The hallmark of a Candice Fox thriller is a visceral pace that makes it impossible to look away from its pages. Case in point, “High Wire”—a book you don’t so much read as you do experience. 

Fox wastes no time getting down to business. We’re immediately introduced to a diabolical do-or-die situation involving an unlikely pair travelling for different reasons along the nefarious High Wire; an unmarked, lawless track that runs through outback Australia. One is Harvey Buck, a former Australian solider, desperate to reunite with his dying girlfriend. The other is Clare Holland, running away from an abusive relationship, stranded beside her broken down car. After Harvey offers Clare a ride, they’re ambushed, strapped into bomb vests, and compelled on one death-defying mission after another. Failure to comply will not only result in their deaths, but those of innocent civilians. 

The High Wire falls under the jurisdiction of outback cop Edna Norris, who has picked up an unlikely partner of her own in runaway teenager Talon Crest. Together they follow Harvey and Clare’s trail of mayhem, trying to piece together covert, coded messages left behind at each crime scene, and how the arrival of the commissioner of police connects to all the chaos. It’s not long before they’re embroiled in a fight for survival themselves, and on a collision course with the other pair. 

Again, Fox’s craftsmanship needs to be applauded. There’s a tempo and structure to “High Wire” you could easily take for granted, until you truly start considering its construction, and how efficiently she jumps from beat to beat, giving each character just enough development for them to register as more than bodies to be manipulated for the sake of plot, but not lingering too long to slow down momentum. It’s a rollercoaster of action and emotion, a seminal storyteller at work. Candice Fox is truly in a class of her own.