camping\/canoeing trip planned for their honeymoon, one that takes them deep into the Adirondack wilderness.<\/p>\n
Natalie is not so sure about the trip, but the enthusiastic Doug has convinced her that two weeks of hiking, canoeing and portaging will be fun. And at first it is, though since I hate the idea of camping, it didn\u2019t sound fun to me. But then, through a series of calamitous events, they lose their GPS and their way and end up in a part of the park that\u2019s totally wild and rarely traveled.<\/p>\n
About half way through, Milchman turns up the heat and makes this excellent chase novel ALSO a detective story with a twist I didn\u2019t see coming. Then she adds to the mix an escaped prisoner who has lived on his own in the woods for a couple years. He\u2019s fit, lonely, and terrifying, and he keeps an eye out for any hikers that come his way.<\/p>\n
As Doug and Natalie begin to suffer seriously from their unplanned trek into deep wilderness, the man comes into play in both a good and a bad way. Milchman is expert at making you feel what the characters are feeling, and part of the reason she\u2019s so good at it is that she is able to make the reader invested in what is often a central female character. In this case it\u2019s Natalie, who undergoes an emotional transformation of sorts during the course of the novel.<\/p>\n
This is a wonderful, vivid story, with great characters, an unforgettable setting and a bad guy and suspense that doesn\u2019t stop. This was an exhausting read, but a worthwhile one. I have to say I was delighted to have read it on my sofa, not in a tent in front of a campfire. Shiver.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jenny Milchman\u2019s talent for suspense is of a very high order. I read lots and lots of mysteries \u2013 obviously \u2013 but it\u2019s rare that I read a book that makes me so squirmy I have to put it down a couple times as I read it. She reminds me of Joseph Finder, in that … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-2527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","tag-suspensethriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2527"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2529,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2527\/revisions\/2529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/auntagathas.com\/aa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}