For the past two years Lauren has been running a small book club in Beijing called Book Smugglers. From time to time publishers send books for review. Border Run, by Simon Lewis, was one such book. Below is a review composed by Sam Johnson.
“Looking for a new experience? Try murder.” This intriguing book by Simon Lewis picks you up, takes you running, and doesn’t stop till the end. Full of action and moral choices, you won’t want to pass this up.
Two friends backpacking in south-east China are given an opportunity to go off the beaten path or “mango-smoothie trail” when a friendly guide offers them a free ride to a distant waterfall. The promises of beauty and sex lead to an eruption of violence and a clashing of wills that keep you on the edge of your seat. Friendships are tested and morality is brought in to question in this Burmese jungle far from home. Will, the protagonist, is shocked when a series of events launches him into a deadly situation shared by his friend Jake and their guide. Can they keep this secret? Will’s actions and thoughts sometimes tend towards the implausible, but what would you do in his shoes? Will’s friend Jake at times seems to be his polar opposite morally; it is his decent into darkness that reveals Will’s character more fully. Can he be saved? And finally, what can be made of the chameleon guide. He is their friend one minute and a deadly enemy the next.
As the characters develop you may side with one, then the other in this deadly game of life and death on what was at first a simple Border Run.
Border Run from Simon Lewis, published by Sort of. 2012. 226 pages and available paperback for £7.99 and in the U.S. from $8.00 to $17.00. Amazon details here.
