Dead Heat
Caroline Carver
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2004 Mysterious Press
ISBN: 0892967781

A survivor of a plane crash in the wilds of Australia fights for her life.

In a torrential downpour of the northern tropical coastal rainforest, Georgia is driving fast, trying to make the Nulgarra aerodrome & a flight out to civilization. She'd only come back because her grandfather had died, & he'd meant a lot to her when she was young. She'd dreaded seeing her Mum again in that awful commune she'd dragged Georgia & her sister to all the way from England, just to be near him. That's where Georgia had finally grown up, & as soon as she could she'd escaped to Sydney & a new life.

As she fords a swollen river, she comes upon a Chinese couple with a stalled station wagon. No one out here leaves people stranded by the side of the road, so Good Samaritan Georgia, takes them along. Suzie looks pure Chinese, whereas Lee looks like there was something else in his blood. Georgia's not sure what & whatever it is, it sure is ringing all her bells ... as in Biology! It is with Suzie, however, that Georgia makes a connection. There's something hinky about this couple. Suzie's way to ... frightened of Lee?

As luck would have it, there's a no-show for the fourth seat in the plane to Cairns, & Georgia gets to go. What luck! Until way out over the vast expanse of the forest, the plane stutters & stalls. Having gotten off a MayDay & heard the rescue service's response, Bri brings his wounded plane down into the trees. There, in the steaming heat, Lee is a whirlwind of action. By the time Georgia regains consciousness, he's gotten Suzie out & carried her some distance from the wreck. Now he's dragging Georgia to safety, insisting she go tend Suzie. Then he starts extracting the unconscious Bri. Crouching beside the dying woman, Georgia hears the gas tank explode. She rushes to help put out the flames that engulf her high school chum. Back with Suzie she can only offer comfort, & when Lee is off making marks for the rescue helicopter, the dying woman insists Georgia take her fanny pack, & give it to her brother, Dutch.

Back in Nulgarra with Bri in hospital unlikely to survive the burns, he manages to alert Georgia that he knows his plane was sabotaged. He exacts from his friend her vow to find out who did it, & now Georgia has two promises to keep.

While waiting for the doctor to check her over, Georgia gets a visitor. India Kane is a reporter for the Sydney Morning Herald, up here on assignment, investigating an illegal immigrant smuggling ring. India has some news: the no-show whose seat Georgia had taken has been found on the beach with a bullet in the back of his head. Would Georgia know anything about that? & then Lee vanishes, with no forwarding address.

Getting some rest at her old head mistress' home, there are no hotels in Nulgarra, Georgia makes some calls & then falls asleep ... until a dark shape creeps into the bedroom & all hell breaks loose. Talking with the cops later, Georgia realizes that there's more happening in sleepy old Nulgarra than ever she knew about when she was a child. For starters the commune her Mum had joined has been bought out by a doctor doing research on super-antibiotics, & is reported to be making miraculous cures. Secondly, there's a huge problem with smuggling in illegal aliens from Asia, China in particular; & the cops who interview her are pair of inquisitive blokes, one of whom is trying to ingratiate himself by saying he remembers her from school. Eventually she does remembers him, & none too kindly. That's when he tells her his story, kind of.

Dead Heat is 371 pages of rip-snortin' adventure in a wildly beautiful part of the world where everything reaches out to grab you: the jungle, the long arm of Communism, the weather, & old friendships. It's also where undercover agents are only too happy to cross & double cross you, cops have ulterior motives, & a large cast of inter-connected characters crowd in with fascinating stories to keep you glued.

Georgia is a gutsy heroine who takes wild chances & her promises seriously. While she's as gullible as a lamb, she isn't above lying when she's cornered, tearing off after clues, or running away if it means she'll live another day ... until the Red Bamboo Gang gets hold of her. & that pisses her off.

An exciting, sweaty, hell-raising rampage of secrets within secrets, computer programs to die for & life-saving medical research, marooned refugees in a land which doesn't want them & chaotic culture clashes, with death & redemption, friends who are true & some who are not, with payback & honor all churning up one hurricane of a read!

More from Caroline Carver: Blood Junction
(05/30/04)

Rebecca