Deadfall »

Robert Liparulo’s debut novel, Comes a Horseman, is being made into a major motion picture by producer Mace Neufeld and his short story “Kill Zone” is included in the anthology Thriller, edited by James Patterson. Robert lives in Colorado with his wife, Jodi, and their four children.

Deep in the isolated Northwest Territories, four friends are on the trip of a lifetime. Dropped by helicopter into the remote Canadian wilderness, Hutch, Terry, Phil, and David are looking to escape the events of a tumultuous year - a bitter divorce, bankruptcy, depression, and job loss - for two weeks of hunting, fishing, and camping.

Armed only with a bow and arrow and the basics for survival, they’ve chosen a place far from civilization, a retreat from their turbulent lives. But they quickly discover that another group has targeted the remote region and the secluded hamlet of Fiddler Falls for a more menacing purpose: to field-test the ultimate weapon.

With more than a week before the helicopter rendezvous and no satellite phone, they must risk everything to help the townspeople who are being held hostage and terrorized.

Publishers Weekly

Utilizing more than a few narrative elements from James Dickey's 1970 classic Deliverance, Liparulo sends a quartet of middle-aged Colorado buddies on a 10-day vacation in the remote wilds of northern Saskatchewan in this slow-moving techno-thriller. Journalist and avid bow-hunter John "Hutch" Hutchinson and his fellow urban professionals are all tired of dealing with their own personal adversities and looking forward to a few idyllic days of hunting and fishing. When they encounter crazed millionaire Declan Gabriel Page and his plan to obliterate an entire town and its 242 residents with a space-based laser, their wilderness retreat turns into a nightmarish battle for survival. The implausible technology and all-too-predictable ending will leave readers longing for a few guitar-banjo duels. (Nov.)