Deadfall – Robert Liparulo

Deep in the isolated Northwest Territories, four friends are on the trip of a lifetime. Dropped by helicopter into the remote Canadian wilderness, Hutch, Terry, Phil, and David are looking to escape the events of a tumultuous year--a bitter divorce, bankruptcy, depression, and job loss--for two weeks of hunting, fishing, and camping.

Armed only with a bow and arrow and the basics for survival, they've chosen a place far from civilization, a retreat from their turbulent lives. But they quickly discover that another group has targeted the remote region and the secluded hamlet of Fiddler Falls for a more menacing purpose: to field-test the ultimate weapon.

With more than a week before the helicopter rendezvous and no satellite phone, they must risk everything to help the townspeople who are being held hostage and terrorized. An intense novel of character forged in the midst of struggle, survival, and sacrifice, Deadfall is highly-acclaimed author Robert Liparulo's latest rivetingly smart thriller.

“I want to raise a generation of young people devoid of a conscience, imperious, relentless and cruel.” – Adolph Hitler

Had Hutch, Terry, Phil, and David known what was up at Fiddler Falls they might have thought about escaping from reality elsewhere. But within hours of arriving they find themselves the new targets of Declan and his gang. Sparsely armed, but with no other recourse, they fight back and risk everything to save the town. Along the way they team up with Laura and her young son Dillon as they run the gambit from flight to fight in an effort to outdo their pursuers. Can ultimate good defeat the ultimate weapon? Not everyone will survive the fiasco at Fiddler Falls and those who do survive will be forever changed.

Liparulo’s carefully constructed character study goes deep into examining the struggle of man’s inhumanity to man. The characters are deep and you feel pain and empathy for the heroes and utterly despise the villains. Liparulo paints evil in broad, almost absurd strokes. I mean, if you had the ultimate weapon, would you use it to just wreak havoc on a small town? But it’s the absurdity of it that brings us to our senses. Mindless, senseless, gratuitous evil – but isn’t that what all evil is? If men simply do not care and do not constrain evil to warzones – where killing should rightfully take place, we reason – isn’t this what the world would be? Deadfall asks hard questions and doesn’t shy away from showing us the evil of this world. Liparulo’s writing is taut and fierce, drawing readers into the story and not letting them go until the last page is turned.