Dead Heat

Rating:
Summary: A worthy sophomore effort.
Review: As Dead Heat opens, Georgia Parish has just struck and killed a cassowary, one of the rarest birds in the Australian Wet Tropics, while speeding towards an airport in a borrowed four wheel drive Suzuki. After assessing the damage, the regretful Georgia reflects on the fact that her mother would consider the accident a bad omen. That's exactly what it turns out to be, as, mere hours later, Georgia finds herself embroiled in a high stakes business transaction involving Chinese gangs, corrupt police, and a wonder drug that fights off even the most virulent infection. Because of her involvement, she is threatened, tortured, and subjected to hardships which would push the average person to the brink of madness.

Carver follows her award-winning debut with a riveting sophomore effort, doing for the Australian outback what Nevada Barr has done for America's national parks. Once again chronicling the adventures of a resourceful female (the book even features journalist India Kane, star of Carver's debut novel Blood Junction, in a supporting role), Carver delivers a fast paced, tightly written thriller, bursting at the seams with action and surprises. In the hands of a lesser writer, Dead Heat could have easily degenerated into "The Perils of Georgia". Carver artfully avoids this trap, however, by imbuing her protagonist with an air of believability that grounds the sometimes over the top action sequences in reality, even when Georgia is forced to deal with, in rapid succession, plane crashes, vicious gunmen, officious immigration officials, death traps, and, this being Australia, crocodile infested swamps.

Rating:
Summary: A compelling thriller with some twists
Review: DEAD HEAT by Caroline Carver (Orion, 17.99)
Georgia Parish, a bookseller, is in Nugarra, Far Northern Queensland to attend the funeral of her grandfather. She is to travel home by a small plane. However, the plane crashes but Georgia survives. Suzie, a fellow passenger gives Georgia a bag containing a computer disc and as her dying wish, asks her to give it to Suzie's brother. Georgia also meets Lee on the flight, a mysterious man who saves her life yet remains enigmatic. As it becomes known that Georgia has the disc, she is placed in increasing danger including having her life threatened by a Chinese gang desperate to get their hands on Suzie's brother. Georgia must get to the bottom of the mystery to save not only her own life but that of her mother's.
Caroline Carver has written a compelling thriller that never lets up on the suspense and even manages to throw a few curves to the reader just as the story begins to wind down. Length is a bit of a problem as the story goes on a bit too long. Yet, competently created characters, a fast paced plot and excellent sense of locale raise the book above the merely ordinary.

Rating:
Summary: A compelling thriller with some twists
Review: DEAD HEAT by Caroline Carver (Orion, 17.99)
Georgia Parish, a bookseller, is in Nugarra, Far Northern Queensland to attend the funeral of her grandfather. She is to travel home by a small plane. However, the plane crashes but Georgia survives. Suzie, a fellow passenger gives Georgia a bag containing a computer disc and as her dying wish, asks her to give it to Suzie's brother. Georgia also meets Lee on the flight, a mysterious man who saves her life yet remains enigmatic. As it becomes known that Georgia has the disc, she is placed in increasing danger including having her life threatened by a Chinese gang desperate to get their hands on Suzie's brother. Georgia must get to the bottom of the mystery to save not only her own life but that of her mother's.
Caroline Carver has written a compelling thriller that never lets up on the suspense and even manages to throw a few curves to the reader just as the story begins to wind down. Length is a bit of a problem as the story goes on a bit too long. Yet, competently created characters, a fast paced plot and excellent sense of locale raise the book above the merely ordinary.

Rating:
Summary: Down Under skullduggery!
Review: DEAD HEAT is a rip-snortin' adventure in a wildly beautiful part of the world, the tropical rainforest coast of Australia, where killer crocs roam, deadly diseases dwell, the long arm of Communism reaches out, & a large cast of inter-connected characters fight for freedom & profit. Georgia is a gutsy heroine who takes wild chances & her promises seriously. She isn't above lying when she's cornered or running away if it means she'll live another day...until the Red Bamboo Gang gets hold of her. & that pisses her off.

Rebeccasreads recommends DEAD HEAT as an exciting, sweaty, hell-raising rampage of secrets & stories, computer programs to die for & life-saving medical research, illegal refugees & culture clashes, with death & redemption, payback & honor, all churning into one hurricane of a read!

Rating:
Summary: powerful sweltering tale of murder and survival
Review: Georgia Parrish returns home to Nulgarra in Far Northern Queensland, Australia to attend a funeral. Knowing that the townsfolk detest her and struggling with keeping calm against the constant verbal assault of her temporary bunkmate, Georgia decides now that the funeral is over to leave where she is not welcome. She heads to the small airport hoping to gain a seat on a flight out though she knows that is doubtful. She picks up two stranded people also heading to the airport. Luck is with her as someone fails to show up for the flight.

Luck deserts Georgia as the plane crashes killing two people. Georgia learns that the plane was sabotaged and the no show was found dead on a nearby beach. Not trusting local law enforcement to seek the truth, Georgia investigates only to find Chinese thugs believe she was partners with the dead passengers, who include a research scientist on the brink of an antibody breakthrough potentially rivaling that of penicillin. Her deadly foes abduct Georgia's mother because they demand to know what she knows or else.

DEAD HEAT lives up to its title as fans will feel the torrid tropical climate of Northern Queensland especially when the corpse count rises and the crocodiles dominate the local quagmire population. The picturesque background is so compelling at times the view overwhelms a strong thriller starring a terrific protagonist. Though the villains seem more out of a 1930s Fu Manchu tale, readers will appreciate this powerful sweltering tale of murder and survival in the remote Australian swamps.

Harriet Klausner