Short description
SCAVENGER is a brilliant, frightening hunter-hunted tale, weaving the past with the future to devastating effect
Long description
SCAVENGER takes us on a roller-coaster ride as Frank Balenger, the resolute but damaged hero of CREEPERS, now finds himself trapped in a nightmarish game of fear and death as he leads a high-tech scavenger hunt for a decades-old time capsule. To save himself, and the woman he loves, Balenger must play by the rules of a god-like Game Master with an obession for unearthing the past. But sometimes the past is buried for a reason. As modern technology is layered over the dusty artifacts of earlier times, the result is a surreal palimpsest, one which contains the secret of survival for Balenger and a handful of unwilling players who race against the game's clock to solve the puzzle of the time capsule, only to discover that time is the true scavenger.
Review
In thrillermeister Morrell's 26th, the game's afoot big-time.It's a dangerous game - fatal, actually - for those unfortunate enough not to win. Scavenger, it's called, and the sought-after prize has been hidden away by a nutcase who sees unmistakable resemblances between himself and God. He's the Game Master, he tells the players, who are not exactly volunteers. At the outset, there are five, all brought to the starting line after being drugged and kidnapped. Drugged and drafted is the dauntless, durable Amanda Evert, a young woman with a difficult past (see Creepers, 2005). She's the lover of Frank Balenger, who shares much of her history, but who, for plot-stirring purposes, has not been pressed into game-playing service. Drugged, yes, conscripted, no, Frank awakens on the site of an abandoned hotel in Asbury Park, N.J., Amanda gone from him. He's frantic, desperate to find her, senses evil at work. Bit by bit, he puts together clues that point him toward a ghost town in Wyoming, Scavenger's arena. In the meantime, Amanda and her playmates are counting the ways Scavenger has been designed to sow civil discord. There have been quarrels - savage and bloody - deeply relished by the ever-watchful GM. Amanda wonders if Frank can somehow come to her rescue. Frank wonders if he'll ever again see Amanda alive. Beset as they are by the GM and his harnessing of inimical forces, both take time to wonder, Why would anybody do this? A fair question some readers will find insufficiently addressed.Not much of this makes sense, but then, prolific Morrell has never been a stickler for seamless plotting. (Kirkus Reviews)