TITLE INFORMATION
PARADISE BROKEN
Rob Marshall
BOOK REVIEW
Three pairs of longtime New Zealand friends encounter unexpected complications during their annual holiday camping trip in this debut novel.
Marshall channels his own experiences living and exploring in the New Zealand bush to create this rollicking story chronicling a group of friends who find more than they bargained for while on a horseback adventure. The couples consist of native New Zealand childhood pals-turned-lifelong loves Brent and Janey and their friends Stevo and Sue and Roger and Heather. The author starts with the origins of each couple’s friendships, how they integrated into the unified collective, and how they began vacationing together. As opposites who discovered an uncommon solidarity,
family-oriented outdoors lover Brent befriended ladies’ man Stevo early on. Although both were prone to schoolyard fights, the two gelled as each wedded the woman of his dreams. As the six head out on horseback, Marshall establishes a languid pace as they follow along the river’s edge in the New Zealand bush discovering oddly aggressive wetas, eels, and wild boar as well as a monstrous spider “easily the size of a domestic cat.” The deadly, oversized wildlife they find weaves an eco-disaster element into the plot. Running beside this narrative is a story of three brothers attempting to carve a rewarding life for themselves as they face a cruel world where the law and the lure of drugs will hold them accountable for their actions. Meanwhile, the discovery of a downed plane adds further intrigue, but none of the six adventurers could have anticipated the violence they would face once the trio of brothers descends on their placid campground. Marshall’s story is a busy one, but the tale is told with a smooth narration and an assured sense of pacing and characterization. Exploratory, daring readers with a fondness for nature and the wilderness will particularly appreciate the author’s keen details and vivid descriptions of the atmospheric New Zealand bush teeming with unique and often menacing creatures. Though the interpersonal melodrama is painted across the bush in broad strokes, Marshall reels the group in just enough to keep the tale fresh and the pages turning.
A vividly rendered thrill ride with lifelong friendships, scary wildlife, and grave peril.
