Format: Hardcover, 368 pages
Release Date: August 8, 2023
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Source: Publisher
Genre: Thrillers / Suspense
New York Times bestseller Allison Brennan’s latest standalone is an unputdownable race to the dramatic finish.
After five years in hiding from their murderous father, the day Kristen
and Ryan McIntyre have been dreading has arrived: Boyd McIntyre, head of
a Los Angeles crime family, has at last tracked his kids to a small
Montana town and is minutes away from kidnapping them. They barely
escape in a small plane, but gunfire hits the fuel line. The pilot, a
man who has been raising them as his own, manages to crash land in the
middle of the Montana wilderness. The siblings hike deep into the woods,
searching desperately for safety—unaware of the severity of the
approaching storm.
Boyd’s sister Ruby left Los Angeles for the
Army years ago, cutting off contact in order to help keep her niece and
nephew safe and free from the horrors of the McIntyre clan. So when she
gets an emergency call that the plane has gone down with the kids
inside, she drops everything to try save them.
As the storm
builds, Ruby isn’t the only person looking for them. Boyd has hired an
expert tracker to find and bring them home. And rancher Nick Lorenzo,
who knows these mountains better than anyone and doesn’t understand why
the kids are running, is on their trail too.
But there is a
greater threat to Kristen and Ryan out there. More volatile than the
incoming blizzard, more dangerous than the family they ran from or the
natural predators they could encounter. Who finds them first could
determine if they live or die. . .
Allison Brennan's North of Nowhere is allegedly a standalone thriller that takes place in Montana. 16-year-old Kristin and her 10-year old brother Ryan McIntyre, who is deaf, have been hiding away from their brutal crime family for 5 years with Tony Reed after Kristen witnessed her father killing someone, and also saw her own mother killed while trying to escape the family. The kids father, Boyd McIntyre, has been searching for the kids, and has finally found them after following the trail of Boyd's former best friend, Tony Reed, who was also his second in command.
Boyd’s plan is to kidnap them back but in the ensuing mêlée, Tony is shot and he and the kids get away in a private plane which soon thereafter crashes. Tony desperately sends Kristin and Ryan ahead into the woods for help – and, unwittingly, directly into the crosshairs of an upcoming storm and groups of both friends, and enemies who are urged on by money and revenge. One of the friends, is none other than Ruby McIntyre who spent 7 years in the military after she ran away from her despicable mother Frankie McIntyre who rules the family with an iron fist.
Ruby has her own reasons for staying hidden as her ex-fiance was likely killed because he got hold of evidence that could have put both Boyd and his mother Frankie away for life. The final party is Nick Lorenzo - a local rancher who hears about the crash and seeks to save the kids without knowing anything about their situation - his son Jason, who grew close to both Kristen and Ryan in the 5 years they've spent on the ranch. Meanwhile, enemies from the past are after Kristen because she witnessed something that changed her life, and forced her into protecting herself, her brother, and Tony. None of them know that Frankie McIntyre – the kids’ grandmother – looms large over the picture, and she will do anything, including, setting killers to bring the kids back.
Thoughts: Although the author does a fairly decent job filling in the blanks to what really happened to Kristen, Tony, and Ruby, I would have loved a prequel to dig deeper into why Boyd was allowed to be released from prison early. I would also have liked to know more about Ruby and her fiance Trevor as well as Tony's relationship with Kristen's mother that got this whole story started. As much as I hate snow, this story would have lost something in translation if the key characters weren't forced to survive a major snow storm that puts everyone in the same dangerous environment.
One of the thing I agree with other reviewers is Kristen's deep seeded hatred of Boyd and the fact she thought that Ruby had intentionally left Kristen and her brother behind to deal with the family dynamics and the awful things that resulted. Boyd honestly thought he was the hurt party in everything that happened. If Boyd wanted to actually be a good father, he could have taken Kristen and her brother and ran as far as he could from his controlling mother. Overall, this is an action packed thriller with a cast that comes close to 10 people being involved in telling the story.
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