The Hitchhiker by Gabriel Bergmoser

Reviewed by Rod McLary

This book has an interesting history.  It began its life as an audiobook published in 2022 and was a #1 best seller; it is now published in print for the first time.

The author – Gabriel Bergmoser – has established a reputation for tense and tight thrillers as he demonstrated successfully in his previous three adult novels [The Hunted, The Inheritance and The Caretaker].  All involve cat-and-mouse [and life-and-death] chases where cunning and a strong instinct for survival are essential qualities for the protagonists.  But the cat-and-mouse game also has a significant psychological element which makes it much more terrifying.

This novel is set out in three parts entitled The Driver; The Hitchhiker and The Fugitive and each part establishes out the backstory of the respective protagonist.  The identities of the driver and the hitchhiker are quickly established but the identity of the fugitive comes as a surprise and her entering the narrative reprises two of the author’s earlier books.

The narrative begins simply enough.  Paul – forty-something – has been told by his wife that she is leaving him and wants a divorce.  After dealing with the news in his own particular way [the details of which are disclosed later in the narrative] he decides the open road is calling him and he heads off to anywhere and nowhere.  But along the way, he picks up the hitchhiker.  Jesse is about 18 or 19 years old and is clearly running from someone or something.  The reader would be excused for immediately thinking that Paul will be the one at risk – but that would be a mistake.

Jesse has a tragic backstory marked by isolation both figuratively and literally living as he does with an emotionally distant father in a small country town in the outback.  His one hope for a better future is snatched away from him and he is driven to an impulsive act which has tragic consequences.  But towards the end of the narrative, there is a heart-warming moment of redemption which allows him a second chance.

What unfolds from the intersection of Paul’s and Jesse’s life trajectories creates high-level tension with moments of horror heightened by it all taking place in the desolate and sun-beaten Australian outback.  At times, the narrative almost demands that the book be put down by the reader for a moment to catch their breath and prepare for the next heart-stopping moment.

As the use of ‘cat-and-mouse’ to describe the action suggests, the ‘cat’ simply plays with the ‘mouse’ who is helpless in the face of what can only be described as psychopathic behaviour.  But then, the fugitive enters the game and it’s turned on its head.  Readers of the earlier novels will know exactly who the ‘fugitive’ is – and she is one formidable opponent.  What occurs after her entry into the fray is best left for the reader to discover.

Gabriel Bergmoser has crafted a fast-paced and thrilling story which defies any second-guesses from the reader.  For those who enjoy thrillers with more than frisson of horror, then this is the book for you.

The author has published The Hunted, The Inheritance and The Caretaker, and, for a change of pace, the YA novel The True Colour of a Little White Lie and a middle-grade novel Andromache Between Worlds.

The Hitchhiker

[2024]

by Gabriel Bergmoser

Harper Collins

ISBN 978 146076 639 2

$34.99; 310pp

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