Synopsis:
In the midst of a terrifying, once-in-a-lifetime flood, Raven, her two children, and their Chihuahua are trapped on the rooftop of her childhood home, along with her stepmother, Joan. Surrounded by a raging torrent, Raven fights to stay calm as her thoughts turn to her sister, Ivy, who died tragically when they were children in the now-flooded basement below.
As the water rises at an alarming rate, rescue becomes dangerous and nearly impossible. With her daughter’s asthma worsening, her newly defiant teenage son challenging everything, and her stepmother behaving strangely, Raven’s control slips. Tensions in the family reach a boiling point.
When shocking memories from her childhood unexpectedly return, fracturing the past, it becomes evident that no one on the rooftop will be the same after the storm.
If they make it out alive . . .
Set over six relentlessly tense hours, No Higher Ground is a powerful exploration of grief, guilt, and trauma, and a chilling reminder of our helplessness in the face of nature’s mercilessness.
Review:
Nicole Brooks is a Canadian author who says that her bachelor’s degree in environmental science combines with her lifelong love of reading, enabling her “to blend two of her passions — nature and writing — into stories that put people into the thick of environmental disasters.” She published four novels, Just Because We Can; Cake; and Watch What She Can Do before releasing No Higher Ground, her thriller debut.
No Higher Ground is a fast-paced, tense, and shocking tale. And it is also a riveting character study that is both moving and thought-provoking.
Raven had a troubled childhood. She and her younger sister, Ivy, who had Down syndrome, were abandoned by their abusive mother. Their hands-off, emotionally unavailable father quickly remarried Joan. But a tragic incident claimed Ivy when she was just eleven years old and Raven was only fourteen. Ever since that nightmarish night, Raven has blamed herself for Ivy’s death.
Raven is happily married and has a fifteen-year-old son, Luke, and a nine-year-old daughter, Emerson. She is the lead microbiologist at a lab in Calgary, specializing in studying and testing water. She has always had a loving, supportive relationship with her stepmother, Joan, who loves providing childcare when needed because she adores Raven and her children. It was Joan who raised Raven and Ivy after their mother left, and literally saved Raven in those dark days immediately following Ivy’s death.
Now, despite three evacuation orders, Joan has doggedly refused to leave the family home adjacent to the Echo River before floodwater arrives. When Raven arrives with Luke, Emerson, and their beloved Chihuahua, Betty White, to convince Joan to leave, the property is already beginning to flood . . . and a deluge is imminent. Joan is stubbornly packing. By the time Raven manages to coax her out of the house, it is too late. They are unable to reach the road, and their only recourse is to take refuge on the roof and wait to be rescued by first responders.
The water keeps rising. And being back at the house — right above the place where Ivy perished — causes bits and pieces of memories to suddenly return to Raven. She recalls fragments about Ivy, their mother, their childhood, the night Ivy died . . . and Joan. Over the course of a six-hour siege, during which the water level continues to inch perilously close to the roof, rescuers are unable to reach them. Emerson suffers several terrifying asthma attacks. And Raven has nothing but time to analyze everything she was told about their mother, the circumstances surrounding Ivy’s death . . . and what her own children have tried to communicate to her over the years.
Raven observes how oddly Joan is behaving. And when they manage to save an elderly neighbor to safety by pulling him onto the roof with them, he unwittingly reveals startling information and details that Raven has never heard before.
All of it brings into question everything Raven always thought she knew to be true. And forces a long overdue showdown between Raven and the woman who raised her and her late sister.
Brooks employs the relentless rising floodwaters as a metaphor for the fury and power of the facts Raven can no longer evade or ignore.
And then the question becomes what, finally armed with the truth, she will do, given that literally everything — her life; her children’s lives, as well as Joan’s; the life she has built with her husband (who has no idea what is transpiring on that roof) and their happiness, well-being, and future – is at stake.
No Higher Ground is a uniquely compelling and cleverly crafted thriller. As the water rises, so does the dramatic tension. As their very survival hangs in the balance, so does the future Raven wants to create for herself and those she loves most. What will she choose? Finding out is a gripping experience for readers. No Higher Ground is an impressive debut in the genre and, hopefully, Brooks will follow it up with equally exciting thrillers.
