Connor Sullivan’s debut novel Sleeping Bear is a tour d’ force, that is a little bit of Richard Connell’s The Most Dangerous Game, and a whole lot of action and thrills. This book grabs you by the jugular in the opening pages, and keeps you hooked until the final pages.
Army veteran, Cassie Gale, has not had a good year. With a dramatic event in her recent past, she decides to get away and “recharge”, in the wilds of the Alaska, with her dog Maverick. Being raised in Montana, Cassie feels very at home in the wilderness, and decides some time away will help her heal. When she fails to show up at a scheduled meeting, and searchers find her campsite in shambles, it is assumed that she may have encountered a bear; which though not that common, it happens none the less.
Cassie’s father, Jim Gale, arrives in the area to search for his daughter. Once he sees the campsite, things don’t quite add up to a bear attack. And when he finds Cassie’s loyal dog, Maverick, he knows that Maverick would never leave her side, even if it meant giving up his life to save her. As Gale hunts for his daughter, he finds out that Cassie is not the first person to go missing without a trace in this part of Alaska. Bears, wolves, bad weather and even starvation have claimed the lives of many people in the wilds of Alaska. But he has his doubts that any of these were the cause of his daughter’s disappearance; he believes that she was abducted. Her father has a mysterious past, and the skills from his previous life will help him in the search for his daughter.
Cassie was abducted, and she wakes up in a Russian experimental facility, where unheard of things are going on. The one thing that keeps her alive, is knowing that her Father is out there somewhere looking for her.
No spoilers, but as we see Jim Gale racing to find his daughter, and Cassie trying to survive some sadistic Russians, we are graced with scene after scene of action, intrigue and good old fashioned grit.
Connor Sullivan has hit it out of the park with this debut. The story is fast paced, with plenty of “In your face” action, and doesn’t slow down until the end. If Mr. Sullivan continues to put out stories like the Sleeping Bear, I think he is going to be around for quite a while.
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