9/29/2022

Tief In Den Wäldern by Chevy Stevens

I love the thrillers Chevy Stevens is creating. Not only because the setting is always set in an incredible landscape but also because the psychological finesse is brilliant. This thriller however has a fantastic start and keeps you reading through the pages with growing excitement until a certain point where the logic starts to go south, and I started asking myself what I could have missed. Because all of a sudden it felt as if the author had taken a whole part out of the story before the book got printed. It just made no sense. Still doesn´t. From one second to the next another evil person was in focus and two other characters did everything to bring this devilish person into a police cell.

Tief In Den Wäldern

by Chevy Stevens
Translation Maria Poets
Original Title Dark Roads*
Publisher Fischer Scherz on June 29, 2022
Genre Thriller
Pages 456
Format Paperback
Source Publisher
Goodreads
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For years, young women have been disappearing from the lonely Cold Creek Highway in northwestern Canada. The last victim hasn't been dead long, and the killer has never been found. Now two opposite women are in his sights: The tough Hailey knows the forests of Cold Creek like the back of her hand. When she discovers a dark secret, she makes an ominous decision. A year later, Beth, a city kid, comes to Cold Creek on a personal quest that becomes increasingly dangerous.

Story

Hailey´s instinct tells her that something is terribly wrong in her aunt’s household. And when she finds the answer, she knows that she has to go. To save her own life and to find answers she is having for weeks now. With the help of a dear friend, she develops a plan to do the unthinkable. Vanish.

Style

From the beginning, I was fascinated by the plot and the individual characters. Well, I never warmed to the protagonist's step-uncle. It literally gave me goosebumps that I didn't understand until the end. He hated the main character for which I couldn't find an explanation. Not until the end. For this, the author presents a highly exciting and incredibly intense story that takes place in a breathtakingly beautiful and equally dangerous landscape. Thanks to the author's extremely successful scene descriptions, I could literally see the paths on which the protagonist walked in front of my inner eye. It actually felt like I was running with it. And when an author creates something like this through the choice of words alone, that's great cinema for me. But it was all the more incomprehensible for me when the plot suddenly broke in the last third. No surprising turn that brought things to logical enlightenment. No, that read strangely. As if I skipped a few pages and was missing some important scenes and thus information that leads the reader and the characters to the logical resolution.

Characters

Quite apart from the fact that I don't like the character Vaughn, the author did a really good job of creating her characters. The contrasts could not be more remarkable. For me, Hailey is an absolute free spirit. She knows what she wants and doesn't want, and her instinct tells her that something is very wrong with her aunt and her family. I was very impressed by the way she takes her life into her own hands and the way she fights for her freedom. I'm not sure if I could have done that in her place.

Conclusion

For three-quarters of the thriller, I was convinced I had a five-star rating in front of me. Until the sudden break came in the last third of the story in terms of resolution, plot, and logic. I suddenly had the feeling that I had overlooked something, that I had missed something important. And although I went back a few pages and read the relevant passage several times, it remained confusing and incomprehensible for me. Then the events unfolded without making any sense, and everything (both the murder case and Hailey's father) felt like a quick plot resolution had to be squeezed into the last few pages. I found that a shame because I don't know anything like that from the author.

Happy reading

*This book was kindly provided to me by Fischer Scherz in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. Thank you. Therefore, the cover of the German edition is shown first in this review.

Deutsche Rezension

Stil

Von Beginn an war ich von der Handlung und den einzelnen Figuren fasziniert. Gut, mit dem Stiefonkel der Protagonistin bin ich nie warm geworden. Der hat mir buchstäblich Gänsehautmomente beschert, die ich bis zum Ende nicht verstanden habe. Der hatte einen Hass auf die Hauptfigur, für den ich keine Erklärung fand. Bis zum Schluss nicht. Dafür präsentiert die Autorin eine hoch spannende und unglaublich intensive Geschichte, die in einer atemberaubend schönen und ebenso gefährlichen Landschaft spielt. Ich konnte dank der äußerst gelungenen Szenenbeschreibungen der Autorin die Pfade, auf denen die Protagonistin lief, sprichwörtlich vor meinem inneren Auge sehen. Das fühlte sich tatsächlich so an, als ob ich da mitliefe. Und wenn eine Autorin so etwas allein durch die Wortwahl schafft, ist das für mich ganz großes Kino. Umso unverständlicher war für mich dann aber auch, als im letzten Drittel urplötzlich ein Handlungsbruch kam. Keine überraschende Wendung, die die Dinge zur logischen Aufklärung brachte. Nein, das las sich eigenartig. Als ob ich ein paar Seiten überlesen hätte und so einige wichtige Szenen und somit Informationen, die den Leser und die Figuren zur logischen Auflösung führen, fehlten.

Charaktere

Mal ganz davon abgesehen, dass mir die Figur Vaughn nicht gefällt, hat die Autorin ihre Charaktere wirklich hervorragend erschaffen. Die Gegensätze könnten nicht größer sein. Hailey ist für mich ein absoluter Freigeist. Sie weiß, was sie will und was sie nicht will und ihr Instinkt sagt ihr, dass bei ihrer Tante und deren Familie etwas ganz und gar nicht stimmt. Die Art, wie sie ihr Leben selbst in die Hand nimmt, wie sie sich ihre Freiheit erkämpft, hat mich sehr beeindruckt. Ich bin mir nicht sicher, ob ich an ihrer Stelle das auch so hätte umsetzen können.

Resultat

Über dreiviertel des Thrillers war ich davon überzeugt, hier ein Fünf-Sterne-Rating vor mir zu haben. Bis der plötzliche Bruch im letzten Drittel der Geschichte kam, was Auflösung, Handlung und Logik anging. Da hatte ich plötzlich das Gefühl, etwas überlesen zu haben, dass ich irgendwas Wichtiges nicht mitbekommen habe. Und obwohl ich noch mal einige Seiten zurückging und die entsprechende Stelle mehrmals nachlas, blieb es für mich verwirrend und nicht nachvollziehbar. Da überschlugen sich die Ereignisse, ohne irgendeinen Sinn zu ergeben, und alles wirkte so (was die Lösung des Mordfalls als auch die Sache mit Haileys Vater anging), als ob auf die letzten Seiten eine schnelle Handlungsauflösung gequetscht werden musste. Das fand ich sehr schade, denn so etwas kenne ich von der Autorin nicht.

 

*Book was originally published by St. Martin´s Press on March 14, 2017 

Chevy Stevens

Chevy Stevens is the author of Still Missing and Never Knowing. Before becoming a writer, she worked as a realtor. When she held open houses, she had a lot of time waiting by herself between potential buyers, and Stevens would spend this time scaring herself with all the things that could happen to her. The most terrifying scenario she thought up became the story behind Still Missing. Stevens grew up on a ranch on Vancouver Island, and she still calls the island home. When she´s not writing, she´s hiking with her husband and her dog in the local mountains.

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