Fear and loathing
THE ISLAND, by Adrian McKinty (Orion, $34.99)
Peripatetic Belfast author Adrian McKinty now calls New York home, but he returns to Australia, where he lived for more than a decade, in his new white-knuckle thriller. Long admired among crime aficionados for his DI Sean Duffy series set against the tail end of, a heart-clutching tale of parental nightmares. takes that terror and twists the dial even higher, as young stepmother Heather must fight for the lives of her new family when a trip to Australia goes horribly awry. Heather and her doctor hubby, Tom, try to placate Tom’s truculent children with a drive into the Victorian countryside to spot koalas and other Australian wildlife, but a ferry trip to a private island results in panic rather than postcards when a car accident puts their family in the cross hairs of a tightly knit clan of locals. It’s on steroids. McKinty delivers a superior “airport thriller”: tense, cinematic and with emotional oomph to match the twists and turns.
