Alice to Nowhere

Readers may find this thriller longer than necessary, but Green (Adam's Empire) knows his territory. In 1957, in Alice Springs, a tiny settlement in the Australian outback, small-time crook Johnny Parsons bludgeons an old woman to death during a jewel heist. He and his accomplice Frog Gardiner set out over the rough ""track'' (road), but their truck breaks down, and they hide themselves in the biweekly load of local contractor/mailman Fred Crawford. Crawford and his sidekick Ivan already have one passenger on their three-day trek into the outback: young ``Sister'' (nurse) Barbara Dean, who is on her way to the Birdsville medical center. One day out, Johnny and Frog commandeer Fred's old four-wheel-drive truck. The desperados need Fred to get them over the Birdsville track, and Johnny effectively uses Barbara as a hostage. Meanwhile, she and Fred are drawn to each other. Johnny terrorizes settlers along the way, becoming increasingly crazy, before a violent ending. Some plot turns seem contrived to keep the story going for the full three days on the road, Fred's taciturn nobility wears thin and so does the love interest. But the savage beauty of the outback is evoked wonderfully. (March)