Panic

After posting a drunken rant that goes horrifically viral, Bronte needs a place to lie low. Jobless, friendless, broke, she volunteers as a carer on an isolated rural property. She won’t be paid for looking after dementia sufferer Nell, but at least she’ll have a place to stay. Bronte’s host is Nell’s daughter Veda, who runs spiritual rebirthing retreats. She also claims the rights of a sovereign citizen and rejects the authority of the state, refusing even to register her car. She has acquired a small but devoted following of the like-minded.

Are they harmless cranks, with their conspiracy theories and outrage at government overreach? Or dangerously paranoid domestic terrorists? And what is the dark secret that Nell, in her confused state, keeps harking back to? Bronte, increasingly uneasy, would be getting far away from the whole place—if she had anywhere else to go.

In Panic, master storyteller Catherine Jinks delivers a tense, claustrophobic thriller of isolation and fear that will have you on the edge of your seat.

PRAISE FOR CATHY JINKS:

‘The fear is palpable and crawls off the page, so the reader can feel it too...This is a book that needs to be read with the lights on, and one that you will be unwilling to put down.’ ArtsHub on Traced

‘If you enjoy a psychological thriller—a kind of cat and mouse book—I would certainly recommend this...It’s a really good read to curl up with on a wintry night.’ RNZ Nine to Noon on Traced

‘[Jinks] crafts a taut, tense thriller of a narrative, expertly cranking up the suspense notch by notch.’ Saturday Paper on Traced