Thrill - Hardcover

Byrne, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786701994 ISBN 13: 9780786701995

Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub, 1995

Synopsis

The roughest, scariest and most dangerous roller coaster in the world is "Thrill," the main attraction at the Wildcat Mountain Amusement Park north of San Francisco. When a teenager is thrown to her death in a particularly ghastly manner - the hair-raising scene in this new mystery-thriller by Robert Byrne - the owner of the park agrees to change the ride and make it safer.
"Thrill" as a slow, safe family ride? Over my dead body, threatens the aging, unpredictable Ernest Krevek, who regards his most famous design as an untouchable work of art. Enter Jack McKenzie, the engineer hired to approve the rebuilt ride and Ruby Glouster, a lovely independent-minded young woman who works at the amusement park. As their interest in one another grows so does the unseen fate that stalks them.
When the redesigned coaster is ready to roll, the cars are filled with dignitaries and officials who want to assure the public that every precaution has been taken and that the once-feared monster has been declawed and sedated. But has it? Every inch of the structure has been inspected, extra security is on hand, and Krevek is under observation fifty miles away... and yet...

About this title

Reviews

So the characterizations are less than riveting, the romance corny and the pool of suspects lamentably lean. All is redeemed by the electric pacing and by the real star of the show, a treacherous wooden hellride of a rollercoaster called the Thrill, which is being resurrected in an amusement park near San Francisco. After a fatal accident, the ride is closed and rebuilt, made safer, reinforced. The cast is right out of a 1970s disaster movie: the pretty and spunky fairground worker; the engineer brought from Chicago to oversee the repairs; the ride fanatic chosen to take the maiden voyage of the new Thrill; the slob of a maintenance man; the tormented genius who built the original ride and hates the modifications. Byrne (Mannequin) conjures up few surprises in his tale, as two folks fall in love, one guy goes off the deep end and another gets a couple of slugs in his fat gut. But he scares us rigid with the scenes in the air, as the new Thrill is tested and re-tested for the Fourth of July park opening, as security is beefed up and as a nameless nut with a gun prepares for the final scene, in which all hell breaks predictably loose.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0786701994
• ISBN 13: 9780786701995
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 193