No Country For Girls by Emma Styles @emstylesauthor #NoCountryForGirls @BooksSphere #BookReview

 

Charlie and Nao are strangers from different sides of the tracks.
They should never have met, but one devastating incident binds them together forever.

A man is dead and now they are unwilling accomplices in his murder there's only one thing to do: hit the road in the victim's twin cab ute, with a bag of stolen gold stashed under the passenger seat.

Suddenly outlaws, Nao and Charlie must make their way across Australia's remote outback using only their wits to survive.
They'll do whatever it takes to evade capture and escape with their lives . . .

Thelma & Louise for a new generation, No Country for Girls is a gritty, twisty road-trip thriller that follows two young women on the run across the harsh, unforgiving landscape of Australia

No Country For Girls by Emma Styles was published in hardback on 21 July 2022 by Sphere. The paperback will be released in April next year. My thanks to the publisher who sent my copy for review. 

Two women taking a desperate road-trip through the harsh landscape of Australia, and with comparisons to Thelma and Louise. I raise my hands now, I have never seen Thelma and Louise, so I cannot compare and to be honest, would rather not have to anyway! 

I loved this fast paced, character driven story that rocks and rolls across Australia, with two kick-ass female lead characters who utterly entertain throughout.

Charlie and Nao do not know one other, they come from very different backgrounds, albeit in the same neighbourhood. They are brought together one evening when Nao appears in front of Charlie's home. Bedraggled and claiming to have been in car accident. Charlie's day hasn't been going that well so far anyway. Her sister's loutish fella is on the rampage, and she has a stolen bar of gold nestled in her pocket. 

It's difficult to imagine why Nao chose Charlie's address, but things become clearer as these two women take off after the country, desperate to escape those who want to do them harm, but not really sure how to do it. 

Emma Styles excels in creating a magnificent sense of place. The description language used to describe this journey is perfect and the reader cannot fail to get caught up in the landscape, the strange small communities, the long long roads, the heat and the dirt. 

Character creation seem effortless to this author too, with both women having their own unique voice and outlook. I never quite knew who to trust throughout, with the author surprising me throughout with unexpected turns that I didn't anticipate. 

Tense, thrilling and urgent. I enjoyed every page of this novel and look forward to more from the author. 

Emma Styles writes contemporary Australian noir about young women taking on the patriarchy. She
grew up on Whadjuk Noongar Country in Perth, Western Australia and now lives in London where she was born. Emma loves a road trip and once sat out a cyclone on the north west coast of WA in a LandCruiser Troop Carrier. She is less afraid of great white sharks than she should be, and hopeless at surfing.

Emma has an MA in crime fiction from the University of East Anglia. Her debut novel, No Country for Girls, won the Little, Brown UEA Crime Fiction Award in 2020 and was chosen by Val McDermid to feature in her New Blood panel for debut authors at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate.

www.emmastylesauthor.com

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