Review: Bad Trip South gritty, frightening, evocative
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 12, 2012
I'm much more of a book reader than a movie fan but "Bad Trip South" played like a movie in my mind as I read it.  Non-stop action, desperate people and an endangered child.  Throw in the backstories of the individual tortured characters and it's a frightening, edge-of-your-seat spree of crime and victimization.  The "bad guys" are an escaped convict named Crow and his harder-than-nails girlfriend, Heddy.  The victims are a father, mother and 10-year-old daughter, kidnapped from a vacation spot.  Billie Sue Mosiman's power of description lets you see every character quite clearly -- Heddy for example, you see her trashy-sexy clothes, her come-hither eyes, and her lopsided mouth that was partially paralyzed from a blow from her stepfather.  And we can see her dead eyes, eyes that neither sympathize or empathize.We find out early in the story that 10-year-old Emily can read minds.  No one believes her but nonetheless she tries to convince them that the seedy looking couple outside a vacation spot are dangerous.  Both parents ignore her, wrapped up in their own thoughts about the wife's decision to leave her abusive police officer husband.  So the family is distracted and unhappy and stumble right into the arms of two psychopaths, who really just need a car to continue their flight from the police, but then decide that the family would make good hostages.The family, father Jay, mother Carrie and Emily, go through hell during the journey toward Mexico, where Crow believes he and Heddy will be safe.  They leave the family constantly worrying what their own fate will be once the criminals are safe.  Will they be killed or set free?  The cruelty of the two criminals is not the only pain they endure, though.  Carrie sees her husband is not the hero she might hope -- he's a bad cop who beats his wife and is attracted to the very criminal holding them at gun point.  Emily sees inside her father's mind, too, and is equally disappointed.  And Carrie, the abused, timid woman, unleashes her anger and resentment by telling Crow all about Jay's faults.  In the midst of so much danger, letting the family secrets fly out hardly seems important.There are a couple of tough scenes that I had trouble reading, but they're realistic and fit the storyline.  Remember, these are some down and dirty people, who've lived bad lives and experienced many bad things.  Their lives are filed with things we might not want to think about, but they are things we need to know about people who turn bad.  Where did they come from? What has happened to them? Are they just evil, or has the evil been pushed into them, pressed through their pores and their eyes and their ears, overwhelming any goodness or decency?This is a wonderful action book, it's a good paranormal book, with little Emily's mindreading abilities.  It's also a  good commentary on how close the "good guys" are to tripping over into the dark side.  When Carrie opens up a bit to Crow, who can blame her?  Her husband, a cop, turned out to be a bad man who beat her and slept with women while on duty.  When your hero turns out to be a disappointment, it's not too hard to sympathize with the bad guy.  And Jay, a cop with a nasty streak, is easily entranced by the vicious Heddy, even offering to go to Mexico with her.  Everyone in the group shows how evil can spill over on to good people, turning them some degree of evil themselves.  And how a child sees more than all four adults, thanks to her paranormal abilities.I recommend this book, but keep in mind that it's about vicious criminals.  Some scenes are disturbing.  But nothing is extraneous.  The reader needs the information to fully understand Crow's desperation to never return to jail, for one thing.  We need to see Heddy's depravity to see that she will not be the weak link who decides to release the innocent captives.  It all works together just fine.  And I fully felt like I'd just watched a movie when I read those last words in the book.  I felt like I actually saw the action, the fear, the emotions of all the characters.  That's some good writing that can make a reader feel that!This book was provided to me by the author for review.