Fans of the Bee Gees might find themselves with psychological issues post reading or listening to THE HITCHHIKER. I'm not sure I'll hear the particular track that's on high rotation in the car at the centre of much of the action here without a slight twitch ever again to be honest.
A master of psychological suspense Bergmoser's gone all out with THE HITCHHIKER, creating a central character who starts off reasonably benign, rapidly being revealed as the sort of sick, depraved, just flat out creepy, awful bloke that you kind of know is probably out there, but could really live without knowing much about.
Based around three characters, the story starts out with the focus on "The Driver - Paul". Introducing "The Hitchhiker - Jesse" ramps up the creep, with something obviously not right about both these men, although who is the worst takes a tiny while to sort out. When it is clear, the question then becomes just how "not right" you can possibly get, with a psychological game being played that rapidly becomes overtly violent and shocking. Enter "The Fugitive - Maggie" who will be familiar to readers of other of Bergmoser's books. Everyone here may or may not be who they say they are, their reason for being on the road, in the middle of nowhere may or may not be as they claim, and their intentions, well, nothing's as straightforward as you'd hope with any of them.
This story is creepy, dark, confrontational and disconcerting to say the least. Actually that's not strong enough - this is hard to read. What starts out as the story of a man seemingly escaping the trauma of a broken marriage, driving into the outback as a way of challenging himself, doing the unexpected, gets more unexpected when he picks up a nervy, taciturn young hitchhiker who is obviously escaping something. Then there's the explosion when the fugitive arrives on the scene.
The shapeshifting, and reassessment of these characters starts out slow and steady, a search for enlightenment and testing of boundaries, or simply an escape, the reader is forced into a close up, uncomfortable relationship with them all as motivations and reactions get more and more out there. An exploration of weird, with a dose of Stockholm Syndrome thrown in, there's also the idea of like recognising like, which is very disconcerting.
Needless to say this is not a book for fans of cosy mysteries. It also might be a bit of a surprise for those who love noir, and psychological thrillers, because this gets pretty sick at points, and frankly, downright terrifying. There tension is intense, the creepy intense, the characterisations intense, the intent of everyone intense, and the desire to keep reading equally as intense.
Which might make readers, including this one, worry about themselves ever so slightly. I mean you'll have a lot of time to consider those sorts of questions, what with the being kept awake, with the lights on, and the twitch that you're going to inevitably develop whenever you see an interaction between people that seems, I don't know, a bit off maybe.
The Hitchhiker
The Driver:
Ahead he could see only the stretch of unending road, on either side brown-scorched plains of dirt and scrub, above it all a soaring blue sky and blinding sun. Desolation that looked, to him, a hell of a lot like freedom. He wasn’t playing by anyone’s rules anymore.
The Hitchhiker:
Have you ever done something bad? The question was like a clawed hand seizing his guts. It had taken everything he’d had not to whimper, to cower away and beg. But as he’d deflected, he’d told himself to stay calm. To be in control. He had to be in control here.
The Fugitive:
She’d made a mistake. Wasn’t the first time and wouldn’t be the last. Ever since she’d left, all she’d found was more trouble. More fights. More secrets. More scars. Now here she was, still alive but a long way from anywhere, and with options dwindling fast.
From the award-winning author of The Hunted comes a fast-paced outback thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
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