Belinda Pollard

Die Fernsehreporterin Callie Brown lässt sich auf ein Unterfangen ein, das so gar nicht zu ihr passt. Aber sie hat eine gescheiterte Beziehung hinter sich und muss auf andere Gedanken kommen. Daher geht sie mit einer Gruppe früherer Studienfreunde auf eine Wanderung durch die Wildnis von Neuseeland. Aber dieser Ausflug entwickelt sich zu einem Horrortrip. Es ist eine sehr abgelegene und raue Gegend, die allen aus der Gruppe einiges abverlangt. Aber es kommt noch schlimmer. Sie müssen ums Überleben kämpfen und die Zahl der Gruppenmitglieder verkleinert sich. Niemand weiß mehr, wem er trauen kann.
Das Buch liest sich einfach toll. Die Landschaftsbeschreibungen sind wunderbar und detailliert, so dass man ein gutes Bild bekommt.
Die Mitglieder dieser Wandergruppe hat sich nach der Party am Ende der Highschool aus den Augen verloren. Damals ist etwas geschehen, an das niemand erinnert werden wollte. Doch nun haben sie sich nach ungefähr einem Jahrzehnt wiedergetroffen und diese Wanderung geplant. Was sie nicht ahnen können ist, dass jemand Rache nehmen will.
Es ist eine sehr heterogene Gruppe und daher ist es sehr spannend zu erleben, wie sie sich unter diesen Strapazen verhalten. Wem kann man trauen? Wie schafft man es zu überleben? Warum die Gruppe sich ihrem Führer Bryan so unterordnet, konnte ich nicht immer nachvollziehen.
Die Geschichte wird aus verschiedenen Perspektiven erzählt und hat immer wieder Wendungen, die für Spannung sorgen. Außerdem gelingt es der Autorin, den Leser die Ängste und die Verzweiflung der Wanderer spüren zu lassen. Man sollte schon recht nervenstark sein, denn es ist sehr beängstigend, was auf dieser Wanderung passiert. Zugleich sind die menschlichen Abgründe erschreckend.
Der Plot ist nicht vollkommen neu, aber sie überzeugt durch die Beschreibung der Wildnis und durch den angenehmen Schreibstil. Darüber hinaus ist sie durchgängig spannend.… (altro)

Poison Bay by Belinda Pollard will make you never want to go camping again. This is a truly scary book which will leave the reader to appreciate the need for self-reliance in situations of crisis when to face the crisis means the possibility of winning and failure means death. And if you think you had friends along on the ride; you will be disappointed. In this novel, another name for friends is “suspects.”

The end-of-high-school party should have been a great party. It was, until Liana showed up with a gun and, after threatening some of her former classmates, committed suicide instead. But this is the beginning of the story, not the end. Readers may never be entirely clear about how eight of her classmates, and other characters in this story, spent the following almost-decade. But almost ten years later, eight of those present at the party, all with private thoughts and memories of Liana, will meet in a remote wilderness area of New Zealand to commemorate the anniversary of her death by a hike through some very rugged country. Several of them would wonder why they participated; they were not hikers.

Bryan was a spoiled rich kid and the boyfriend of Liana. One sign that he took her death hard was that he lived as a tour guide in a remote area. He organized the memorial hike. Not only did he send invitations; he provided money to his former colleagues so they could buy the proper equipment to survive almost anything in the area they would hike through. Bryan warned them there would be hazards if they were not careful. It was winter, there were snowstorms and rainstorms. And avalanches. And weird huge birds the size of large parrots which were aggressive and would steal camper supplies. But Bryan had used the ten years to become an expert woodsman, tracker, hunter, fisherman, and survival expert. He knew the best equipment to buy, the right amounts of the best food to take, and the best communication devices to take in case of emergencies.

The reader meets the party and gets to know something of them before the trek starts. The reader also meets some of the local inhabitants of the area, people who also know the area, Sgt. Hubble and his trusted deputy, Tom Ganton. There is a subtle hint before the trek that something isn’t right. Bryan has told the police a different version of the hikers’ destination than the one he told the hikers. Still, everyone is well equipped, so off they go.

During the first part of the planned ten-day trip, the first several days strain the stamina and strength of all but Bryan. The others are a bit put off by his demanding pace, but all go along because they know when they arrive at a certain point they will meet a boat, the tough part of the journey will be over, and they will return to the land of the Big Mac and normality.

But Bryan has a plan, one that developed from a sense of just revenge for an imagined murder of Liana. All the people invited on the trek had responsibility for Liana’s death. Bryan thought the time had arrived for them to pay. After forcing the hikers to a point of utter exhaustion, Bryan revealed to them the real reason for the hike; all participants were to die. Bryan led by example when he committed suicide by jumping off a cliff into water cold enough to kill within seconds. Although Bryan had revealed their ultimate planned fate, he did not reveal the several sabotage points of equipment he had made. The satellite phone and GPS didn’t work. The food they brought along would not support a trip back along the path they had come, even if they could find the path. And Bryan had made secret deals with some members of the trekkers that assured them wealth, but only if they (or him, or her) were to be the sole survivor.

So the inexperienced trekkers marched on. They did not have orienteering skills. People got sick. People died (or were killed). As the number of trekkers dwindled, suspicions arose among the survivors. Who had possibly killed one of their colleagues? Who was hoarding food? Why was Kain so stand-offish? Will Jack and Callie have a relationship? Will they survive? Rachel has a supply of insulin, but not enough if they get lost. Will she survive? And, as an aside, who brought the gun?

There are many, many surprises here. I have not even hinted at the surprises that happen at the basecamp for the search efforts once it became apparent that the trekkers were overdue. Characters are well developed and put into incredibly stressful situations to explore core personalities.

With all that, there are beautiful descriptions of nature and the power of nature as all characters alternately praise and curse natural events that kill some characters and aid others in their survival attempts.

This is a great, read-it-in-one-sitting book.… (altro)

Set in New Zealand, written by an Australian author, POISON BAY by Belinda Pollard is one of those novels that you just can’t help but wonder what tourism authorities reaction would be...

Located in one of New Zealand’s most rugged and beautiful locations - Fiordland - the place and the circumstances combine to create some real menace for a group of high school friends on a trekking holiday that goes horribly wrong. Starting out with a flashback to the tragic death of one of their friends, the focus switches quickly to the current day and a reunion with a difference. A group of friends, who obviously haven’t seen each other for a long time, come together to be lead through the wilderness on a one off adventure by one of their number, long resident in the area.

Even before the group heads into the bush there’s a few odd things happening, but not enough, it seems to have caused too many alarms to go off, even though many of them obviously aren’t fit, prepared, or seemingly capable of the journey they are about to undertake. Readers will probably be ringing those alarm bells though, and the idea that many of the misgivings are parked behind the desire to resolve mixed personal feelings, felt instantly worrying / odd.

Seeing most things through the eyes of television journalist Callie Brown, there’s an interesting scenario building, with the potential of a switched on, observant narrator into the bargain. The idea that old friends, unsure of each other after all these years, in the wilderness and outside their comfort zones, relying on each other to get through is a chance to look at human nature in extreme circumstances. Unfortunately, there are some inconsistencies between that scenario and the actuality of their experience. The snippets of action and outcome are quickly subsumed by massive amounts of explanatory dialogue that take great care to spell out everything, regardless of how much should have been left to the reader's observation. There’s tension between the characters that’s nearly always resolved with some mea culpa statements, and yet more explanation and there’s too much overtly convenient partnerships / pairings off which quickly seem to telegraph potential twists. Then there are the things that some characters see which others “miss” and the way that the “good guys” step into each other’s orbit too quickly to be believable or trusted.

Meanwhile the sense of extremity and threat is there with the setting, in particular, providing a much heightened sense of risk and danger than any of the human components. Whilst there was a certain sense of inevitability about some of the early twists, once they arrived and the focus turned to how to survive against the landscape and the weather as well as the expected human threat, POISON BAY did become considerably more engaging. This was helped by the focus being switched from the group lost and in trouble, to those back at the small town they set out from, being forced by relatives to start the search. The confusion about how a group of friends under the guidance of an experienced and seemingly prepared guide could have gone missing, and how the possible truth is revealed was compelling and one of the highlights of the story.

First thriller novels are often filled with the highest of highs and some elements that just simply don’t hit the mark. The idea behind POISON BAY is in interesting one, and the use of the landscape as part of the overall threat beautifully done. Missing was a lack of a subtle touch, allowing the reader to observe, conclude and engage with the characters, without the need for hammered extrapolation, explanation and reiteration.

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-poison-bay-belinda-pollard-0… (altro)

Callie Brown has decided to reunite with her old high school friends on a mountain trip for ten days. She is not really convinced about the rejoin, because one of her old friends commit suicide in front of all of them on their last party during high school. Her instincts seem to alert that maybe there is something more behind this meeting but she decides not to trust them and go on with the journey.
After a few days hiking, everything is odd and their team leader, Bryan, acts really suspicious... He commits suicide in front of them, blames them for the lost of their friends and leaves them lost in the forest, then is when the danger really begins...
This thriller accompanies you in a frenetic trip of some "friends" lost that have to survive in a mountain without food or any map to help them. And with a killer among them?
While I was reading this book, I remembered the famous film "I Know What You Did Last Summer", it has some similarity with the murders and the past of all of them mixed in their present life. But the book is more frightening and dangerous, and the scenery seems so beautiful...
I marked this book so low because some of the plot seems not really solved after you finish the book. You really don't know how the friend killed herself a long time ago, was it really a suicide or a murder? And Jack (one of the principal characters) seems to have deep feelings towards Callie, and he didn't speak to her at any time... maybe on a second part?
Ready for a high school reunion?… (altro)