REVIEW

Review - 8 HOURS TO DIE, J.R. Carroll

Reviewed By
Karen Chisholm

"Carroll is the Australian writer who has most fully and consistently approached the dark and alienated world of Americans like James Ellory and Andrew Vachss..." Continent of Mystery, Stephen Knight (MUP, 1997).

Sometime in the early 2000's, deeply immersed in an obsession with J.R. Carroll's books (which at the time were very hard to get hold of) coming across that quotation was a nice vindication of the book quest that was occupying a bit of my book buying time. It is, however, sheer coincidence that I'd be re-reading Continent of Mystery at the time that Momentum release some of Carroll's back catalogue, and the latest book - 8 HOURS TO DIE. There were no surprises, however, in the reaction to the news, which I must admit was one of excitement. Carroll writes dark, conflicted, complex characters balanced in the edge world between good and bad. He sets those characters in dark, difficult and very realistic places, and throws plots at them that twist and turn like a corkscrew, slowly dragging the truth out into the murky light.

Needless to say, this reader came to 8 HOURS TO DIE with extremely high expectations. Expectations that wobbled a little at the start. As much as I love dark and conflicted, I've developed a violent gag reflex when evil starts lurking about behind gumtrees in the bush. The symptoms are even worse when the location is remote, completely without outside help. Of course the phones don't work, the generator can be switched off, and the victims are conveniently sitting out in the middle of nowhere with "come and get us" signs welded to the front gate.

But Carroll's a very good writer, and whilst there does seem to be an inevitability about the fate of the cop and his wife, in their remote house, with the lurking threat of outlaw bikies, there are, right from the start, enough questions to hold the reader. Motivation is an immediate intrigue. Despite Fontaine's past as a cop, and present as a lawyer, there's nothing immediately obvious about why 3 bikies would go to all this trouble to attack him. That remains a question in the back of the reader's head for quite a lot of the book. There's less waiting for the results of the house invasion. Once the lights go out, things happen quickly and violently. Interspersed with the current action, there are chapters of background for each of these bikies. They fill in the personal, as well as the circumstances that led them to become not just outlaw bikies, but violent killers. It doesn't bode well for Fontaine and his wife, as there's not a lot of hope in the background of each of these attackers.

For some readers, those interjections of the background might distract from the action in the present. For this reader, they contributed quite a bit to the threat - an understanding of who these 3 are, and how there past informed their current behaviour actually made the whole thing somehow more disconcerting. Particularly as the details of Tim and Amy are less fleshed out, perhaps because are destined to be the victims.

It wasn't long before expectations were firmly back on track, and the way that 8 HOURS TO DIE twists and turns right to the last page reminded me, yet again, of just how much I love J.R. Carroll's writing. If you've never read any of his books, Momentum have presented everyone with the perfect opportunity to rectify that immediately and that's a cause for much celebration! http://momentumbooks.com.au/authors/jr-carroll/

BOOK DETAILS
BOOK INFORMATION
Author
ISBN
9781760080648
Year of Publication
BLURB

When the past comes knocking, it will not be denied ...

Ex-cop turned criminal lawyer Tim Fontaine and his wife Amy are heading for their weekender a restored farmhouse in remote bushland known as Black Pig Bend.

But even before they’ve eaten dinner, three outlaw bikers arrive on the scene. Suddenly Tim’s house becomes a fortress. Who are these people? Why have they come? Who sent them?

As the lights go out and darkness descends, their idyllic world is transformed into a nightmare from which there is no waking up. Tim must grapple not just with formidable adversaries, but with unsettling questions relating to his own past, both as cop and lawyer, and even to his marriage.

But even if they survive this night against appalling odds, the ordeal is far from over. For when the past comes knocking, it will not be denied …

Review Review - 8 HOURS TO DIE, J.R. Carroll
Karen Chisholm
Monday, March 17, 2014
Blog Currently Reading - 8 Hours to Die, J.R. Carroll
Karen Chisholm
Monday, March 10, 2014
Blog J.R. Carroll at Momentum Books
Karen Chisholm
Monday, December 9, 2013

Add new comment

This is a book review site, with no relationship whatsoever with any of the authors mentioned here.

We do not provide a method for you to contact authors for any reason and comments of this nature are automatically deleted.

This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.