Book Review: Hairpin Bridge
A gritty, twisty blockbuster that’s well worth a read this summer.
I just love thrillers that read like blockbuster movies, and Hairpin Bridge by Taylor Adams is one such book.
It tells the story of Lena Nguyen, who has been left bereft after her twin Cambry apparently committed suicide by jumping off the titular bridge in Montana. Even though Lena and Cambry have been somewhat estranged in recent years, Lena is convinced that Cambry wouldn’t have done this.
The only thing she has to go on is a cryptic ‘suicide text’ that Cambry allegedly sent to Lena in which she mentions by name the highway patrol officer who later found her body: Corporal Raymond Reycevic.
Lena becomes convinced ‘Ray’ had something to do with Cambry’s death and decides to drive from her home in Seattle to the town of Magma Springs to prove it, armed with only a pistol and a clunky old tape recorder on which she hopes to capture a confession.
What follows is twist after twist as Lena tries to draw the truth out of Ray and gets deeper and deeper into trouble. We also read parallel narratives from Cambry’s point of view as Lena speculates what might have happened that fateful night.
This book is so suspenseful it left me breathless and reading as fast as I could to find out what really happened — the car chases in particular are fantastic set pieces in which every detail had me reading from behind a sofa cushion.
Hairpin Bridge doesn’t pull any punches in terms of violence and is like one of those horror films in which you’re screaming at the TV for the heroine to just triumph, already so you can finally relax.
I really enjoyed this book and will definitely look for more by the same author in future. Definitely read this if you enjoyed Stephen King’s Desperation and the Kurt Russell film Breakdown, along with shades of The Hitcher.
Hairpin Bridge is a great summer blockbuster and I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys the thriller genre.
Thanks to Netgalley for an advance copy of this ebook in exchange for an honest review.
