Big Driver is the story about writer Tess Thorne who’s made a name for herself with a series of books about a group of retired old ladies who solve crimes. When the story begins, she’s just about to head off to a reading and so far it’s nothing unusual. She does a few readings a year but nothing farther away than she can drive and stay no more than one night. If she does her cat Fritz gets too upset. Everyone appreciated her reading but when she’s about to leave she decides to take some (as it turns out bad) advice and take a different route home. One that’s supposed to be shorter and faster. Tess also loves to drive and can seldom turn down a new route.

However, this time she soon realizes that the new route is pretty bad and out in the middle of nowhere and when she runs over some boards with nails in them - a flat tire is her reality. Soon help arrives in the form of a big man who, according to Tess, wears his truck more than rides in it. The man offers to help her but that is when her nightmare begins. Instead of helping her he rapes her repeatedly, beats her and then leaves her in a sewer to die. Tess survives, barely, and now she has to decide what to do. Report it and risk that everyone will know what happened and maybe even blame her? Do nothing? Take care of it herself?

The story is really nasty and you feel for Tess and what happens to her and as she decides to take care of her tormentor herself. Big Driver is a real revenge story but I’m happy to say it’s not like the ones where someone gets almost supernatural powers and goes totally berserk. In this one you can still believe in Tess and that what she does can actually happen. Not every day and not to everyone but once or twice it could happen. At least I believed that when I listened to the story.

Big Driver is a good and solid story and if you listen to the audio book, like I did this time, you’ll get it nicely told to you by Jessica Hecht!