- Paperback: 248 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd (Mar 22 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0002008351
- ISBN-13: 978-0002008358
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 14 x 2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 227 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #340,338 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Book Description
It's 1:08 a.m. when Carrie's car breaks down on the highway somewhere north of Lake Superior. It's dark, the road is quiet, her cell phone is down, and she is alone. She took off from Toronto that morning, running from grief over the death of her boyfriend, and unable to cope with the truth about the events that led to it. The relief Carrie feels as a truck pulls up soon turns to fear after its driver offers her a lift. Frank, her would-be rescuer, is a line painter, putting lines on the road "to stop people from being killed." But after Carrie gets in the truck, she starts to realize that this will be the road trip of her life - a trip of terror, transformation and forgiveness.
Claire Cameron has created a unique portrait of Carrie, a young woman whose actions are driven by grief and shame, her personality a beguiling combination of naïveté and streetsmarts. Frank is equally sharply drawn, his flashes of humour and tenderness disguising the wreckage within. Written in spare, unvarnished prose that brims with menace against the forbidding backdrop of a northern landscape, The Line Painter takes us on a riveting trip down a twisted road of memory and redemption.
From the Publisher
"An old B-movie premise - Car Breaks Down in the Middle of Nowhere - is given a fresh, distinctly Canadian twist in this wicked little first novel. The Line Painter fires along on its lean language and propulsive suspense, the kind of story you could swallow whole once you're past the first page. I certainly did." --Andrew Pyper, author of Lost Girls and The Wildfire Season
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Lots of Internal Emotions,
By
This review is from: The Line Painter (Paperback)
Carrie is unable to deal with the tragic death of her boyfriend, battling depression and guilt she quits her job and decides to take a road trip west to clear her head. Her car brakes down north of Lake Superior, in the middle of God's country where there is no cell phone service and humans are rarely seen.It is dark when a large truck pulls over, her rescuer Frank leaves her with an unfavourable gut feeling but with no other option available she accepts a ride to Hearst that seems never ending. Out of necessity Carrie begins a two day relationship with Frank a man with a dark past, anger and control issues. She soon realizes that this is compounding her problems and her past will always be with her. She must return home in order to face her dilemma head on with the help of family and friends. Although this novel grabbed me immediately with its captivating suspense I found it lost some of its momentum in the second part when the mood becomes dark and creepy and the story focuses more on internal emotions. It seemed to me that it revolved more around grief, guilt, love and forgiveness and less about terrifying and chilling events found in a mystery. Maybe it was the author's intent. As for the characters, they are clearly drawn: Carrie is an urban chick lost in the wilderness of her thoughts and Frank is a man of few words and a dry sense of humour. To me they were two very sad cases. The dialogue and narration is mostly one liner or short sentences, a very interesting and effective style of writing making this novel short and sweet. A promising debut for this author.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not What I Expected - But Still Good!,
By
This review is from: The Line Painter (Paperback)
The Line Painter was a bit of an unusual book choice for me. For the first 80 pages or so, I wasn't really into the book. I found the writing a bit disjointed and I couldn't really relate to the characters. However, by the time I reached the middle of the book, I really wanted to know more about the story behind the main character, Carrie, and I wanted to know how the unfolding events would end. I started to enjoy the writing style. What I at first thought was disjointed became a clever way of using words sparingly to tell the story. The story revolves around Carrie's car breaking down on a deserted highway at night and she is picked up by a stranger. I expected the book to be her struggle for her life at the hands of a killer. Instead, it was about a struggle for her life but as a great character study as she dealt with her own demons to try and regain her life. This was a super easy book to read. I will definitely check out future books by this author.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Keeps you reading even when the lights have all gone out,
This review is from: The Line Painter (Paperback)
The psychological suspense in this book kept me reading through a long coach ride - and then when they turned out all the lights on the bus, I continued reading by the light of my digital camera display screen (like Carrie's, my mobile phone had died) even though the mechanism of the camera turned it off automatically every 3 minutes. That's how gripping The Line Painter is. It's unsettling and also wise, and I've been thinking about it ever since.
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