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Book Reviews Title In The
Forest Of Harm Fiction-Net
Rating Buy It
From Amazon.co.uk - BUY
NOW! Cover
Story Mary "Killer"
Crow is going home to North Carolina. There the
tough young Cherokee prosecutor and her two closest
friends will hike a beautiful but demanding
wilderness trail. They will be
followed into the mountains by a man obsessed with
revenge. And they will become the prey of another
man, a ruthless predator, who thrills to the
hunt. Soon they will be
pushed to the limits of their endurance - and
beyond - as they discover their own chilling
capacity for loyalty and violence. We
Say It is not
uncommon for a plot of a novel, or movie to include
the stalking of a woman by a deranged killer. The B
movie is filled with innocent and completely stupid
women running into the woods in high heels while
some maniac is trying to kill them. Thankfully this
is not one of those novels. While Sallie Bissell's
debut novel, In the Forest of Harm, is about three
women pursued by deranged men, it is not a novel
about three stupid women running through the
forest, rather it is a novel about the friendship
that these women share that provides them with a
strength they did not know they
possessed. Bissell avoids
using any clichés in the creation of Mary
Crow. Although Mary is of Cherokee descent, Bissell
does not fill the novel with Mary's unusual
abilities because she is a Cherokee. Rather Mary's
past provides the insight into why she has become
the woman she is. Fallible and far from perfect,
Mary is not obsessed with her looks or her career;
rather she is haunted by the murder of her mother
and the lack of closure due to the unsolved case.
Woven into Mary's tale is her Cherokee beliefs
without fanfare or stereotyping. In Joan and Alex,
Mary's closest friends, Bissell creates characters
that compliment Mary. While these women are not at
home in the woods like Mary, they are not
completely helpless. All three women draw on the
strength of the others at crucial moments in order
to save each other's lives. What is perhaps the
most gratifying aspect of these women is that
Bissell does not make them perfect; she shows us
their bad sides when terror strikes, and then
allows them to redeem themselves just when the
chips are down. Bissell relates the experiences of
these women in painfully graphic detail, and at
times it makes the reader long to put aside the
horror, but Bissell's skill as a writer makes it
impossible to stop reading. There are two men
who hunt these women. One is bent on revenge; the
other is a psychopath that does not hesitate to
kill. They must defeat both men to survive. One man
is educated and wealthy, the other an outcast but
both are capable of the unthinkable. Bissell has
provided insight into the twisted thinking of each
predator making them come alive for the reader in
horrifying detail. Reading this
novel is akin to watching a well made horror and
suspense movie. You may be terrified to watch what
is going to happen, and you may long to look away,
but you can't. You are compelled to watch each
graphic event, even if you are peeking between the
fingers covering your face. You have no choice
because Bissell has skillfully drawn you into her
tale. This is one of those novels that you will
want to read in one sitting. Do not make the
mistake of beginning it too late in the evening or
you just may be reading until the wee hours of the
morning. In the Forest of Harm may be Bissell's
debut novel, but what a novel it is. I can hardly
wait until her next novel comes out. Review by: Yumi
Nagasaki-Taylor |
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