Twenty-seven-year-old Kristine Rush finally has put her dark past behind her. She has a good job as a physician’s assistant at a Las Vegas hospital; a handsome, successful fiancé named Daniel; and a beautiful daughter, Abby. On the afternoon of July 3rd, she and Daniel, a brilliant surgeon whom she met at work, head out from Sin City for the holiday weekend. Their destination is the family estate where Daniel grew up in Lake Arrowhead, California, and where his domineering, snooty mother Imogene still lives.

Hairline fractures in Daniel and Kristine’s picture-perfect relationship are immediately apparent. When she spills iced coffee all over the interior of his immaculate BMW, she knows he’s annoyed by her carelessness. She frets about her “too sharp” tone when she speaks to him. And then there’s the new outfit he’s bought for her: a country-club-perfect uniform of ballet flats, linen shorts and a cashmere top. It’s an outfit designed to hide her desert rat, trailer park upbringing, though Kristine knows that Imogene will still “look at me like I’m the bottom of something Daniel found stuck to his shoe.”

All those worries are quickly forgotten, however, when the couple pulls into a shuttered rest stop on I-15. Without warning, Kristine is attacked in the restroom, knocked out by a mysterious assailant. By the time she comes to, Daniel has vanished. Moments later, she receives a text from Daniel’s abductor ordering her to follow his instructions if she ever wants to see her fiancé alive again.

"[I]t’s to Petterrson’s credit that the rather predictable aspects of the plot barely slow the book down as it races along just like the cars on the interstate.... a brisk page-turner that thriller fans will want to add to their summer beach read list."

Kristine complies, and the kidnapper, who goes by the name of Malthus, proceeds to lead her on a deadly cat-and-mouse chase along the desolate interstate that separates Las Vegas from the sprawl of Southern California. Vicki Pettersson uses the vacant, eerie Mojave Desert setting to full advantage, dreaming up hair-raising set pieces in locales that anyone who has driven this stretch of highway will recognize --- from the wild-west-themed rollercoaster at Buffalo Bill’s Casino to an abandoned motel in Baker, home of the world’s largest thermometer. This is a stretch of country that, though filled with people passing through, has a sense of vacancy and isolation that is essential to the plot. As Kristine observes early on in the chase, “There is no flow out here, you cannot be soft. You can only hone yourself on the desert’s edges until you are as brittle as flint.” With nowhere to run and hide, she must plow ahead, despite Malthus’ increasingly bizarre and disturbing commands.

Pettersson, it’s worth noting, is new to the conventional thriller game. Her previous novels, including THE TAKEN and THE LOST, were squarely in the paranormal genre. Perhaps that accounts for the clumsy twist involving Malthus’ true identity, which arrives halfway through the novel and won’t come as much of a surprise to most readers. As a result, the story suffers a bit from the lack of what-will-happen-next tension, but it’s to Petterrson’s credit that the rather predictable aspects of the plot barely slow the book down as it races along just like the cars on the interstate. She certainly has no problem coming up with creative ways to off various characters, including some particularly grisly passages involving disembowelment and crucifixion.

Malthus’ plan (and SWERVE in general) hinges on Kristine’s reluctance to get the police involved in her disturbing predicament. At first, it’s not an entirely plausible decision, but a few well-placed flashbacks gradually reveal the source of Kristine’s go-it-alone attitude, as well as explaining why she’s able to endure such violence at the hands of her torturer. Her steeliness in the face of the unthinkable comes from a dark place, and the trauma she experiences also forces her to come to terms with her past. The motivation Pettersson cooks up for Malthus’ twisted actions is a bit half-baked; he lacks the depth and complexity that would make him a truly memorable villain. Still, this is a brisk page-turner that thriller fans will want to add to their summer beach read list.