Swerve

In this overwrought thriller from Pettersson (Taken and two other para-noir titles in her Celestial Blues series), Kristine Rush, a surgical physician’s assistant, and her fiancé, ER surgeon Daniel Hawthorne, are driving from Las Vegas to Lake Arrowhead, Calif., where they plan to spend their Fourth of July weekend at the ritzy estate of Kris’s venomous mother-in-law-to-be. While passing through the Mojave Desert, a spilled iced coffee causes Daniel to swerve to a stop off the highway. At a nearby rest area, Daniel disappears, apparently an abduction victim. Kris soon encounters the kidnapper, who calls himself Malthus and speaks in a robotic voice. Malthus threatens harm to Daniel unless Kris cooperates in such criminal acts as vehicular homicide, and she soon finds herself on a road trip to hell, with little chance of escape. Gradually revealed scraps of youthful trauma endured by both Kris and Daniel punctuate this unrelenting tale of horror, which offers no redemptive uplift as an antidote to all the gore. Agent: Peter McGuigan, Foundry Literary + Media. (July)