A rural noir about a woman on a pulse-pounding expedition to deliver a fugitive—and forced to confront her own past on the journey
In a secessionist rural state that has cut itself off completely from urban centers, where living is hardscrabble and poor but “free,” Brooke Holland runs a farm with her husband, Milo, and two daughters. Their life at the fringes of modern society is tenuous—they make barely enough from each harvest to keep going—yet Brooke cherishes the loving, peaceful life they have carved out for themselves. She has even begun to believe she is free from the violent history she has kept a secret from her family.
When escaped criminal Stephen Cawley attacks at the farm, Brooke’s buried talents surface, and she manages to quickly and harshly subdue him. She is convinced that he has come in retribution for the blood feud she thought she escaped years ago. Brooke sets out to bring Cawley to justice, planning to use the bounty on his head to hide her family far from danger. Fearing that other members of Cawley’s infamous family will soon descend, Brooke insists Milo and the girls flee with her, travelling miles on foot across an unforgiving landscape to reach the nearest marshal. Their journey, started at the onset of winter with little preparation, brings already strained family dynamics to the breaking point. As Brooke’s ghosts—both real and imagined—close in, the ruthlessness that let her survive her past may become the biggest threat to her hopes for a different future. What follows is a harrowing exploration of family loyalty, trauma, and resilience.
As haunting and propulsive as it is powerfully written, The Captive is a thrilling debut novel about the impossible choices we make to survive and protect the ones we love.
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“Fiona Foster has written a tension-wire novel, suspenseful from the first line to the last…There is something gripping here, a nuanced dissection of how violence begets violence, damage begets damage.”
— Omar El Akkad, author of American War
“Part adventure novel and part crime novel…Foster keeps the tension high…[and] effectively keeps readers in suspense all the way through.”
— BookPageBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Fiona King Foster was raised in Brudenell, Ontario, a rural community now misleadingly referred to as a “ghost town.” Her writing has appeared in the Globe and Mail, Hobart, Maisonneuve, Midway Journal, the New Quarterly, New World Writing, NOON, New York Tyrant, le Panoptique, and Room. She lives in Toronto and works with the national literacy organization Frontier College.
Courtney Patterson graduated magna cum laude with a BA in theater performance from Valdosta State University. She is an associate artist at Georgia Shakespeare where she has appeared in dozens of shows, taught in the education department, and developed a cabaret series. She can also be seen frequently on the stages of the Alliance Theatre and has also worked at the Aurora Theatre, Theatre in the Square, Theatrical Outfit, Synchronicity Performance Group, and the Horizon Theatre. In addition to her work on stage, she narrates audiobooks and performs in film and television.