Review: Swerve by Vicki Pettersson

Swerve by Vicki Pettersson

Blurb from Goodreads:

It’s high summer in the Mojave Desert, and Kristine Rush and her fiancé, Daniel, are en route from Las Vegas to Lake Arrowhead, California, for the July Fourth holiday weekend. But when Daniel is abducted from a desolate rest stop, Kristine is forced to choose: return home unharmed, but never to see her fiancé again, or plunge forward into the searing desert to find him…where a killer lies in wait. 

My Review:
Despite being from a fairly unpopulated state, it's amazing how often places in it are used as settings in books I read.  And yet, usually something in the description of a place I know so well is off, sometimes ruining an entire book for me.  I try to move past the inaccuracy and often fail.  That being said, the vast majority of Swerve weaves through and over places I know well, intimately even, and every description I read immediately took me back to those places -- the feel, the smell, the very nature of the place.  But, even if you didn't know these places, if you had never been to a single one, you will feel them, and be transported to every moment Kristine is in that place, reading this book.  

The descriptions, the pushing story, the thrill of not knowing what will happen next and being terrified to find out -- I was amazed by all of this when reading this book.  There were portions that I could. not. put. down.  This is the first book I've read by Vicki Pettersson but it will not be the last!  I highly recommend this book to fans of thrillers and recent favorites like The Girl on A Train, Marrow, and Gone Girl -- there is that same (better, here, in my opinion) twisted anticipation and, without spoiling anything, Kristine is a great narrator in this book -- a true fighter.

Swerve comes out tomorrow, July 7, 2015, you can purchase HERE, and I highly, HIGHLY recommend it! 

It's July 3, so the sun is a heat lamp with no off switch, the blacktop road a cast-iron griddle, and any living thing caught between the two is just meat set to singe on high.  I tried to tell Daniel this.  I know this swath of high desert as well as I know his profile.  The Mojave's cracked surface is as familiar to me as the dark mole tucked to the side of his right eyebrow-- his only imperfection, and one I love.