04/13/2020
The pseudonymous Barry follows her debut, 2019’s Freefall , with a gripping novel about two women, seemingly strangers to each other, who set out on a mysterious nighttime drive from Lubbock, Tex., to Albuquerque, N.Mex. At the wheel is Cait Monaghan, a directionless 20-something bartender from Austin. Rebecca McCrae, Cait’s prim 30-something passenger, is trying to escape her husband. Their journey quickly turns from an easy 300-mile trip to a fight for survival as an unknown driver tries to run them off the road on a desolate stretch of highway. Neither woman turns out to be what she seems at first as they face threats that lurk anywhere and everywhere—particularly in the men they encounter and occasionally have to rely on. Along the way, Barry addresses various issues dominating today’s headlines and affecting women’s lives, including cancel culture, online bullying, and reproductive rights, while maintaining the tension. This action-packed story will keep readers riveted. Agent: Alexandra Machinist, ICM. (June)
Barry’s adrenaline-fueled adventure explores the Me Too movement, cancel culture, reproductive rights and white male extremism. Buckle up for a heart-stopping ride.” — People
“Hair-raising... Barry digs deep down into the topic of internet trolling...with a sense of awe at the level of depravity she finds on the dark web. [But] to me, the most illuminating aspect of this book is that it’s absolutely humorless. In male versions of the road-trip novel, the guys manage to have a lot of fun between the obligatory car chases [and] highway shootouts ..From the perspective of women being chased across the country by men with a vicious agenda, the open road looks a whole lot scarier — and much too scary to joke about.” — New York Times
“A novel like razor-wire: elegant, sinister, bristling with hooks. Who is the predator — and who is the prey? Is the danger behind you, a pair of headlights on that lonely highway… or right beside you, gripping the wheel with white knuckles? As you race down the roads that slice across Jessica Barry’s American Southwest, you might catch a glimpse of the desperate fugitives from No Country for Old Men, or the wayward college kids of Joyride, — but Don’t Turn Around is very much an original vehicle, part chase thriller, part psychological suspense, altogether audacious, wholly ingenious.” — AJ Finn, author of #1 New York Times bestseller The Woman in the Window
"Jessica Barry has written a grab-you-by-the-throat novel of suspense that follows the trail of two women pushed to the extreme. Don’t Turn Around is the female-driven thriller you've been waiting for. " — Danielle Trussoni, New York Times bestselling author of Angelology
“Barry’s latest is a fiercely feminine, continually tense and perfectly paced tale that simply does not let up." — Parade
“Barry’s Freefall was one of last year’s most promising debuts, and she more than delivers with the follow-up, a riveting thriller that starts tense and never lets up. Two women meet on a semi-abandoned stretch of road in New Mexico and come to understand that the lone car there may be hunting them, and that some dark secrets may bind them together. Barry crafts a truly unsettling, powerful story.” — Crimereads
“Barry follows Freefall with a second propulsive psychological thriller, this time featuring two female characters who find themselves fighting for survival on a terrifying drive through the New Mexican desert. . . .. Barry delivers hold-your-breath tension, while also addressing highly controversial and relevant women’s issues.” — Booklist
"Gripping ….This action-packed story will keep readers riveted.” — Publishers Weekly
“Barry’s electric, perfectly paced tale reads like the gritty lovechild of Thelma and Louise and Spielberg’s Duel , and readers will cheer for Cait and Rebecca all the way to the end of the road. An action-packed and fiercely feminist big-screen–ready chiller.” — Kirkus Reviews
"Jessica Barry has written a grab-you-by-the-throat novel of suspense that follows the trail of two women pushed to the extreme. Don’t Turn Around is the female-driven thriller you've been waiting for. "
Hair-raising... Barry digs deep down into the topic of internet trolling...with a sense of awe at the level of depravity she finds on the dark web. [But] to me, the most illuminating aspect of this book is that it’s absolutely humorless. In male versions of the road-trip novel, the guys manage to have a lot of fun between the obligatory car chases [and] highway shootouts ..From the perspective of women being chased across the country by men with a vicious agenda, the open road looks a whole lot scarier — and much too scary to joke about.
Barry’s adrenaline-fueled adventure explores the Me Too movement, cancel culture, reproductive rights and white male extremism. Buckle up for a heart-stopping ride.
Barry follows Freefall with a second propulsive psychological thriller, this time featuring two female characters who find themselves fighting for survival on a terrifying drive through the New Mexican desert. . . .. Barry delivers hold-your-breath tension, while also addressing highly controversial and relevant women’s issues.
A novel like razor-wire: elegant, sinister, bristling with hooks. Who is the predator — and who is the prey? Is the danger behind you, a pair of headlights on that lonely highway… or right beside you, gripping the wheel with white knuckles? As you race down the roads that slice across Jessica Barry’s American Southwest, you might catch a glimpse of the desperate fugitives from No Country for Old Men, or the wayward college kids of Joyride, — but Don’t Turn Around is very much an original vehicle, part chase thriller, part psychological suspense, altogether audacious, wholly ingenious.
Barry’s Freefall was one of last year’s most promising debuts, and she more than delivers with the follow-up, a riveting thriller that starts tense and never lets up. Two women meet on a semi-abandoned stretch of road in New Mexico and come to understand that the lone car there may be hunting them, and that some dark secrets may bind them together. Barry crafts a truly unsettling, powerful story.
Barry’s latest is a fiercely feminine, continually tense and perfectly paced tale that simply does not let up."
Barry follows Freefall with a second propulsive psychological thriller, this time featuring two female characters who find themselves fighting for survival on a terrifying drive through the New Mexican desert. . . .. Barry delivers hold-your-breath tension, while also addressing highly controversial and relevant women’s issues.
Jessica Barry’s debut novel opens at full throttle and never lets up...Set aside a few hours before you open this book...once you start reading, you won’t want to stop.
International bestselling author Karin Slaughter
Praise for Freefall by Jessica Barry: “Jessica Barry’s Freefall is not only an enthralling, impossible-to-put down mystery that keeps the pages flying, but it is also a gorgeous, resonant tale of a mother’s unconditional love for her daughter. I could not recommend this more!
Jessica Barry’s debut novel opens at full throttle and never lets up...Set aside a few hours before you open this book...once you start reading, you won’t want to stop.
International Bestselling Author
This tightly paced thriller also deftly examines the complexity of the mother-daughter bond.”
Freefall is an electric mix of action and emotional drama that never stops, never slows down.
A gripping page-turner. Freefall is exactly what a great thriller should be.’
A brilliant, addictive page-turner with sharply drawn, dueling mother-daughter narrators who you will root for and empathize with as they struggle to survive their harrowing present, come to terms with a troubled past and fight to find their way home.”
The corporate malfeasance and shady conspiracies of John Grisham, with the frank feminism of two rounded female protagonists.
2020-04-04
Austin bartender and aspiring journalist Cait Monaghan couldn't have known a disastrous one-night stand with an up-and-coming country musician would change her life. Cait is shocked when the guy wraps his hands around her throat during sex and chokes her until she nearly passes out. When Cait posts an anonymous piece about the experience online, it’s a hit, but she’s eventually outed as the author. Sympathy inevitably falls on the guy’s side, and her life and livelihood are threatened. The vitriol of it all inspires her to seek out something different, and she volunteers with the Sisters of Service, who help women in crisis. Cait is to drive her new client, the imminently poised Rebecca McRae, from Lubbock to an Albuquerque clinic, but once they hit the road in Cait’s ancient Jeep, they realize that someone seems determined to make sure they don’t make it in one piece. Both women are hiding secrets, and Cait is convinced that the man menacing them with his pickup truck is after her, but Rebecca is equally convinced that she’s his target. As the attacks escalate, Cait and Rebecca must work together to survive their hellish road trip, and Barry builds a believable bond between the two women, born of both necessity and something deeper. The present-day narrative is cut with tidbits from each woman’s life, and Barry gets inside the heads of men both intimately and peripherally connected to them, offering a disturbing glimpse at what drives men to horrible extremes as well as the constant sacrifices, big and small, that women are expected to make for them. Barry’s electric, perfectly paced tale reads like the gritty lovechild of Thelma and Louise and Spielberg’s Duel , and readers will cheer for Cait and Rebecca all the way to the end of the road.
An action-packed and fiercely feminist big-screen–ready chiller.
