Dark Ride
A Thriller
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4.1 • 25 Ratings
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- $1.99
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- $1.99
Publisher Description
FINALIST FOR THE LA TIMES BOOK PRIZE!
From Lou Berney, the acclaimed, multi award-winning author of November Road and The Long and Faraway Gone, comes a Dark Ride
Sometimes the person you least expect is just the hero you need
Twenty-one-year-old Hardy “Hardly” Reed—good-natured, easygoing, usually stoned—is drifting through life. A minimum-wage scare actor at an amusement park, he avoids unnecessary effort and unrealistic ambitions.
Then one day he notices two children, around six or seven, sitting all alone on a bench. Hardly checks if they’re okay and sees injuries on both children. Someone is hurting these kids.
He reports the incident to Child Protective Service.
That should be the end of it. After all, Hardly's not even good at looking out for himself so the last thing he wants to do is look out for anyone else. But he's haunted by the two kids, his heart breaking for them. And the more research he does the less he trusts that Child Protective Services —understaffed and overworked—will do anything about it.
That leaves…Hardly. He is probably the last person you’d ever want to count on. But those two kids have nobody else but him. Hardly has to do what's right and help them.
For the first time in his life, Hardly decides to fight for something. This might be the one point in his entire life, he realizes, that is the entire point of his life. He will help those kids.
At first, trying to gather evidence that will force the proper authorities to intervene, Hardly is a total disaster. Gradually, with assistance from unexpected allies, he develops investigative skills and discovers he’s smarter and more capable than he ever imagined.
But Hardly also discovers that the situation is more dangerous than he ever expected. The abusive father who has been hurting these children isn’t just a lawyer—he also runs a violent drug-dealing operation. The mother claims she wants to escape with the kids—but Hardly isn't sure he can trust her.
Faced with a different version of himself than he has ever known, Hardly refuses to give up. But his commitment to saving these kids from further harm might end up getting the kids, and Hardly himself, killed.
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This stellar outing from Berney (November Road) centers on 23-year-old slacker Hardy Reed, whose conscience thrusts him into a dangerous investigation. In an unnamed Midwestern city, Hardy—whose bare-minimum work ethic has earned him the nickname "Hardly"—passes his days getting stoned with friends after shifts at an amusement park. That changes one day at the park when he sees two kids on a bench with what appear to be cigarette burns. He's horrified, and despite his typically listless demeanor, attempts to stir up an investigation. When he speaks to Child Services, he's rebuffed by the overwhelmed workers whose caseloads are outpacing their capacities. Haunted by the notion that the children remain at risk, Hardy attempts to save them on his own. As he gathers allies, he learns that the children's father is an attorney and a violent drug dealer, and that finding justice might be even more dangerous than he expected. Hardy is a memorable hero with an extremely satisfying arc, and Berney draws the supporting players with equal care, wringing pathos from their interplay as much as the heartbreaking premise. Few readers will finish this unmoved.
