Author: Andrew Gross
ISBN: 978-0-00-729692-7
RRP: $29.99
No Way Back is a great incentive NOT to put yourself in a position where you could cheat on your partner, it’s just not worth the risk because you could find yourself in way deeper than you could ever have imagined.
Wendy is quite an average wife and mother waiting in a bar to meet a friend for a drink. She had an enormous fight with her husband the night before, which started small and escalated as they are known to do, about everything from dinner to her step-children and her husbands ex and wants to catch up with a girlfriend for a drink and a chat. Unfortunately the girlfriend goes from running a little late to standing her up. An innocent drink and conversation with the handsome guy at the bar gets a little out of hand and sees Wendy heading upstairs with him. Things don’t go far as Wendy discovers this is not something she wants, or can bring herself to follow through, but the damage is done.
A man enters the room while Wendy is the bathroom freshening up to head home and make things up to her husband. Had she been able to stay hidden in the bathroom until the stranger shot Curtis and left things would have played out completely different but with all of her things in the room Wendy knew that was not an option. She steps into the situation and shoots the intruder after we discover she is an ex-police officer, and that the intruder is Homeland Security. This situation just got messy.
To avoid getting herself shot Wendy runs and before she knows it she’s a wanted fugitive on the run and framed for two murders, as well as the shooting she did commit.
Gross has written a gripping thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat and horrified at the situations discussed in this novel. It has been a long time since I picked up a crime thriller because I like my horror to be unrealistic and could never happen. No Way Back is not written that way. It’s not something that I would expect to have happen here in Australia but that doesn’t mean it is not totally in the scope of reality.
No Way Back weaves government conspiracy, drug running, guns deals and revenge killings into a bloody and horrific tapestry. Always watching your back and never knowing who to trust becomes a way of life but Wendy knows that if she is ever going to clear her name she will have to get to the bottom of it. Curtis may have signalled the beginning of her involvement but the situation goes much further back than that.
Some serious investigative skills, drawing out the desire to be free in someone who never thought it possible and always trying to stay one step ahead of the feds makes Wendy’s journey engrossing and hard to put down, even when there were things I just didn’t want to believe possible – and that was the hardest thing with this one. It read as possible and realistic.
From Mexico to New York and places in between Wendy searches for someone to help her uncover the story and clear her name so that she can go home and try to pick up the pieces of her life.
There were some very unexpected twists and some predictable story arcs but overall this is a book I loved, even if it freaked me out a bit. If you like crime thrillers then this definitely one to pick up.
I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!