Stranger by Simon Clark

"STRANGER gives new meaning to the word "jumpy."

". . . a post apocalyptic world where the end comes swiftly and without warning."

"The world you know is gone."

Sullivan is the last bastion of America as it was a mere eighteen months ago. There is plenty of food, water, and life. Connected to a world gone mad by a narrow isthmus covered by water at high tide, Sullivan is safe from the rest of the world. Sullivan also has Greg Valdiva, once a stranger. He can smell contagion before the symptoms show. He is judge, jury, and executioner.

Isolation wears on the residents of Sullivan as they realize they might be next if Valdiva scents the telltale change in their blood that would mean they have not cheated fate. Aware that his useful days are numbered, Valdiva looks across the lake to the burned-out husk of Lewis and sees a light. Turning his back on paradise to wander a wilderness full of enemies, Valdiva discovers the truth about himself and the possibility of a future.

Simon Clark places his characters in a post apocalyptic world where the end comes swiftly and without warning. In Clark’s world nature rises up and changes the balance of power. The characters are fully formed, warts and all. Greg Valdiva could be the boy next door. Sullivan and Lewis could be the next towns over, and chillingly so. Stranger gives new meaning to the word "jumpy."

Reviewer: J. M. Cornwell