Dark Places

The book is about a backpacker who finds a dead body on a trail in Nepal, which has been mutilated in the same way his girlfriend was in Cameroon two years previously. Our hero sets out to find the killer. The book's about much more than that, however. It's about recovering from the death of a loved one. It's about backpacking, and travelling around the world, and needing to do so to the point where you only take jobs that will give you months of leave. It's about the bursting of the Internet bubble. It's about the concept of tribe, a chosen family that is your support network no matter how far away they are. It's about using the Internet to find people and track them down. And, yeah, there's a cool mystery in there, too. Evans captures the feeling of being on the edge of 30, and unwilling to buy into the two-kids-and-a-dog suburban lifestyle.

San Francisco computer programmer Paul Wood enjoys backpacking in remote unreachable places around the globe. Currently he hikes the rough terrain of the Himalayas on the sustenance budget plan when he finds a mutilated corpse with Swiss army knives stabbed through each eye. Paul is more than shook at seeing the body as two years ago he and his girlfriend were in central Africa when she was murdered in the same macabre manner.Paul soon learns other people were killed with the same creepy modus operendi. Unable to ignore his preliminary findings Paul and his current girlfriend Bosnian Talena investigate. Other travelers from the central African tragedy join Paul when he decides to avenge the budget backpacking world by taking out a serial killer.This entertaining but chilling thriller provides readers with a look at the backpacking community that reside in youth hostels or outside as they hike the planet. The story line hooks the readers with its twists and turns, albeit not all seem real, but no one will care. Paul is a terrific protagonist as he travels the orb although it is difficult to accept this gentle soul as a vengeful fighting machine. Still fans of dark suspense will appreciate this eerie tale as they hitch a ride with Jon Evans to extremely DARK PLACES.Harriet Klausner

A thriller based in Nepal, San Francisco and... Once starting to read you can not put the book down until finished.