Author sets summer thriller in Gros Morne
Alone on the Trail
By Emily Hepditch Flanker Press
$21.00 282 pages
It’s a classic setup.
It’s August, in Western Brook Pond. Four friends, Sadie, Jonah, Morgan and Julie, have decided to mark their university graduation with a four-day wilderness trek through Gros Morne. What could possibly go wrong? Author Emily Hepditch has structured her thriller, which unfolds over a few late summer days, so the point of view shifts in turn through the quartet. This way we see personalities and events from different angles.
From the outside, Sadie is the good girl, always putting others before herself. She and Julie — wilder, more of a boundary pusher — have been best friends since grade school and always will be. Jonah, rocking it as an Instagram influencer, has made adventure his new goal — this hike is his idea. Handsome, capable Morgan is a born leader and ready to step up to shepherd and protect the rest.
But this device also allows us access to inner qualms and secrets. The postsecondary fledglings have packed some emotional baggage along with their hiking boots and peanut butter sandwiches. Among the psychological luggage: Sadie is hiding her reasons for not attending graduate school; Jonah is tormented with insecurity (“I was a mediocre student, unathletic, with no special talents or passions. I wasn’t strong, or fast, or wickedly smart, or a good writer, painter, singer — I was just Jonah. Average Joe-nah”); Morgan considers himself a superior being and master manipulator, but his control of his temper is slipping; and Julie feels pushed to choose between Sadie and new beau Morgan, with her sense of trust and faith oscillating between them.
Still, they set off with promise. The scenery is gorgeous, even overwhelming. “When you grow up on the east coast of Newfoundland,” Sadie thinks, “the west is especially enchanting. …Here, the cliffs tower taller than anywhere east, and looming, fog-encircled mountains stretch their green necks up into the clouds.”
They’ve mapped out their route, both pacing and challenging themselves, and have a GPS watch, tents, filters, lanterns — and park guides have stressed it’s a good idea to have LED flares and mandatory to have a beacon. They’ve been briefed on the wildlife, moose and caribou and bears (though there’s no record of black bears killing a person on the island, it’s a group joke that there’s always a chance one of them could be first).
But they’re still novices, the walking is arduous, and it’s hot. It’s not long before personalities chafe and inexperience shows. On the first night things further unravel with vodka and an ill-advised round of Truth or Dare. Julie tries to clear her head with a solo walk. “The beam of my headlight shines ahead of me onto the trail. And when it does, there’s a quick flash of something. Bright green. Moving swiftly. … Something is out there.”
In such a strained atmosphere, their social connections start to fray. It’s obvious there’s tension between Sadie and Morgan, which seems to have been inflamed by a raucous party months back, in April — a melee which Julie ducked away from early, but which Jonah has privately dubbed “The night that ruined my life.” The hub of all this seems to be Morgan, who has a knack for needling painful areas and then insisting that he’s just joking.
When emotions snap the consequences are physical and Jonah is hurt. “His foot hangs at an awkward angle in the confines of the boot, and it’s an awful, disgusting sight.” With one of their party injured, and their safety devices either carelessly stored or arrogantly eschewed, the outlook is dire.
And then Jonah notices “the shack completely by chance, tucked amidst the brush in the valley below.” It’s shelter, but barely: “filthy, dank, and old. The floor is covered in strips of tarp like a patchwork quilt, squares of silver and green stained with muddy footprints. The floor is covered in trash. …On one of the walls is a grisly set of antlers — not the stuffed, cartoonish-looking moose heads that hang in southwestern-style restaurants. This pair of antlers rests on a bed of roughly cut scalp, a small, dried strand of blood running down the wall.”
An unwelcoming space, not to mention certainly illegal. Now their predicament has an even tighter timeline. Not only do they need to find rescue before Jonah’s condition worsens, they need to do so before whoever owns the shack comes back.
It’s scary to think they are alone on the trail. But it might be even more frightening to have company.
This strong follow-up to Hepditch’s debut “The Woman in the Attic” proves she’s no one-hit wonder. She’s setting standards (and a schedule) for an accomplished output.