In a remote Australian outback 50-something Frank runs a service station located on a remote outback highway. He likes the simple and quiet life. His granddaughter, Allie, has arrived to stay with him as she has had trouble at school. They don’t talk much.

When an injured woman named Maggie, clothes soaked in blood, arrives at the station their lives take an instant turn for the worse. A trail of cars in pursuit of Maggie follows. What happens next is for you to find out.

This book astonished me. I am not usually attracted to crime noir of the blood-fest variety but I found this book immensely readable, even in spite of the inherently implausible plot. It relentlessly propels you forward with its filmic storyline. What was it that kept me reading? Was it the central character, Maggie: a superhero of manga proportions; James Bond without a licence; a Shane-like agent of catharsis? Maggie’s task is Herculean, but is she up to it? Or was the attraction purely atavistic? The thrill of the body count.

This is a rollicking fantasy thriller. In a world in which we are encouraged to see criminals as sick rather than evil, Bergmoser ensures that the reader need waste not one skerrick of sympathy on dozens of perpetrators by painting a gruesome picture of unmitigated evil.

From menace to mayhem The Hunted is a very memorable read. The film would be a cracker, but I think I’ll pass on it.

Reviewed by Judith Crabb