Warning Signs: A Novel
“The tension, the atmosphere, the dread . . . This is a book that sticks in your head long after the last page.” —Lisa Jewell
“Extraordinary.” —Linwood Barclay
The heart-stopping second novel from the author of Nightwatching, in which a father-son ski weekend becomes a desperate fight for survival
Twelve-year-old Zach is cautiously optimistic. His father Bram, whose business is in dire need of cash, has put together a father-son backcountry ski weekend to wine and dine his biggest investors. Schooled in outdoor survival by his mother, Zach is eager to prove himself to the hypercritical Bram. Maybe if Zach shows how useful he is, he can earn his father’s love.
But Zach knows to be on high alert around Bram, and he sees the way the group ignores the increasingly threatening conditions. For the first time in his beloved mountains, he is faced with the unknown, convinced that something watches their cabin from the treeline. Something that leaves behind strange tracks and picks its prey clean.
As the adults recklessly test the limits of the outdoors, Zach worries he might be in even more danger than he realized. Could the men around him prove more violent than the unforgiving weather, and the strange creature lurking in the dark? Zach will have to rely on his wits if he hopes to make it home safely. But he knows all too well that the wilderness can be unpredictable even at the best of times. And at the worst? Deadly.
“Extraordinary.” —Linwood Barclay
The heart-stopping second novel from the author of Nightwatching, in which a father-son ski weekend becomes a desperate fight for survival
Twelve-year-old Zach is cautiously optimistic. His father Bram, whose business is in dire need of cash, has put together a father-son backcountry ski weekend to wine and dine his biggest investors. Schooled in outdoor survival by his mother, Zach is eager to prove himself to the hypercritical Bram. Maybe if Zach shows how useful he is, he can earn his father’s love.
But Zach knows to be on high alert around Bram, and he sees the way the group ignores the increasingly threatening conditions. For the first time in his beloved mountains, he is faced with the unknown, convinced that something watches their cabin from the treeline. Something that leaves behind strange tracks and picks its prey clean.
As the adults recklessly test the limits of the outdoors, Zach worries he might be in even more danger than he realized. Could the men around him prove more violent than the unforgiving weather, and the strange creature lurking in the dark? Zach will have to rely on his wits if he hopes to make it home safely. But he knows all too well that the wilderness can be unpredictable even at the best of times. And at the worst? Deadly.
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Community Reviews
This book is quite slow in the beginning, but stick with it, it is worth the wait, by a quarter of the way through I was fully emersed and couldn't put it down. It is written from the point of view of a brave, frightened, twelve year old boy, a boy that you will want to hug and protect.
Twelve year old Zach Fisher loved his trips into the mountains with his much loved mother Grace, Grace who had previously been a member of a mountain rescue team, taught Zach and his younger sister, Bonnie, how to survive in the snowy mountains, how to use the technical equipment, how to predict avalanches etc, little did Zach know at the time how much he was going to rely on this knowledge.
There wasn't much loved lost between Zach and his father, Bram, Zach knew that his father thought that he was a weak mommies boy, so it was with mixed feeling that Zach set out with Bram on a father son trip into the mountains, along with wealthy colleagues of Bran who he was hoping were going to invest heavily in his business.
It soon becomes clear that Zach knows more about reading the snow and the mountains than all of them, but any timid suggestions are quickly shot down by his father.
The trip isn't well planned, things slowly start to go wrong and then they escalate catastrophically, Zach has to dig deep into his knowledge if any of them are to survive.
This is a well written book that has been brilliantly researched, apart from Zach and the tour guide, I didn't particularly like any of the characters, they were all self serving and in Bram's case, avaricious and ruthless. The author's descriptive powers are superb, I practically lived through the biting wind, the mind numbing cold, the deep, unforgiving snow, she builds an insidious, creeping tension, the danger and fear is palpable.
A great story, although I would have liked a little more at the end.
Thank you Penguin Random House and Net Gallery for this ARC, this review is totally voluntary.
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