NetGalley Top Reviewer

NetGalley Top Reviewer
NetGalley Top Reviewer

Monday, August 18, 2014

Don't Look Back by Gregg Hurwitz




2.0 out of 5 stars Adventure in the wild gone wrong!, August 20, 2014
Depressed and recently divorced from her cheating husband, Eve Hardaway leaves the comfort and familiarity of home behind to head off to Oaxaca in Mexico and some whitewater rafting and other activities in the isolated jungle and mountain area there. She accidentally gets herself involved in a mystery -- it seems that a woman who was recently a guest at the resort, and who had stayed in Eve's same assigned hut, left a few things behind in the room when she packed up and left -- including a camera with some strange pictures of a machete-throwing man on it that Eve also manages to find on the jungle floor when she momentarily leaves her fellow tour members behind while wandering off the trail. All these items belonged to Theresa Hamilton and the owners of the resort aren't forthcoming and merely say that she left in a hurry.

I could barely force myself to finish this book and must say it didn't hit the mark as a thriller for me. The unbelievable peril and survival in the jungles of Mexico theme stretched my credulity way too far. It was assumed from the start that our plucky, nearly Rambo-like heroine, Eve, a nurse and single mother, would survive and outwit the bad guy but the sheer relentless description of how she managed this almost made me scream and throw the book at the wall. There were a lot of predictable grisly deaths of humans and animals. Antipathy too strong? The villain here was so ridiculously evil and the political ramblings so biased and contrived that I could barely get past it. This was definitely not what I was expecting when I read the synopsis.

Perhaps other readers will love this adventure in the wild gone wrong, but it definitely did not appeal to me. I've read other titles by this author and may give him another try.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the e-book ARC to review.

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