Words leave imprints in your mind like footprints in the sand...
2000s: What could be more relaxing that a girlie trip away with friends to a retreat up high on a mountain in Nepal? Well, anything as it turns out…as things soon descend into a nightmare…can you really trust your friends? And just what is this place?
I know your name’s not really Jane Hughes . . .
Jane Hughes has a loving partner, a job in an animal sanctuary and a tiny cottage in rural Wales. She’s happier than she’s ever been but her life is a lie. Jane Hughes does not really exist.
Five years earlier Jane goes on holiday with friends on what should have been the trip of a lifetime but it was a trip that rapidly descended into a nightmare claiming the lives of two of them.
So who is Jane Hughes really and who is now not only looking for her but looking to destroy her?
From Newcastle to Nepal, this is the story of four friends who meet in the northern city at the university there and keep in touch as they move to London for work. All stuck in jobs they don’t seem to like very much, they cling on to their friendship and even start planning a holiday to get away from it all.
Nepal is the destination of choice – and a retreat in Nepal – Ekanta yatra – seems to be the ideal place to forget about things for a while. But its here that only two return..
At first Nepal sounds ideal –
We could spend a day in Kathmandu then do two weeks at the retreat, then we could fly to a place called Chitwan and go on a jungle safari. It would be the adventure of a lifetime”
However, the account of what happens in Nepal is pretty graphic and horrific and so vividly described, that there are images and sights and smells that will stay with you for a long time to come.
The holiday descends into madness and horror for what is on that mountain and what happens on that mountain – no one can really be sure. but the desire to escape is the one which drives them. The isolation, the mountain ranges with hard to access paths, the retreat and the steep climb, the cabins in the woods, it would seem as if once you’re there, there really is no easy way to leave…
At the top of a mountain in the middle of Nepal, no one can hear you scream..
Many years later and the two survivors are no longer in touch with each other. One now works in Wales, at a sanctuary for animals which seems as much as one for them as it is for her. Green Fields is a tranquil place about to become a lot less so –
“I know your name’s not really Jane Hughes . . .”
Well now Miss Taylor, I think there should be a warning on your books as I’ve barely slept a wink after reading this! Yes it’s that good with the thrills and the spills that I m still thinking about it now. The four friends, the lies, time passing, people pretending and living a ‘normal’ life until that crashes around them, and a holiday that turned to disaster – the stories and characters are woven with such skill that I wanted to know them and wanted to escape them all at once.
The holiday in Nepal was reminiscent of The Beach – a secret paradise and a time that no one would forget. well, be careful what you wish for as this side of Nepal was shocking and chilling. Its effects echo throughout the book and provide the ideal contrast to small unassuming Wales and the next part of the story.
Although a rollercoaster of a ride is somewhat of a cliche – this does describe this book for all its shocks and surprises. Congratulations Miss Taylor, you’ve done it again and made this reader very excited about what you produce next!
Twitter: @callytaylor
Facebook: /CallyTaylorAuthor
Web: cltaylorauthor.com
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