In The Forest Of Harm

January 1, 2001
An assistant DA returns to the North Carolina mountain country of her youth in Bissell's hair-raising camping-trip-gone-wrong debut thriller. Half-Cherokee Mary Crow, Atlanta's hottest young prosecutor, has just won her sixth murder case when she decides to take her two best friends, Joan and Alex, along with her on a hiking vacation near Little Jump Off, N.C. She has hidden motives for revisiting her one-horse hometown: her mother was raped and murdered 12 years ago in the country store she managed, and Mary needs to come to terms with her death. But death still haunts the cursed countryside, and the three women find themselves in perilous situations, fighting for their lives with both a crazed mountain man and the obsessed brother of the Atlanta murderer, bent on revenge. When Alex is spirited away and Joan is raped, Mary must muster the strength to match wits with two deranged killers, calling upon her old tracking skills and deep knowledge of the forest. Meanwhile, her high school sweetheart, Jonathan Walkingstick, realizes something has gone wrong, and heads after the women up the mountain. Gory scenes abound in this punched-up female version of Deliverance, but Bissell is particularly good in describing how Alex, Joan and Mary's friendship sustains them and is strengthened over the course of their harrowing adventures. Even though the three women pop up cartoonishly each time they are felled, and their pursuers are supernaturally crafty, the tale compels with its depiction of desperate camaraderie and descriptions of gorgeous mountain scenery. A sequel seems likely, and the title is a natural for film or TV adaptation. Agents, Robbie Anna Hare and Ron Goldfarb. Rights sold in Germany, Japan and the Netherlands.

September 1, 2000
While hiking in the North Carolina mountains, assistant D.A. Mary Crow is stalked by a killer out for revenge. This debut has generated considerable interest, including multiple foreign sales.

Copyright 2000 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2001
Bissell's debut novel is a fast-paced story with well-drawn characters. Assistant D.A. Mary Crow joins law school buddies Alexandra and Joan for a weekend of hiking and camping in the North Carolina mountains. There, they find themselves stalked by a killer seeking revenge. Part of the book's eerieness comes from the location itself. Bissell's descriptions of the Nantahala National Forest, where a clear view can be replaced by dense fog in only a few steps, give the text an unearthly and primordial feel. The ability to draw on inner strength in a time of crisis is not a new theme, but the struggle of these women to survive will not be easily forgotten. Recommended for all but the most conservative libraries (there is some violence). [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/1/00.]--Karin Mentz, Dr. Gertrude A. Barber Ctr. Lib., Erie, PA

Copyright 2001 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.