An acclaimed, award-winning thriller, published and translated around the world, now freely available on Wattpad.
Paul Wood is a modern vagabond, a man who chooses to leave the comforts of San Francisco to spend months backpacking through some of the world's most challenging terrain. While hiking in the Himalayas, Paul gets more of a rush than he bargained for when he finds the body of a murdered hiker - mutilated in a way he has witnessed once before, in Africa, years ago and thousands of miles away.
The police in Nepal, anxious to quell a scandal, close the case and declare the victim a suicide. Only Paul is left to search for answers. He reaches out to his farflung tribe of fellow backpackers for help, and his discoveries lead him to a terrible conclusion: a killer is stalking the international backpacker trail, preying on victims in wild places far beyond the reach of any authorities. A killer whom Paul may already know.
Finding the murderer becomes an obsession that leads Paul from Himalayan peaks, through the jungles of Indonesia, across the bleak Sahara desert -- and into some of the darkest places imaginable...
Dark Places won the 2005 Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel.
Reviews
"You're hooked ... the characters are delightfully delineated ... beautifully controlled ... Evans contrives to slip the necessary specialist net-head detail into the plot without being boring or patronising. He can also pin down a character with a few details deftly brushed in ... A pacy thriller for the 21st century." - The Times
"Anyone would enjoy Evans' clever, relentlessly absorbing debut thriller that becomes a lot more than just another serial-killer mystery." - The Ottawa Citizen
"In this haunting suspense debut, Evans takes the reader on a page-turning adventure across five continents ... (a) spooky, inventive tale." - Publishers Weekly
Reso haunts Captain Aliyn Flynn's dreams. On a dangerous mission to discover the star system's secrets, can she and the alluring Tyr find the key to the survival of the galaxy?
*****
The galactic inhabitants of the Milky Way know the dangers of the Reso star system. Its gas giant, the planet Plenare, terrorizes any ship that dares to approach. After narrowly escaping with their lives, Captain Aliyn Flynn and her crew's impressive survival catches the eye of Earth's government officials, thrusting them into an unexpected and dangerous mission to discover Reso's secrets. Complicating matters further, the alluring and secretive Tyr Logan is assigned to Aliyn's crew as her executive officer. Despite their many differences, Tyr and Aliyn must come to terms with the deep connection they share to decipher an ancient secret--a secret that holds the key not only to the past but the continued survival of the galaxy they call home.
[[Word count: 100,000-150,000 words]]
Content warning: Violence
Watty Winner 2017