No Country for girls

The most original, high-octane thriller of the year

 

 

GOLD. THEFT. MURDER.
A ROAD TRIP TO DIE FOR.

‘It’s not exactly how I imagined the week starting. An accessory to murder. On the run in the victim’s vehicle . . .’

Charlie and Nao are strangers from different sides of the tracks. They should never have met, but one devastating incident binds them together forever.

A man is dead and now they are unwilling accomplices in his murder there’s only one thing to do: hit the road in the victim’s twin cab ute, with a bag of stolen gold stashed under the passenger seat.

Suddenly outlaws, Nao and Charlie must make their way across Australia’s remote outback using only their wits to survive. They’ll do whatever it takes to evade capture and escape with their lives . . .

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‘I pick up the gun and weigh it in my hand, heavier than what I’m expecting. Maybe the snake’ll be back. More snakes, bigger ones.’

‘I am trying very bloody hard not to think about it. How the frog sounds stopped and the body floated before the bag of gravel pulled it all the way under.’

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Read the first chapter

‘I am trying very bloody hard not to think about it. How the frog sounds stopped and the body floated before the bag of gravel pulled it all the way under.’

READING GROUP QUESTIONS

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‘I see a pair of eyes out in the scrub and my breath freezes until the shape turns away. A dingo, maybe, or a big feral cat.’

Praise for No Country for Girls

There are decided echoes of films such as Shallow Grave and Thelma & Louise in this bumpy road trip . . . The real star is the desolate outback.

THE TIMES

A breathless outback chase novel sparked by a violent crime. . . Styles takes familiar tropes and energises them with a sense of escalating dread.’

THE AGE

No Country for Girls is the kind of searingly stylish, unrelenting page-turner I just adore. I burned through the twisting plot almost as fast as Charlie and Nao light up the Australian outback.’

CHRIS WHITAKER, author of WE BEGIN AT THE END

‘Styles describes the terrifying emptiness of the Outback and the drilling heat with absolute conviction. The ending is beautifully done.

LITERARY REVIEW

‘A thrilling cat-and-mouse pursuit through West Australia’s Badlands . . . It left me breathless.’

ALEX MARWOOD, author of THE WICKED GIRLS

‘An intense, fascinating, female-centred read. . . a brilliant new crime voice.

NEW ZEALAND LISTENER

No Country for Girls is the road trip for our time; relevant, powerful and unrelentingly entertaining.

FEMI KAYODE, author of LIGHTSEEKERS

‘A fast-moving, cinematic debut . . . this high octane road movie of a novel delivers on all counts.

CRIME TIME

‘A dizzyingly wild and gripping ride that grabs you by the throat – this is outback Australia like you’ve never seen it and you will not soon forget it.’

PETER PAPATHANASIOU, author of THE STONING

‘You’ll be gripped from the first page of this perfectly-paced thriller. 10/10′

BREAKING NEWS

Thelma & Louise meets The Tourist in this pacey, surprising and relentlessly tense Aussie road trip.’

LIZZIE POOK, author of MOONLIGHT AND THE PEARLER’S DAUGHTER

‘Fresh as hell with two strikingly original protagonists who blaze a thrilling trail through the outback.

TREVOR WOOD, author of THE MAN ON THE STREET

‘A taut, evocative and utterly absorbing road-trip thriller about two young women on the run for their lives. . . in a landscape as full of threat and danger as the people who are after them. Unputdownable.’

JACOB ROSS, author of BLACK RAIN FALLING

Every now and then you open a book, and you know immediately that here is something fresh and new and exciting. . . it is hard to believe that this first-class novel . . . is a debut.’

CRIME REVIEW

The Country

‘A sign flashes in the headlights as we leave the town limits, the usual warnings on entering a remote area: No fuel or water available. No medical assistance. Unfenced road.’

The Girls

Writing the first draft with these two characters was like pointing a runaway horse or train and holding on for the ride…

The Journey

How could I get these two characters travelling in the same direction when they didn’t know each other and they wanted different things?

The Country

‘A sign flashes in the headlights as we leave the town limits, the usual warnings on entering a remote area: No fuel or water available. No medical assistance. Unfenced road.’

The Girls

Writing the first draft with these two characters was like pointing a runaway horse or train and holding on for the ride…

The Journey

How could I get these two characters travelling in the same direction when they didn’t know each other and they wanted different things?