The Hitchhikers

A young couple’s summer road trip curdles into a hellish hostage situation in this tense but hollow outing from bestseller Stevens (Dark Roads). In 1976, 20-somethings Alice and Tom are driving a rented RV from Seattle to Montreal in hopes of rekindling their marriage after the death of their newborn son. At a Canadian campground, they bump into a younger couple who identify themselves as Ocean and Blue. A gregarious Tom invites the apparent hippies to travel with them for a few nights, but then, while skimming a convenience store newspaper, Alice learns that the pair are runaways named Simon and Jenny, who fled the Vancouver suburbs after killing Jenny’s parents. When Simon discovers Alice has found them out, he takes her and Tom hostage and embarks on a chain of robberies that culminate in tragedy. Stevens constructs some rousing set pieces, including a memorable showdown with a cult leader, but the mayhem plateaus early, only regaining momentum in the book’s final act before everything arrives at a preposterous conclusion. Glimpses of a more intriguing novel emerge—particularly during flashbacks to Jenny’s bleak upbringing—but too often, Stevens merely plods from one fistfight to another. Thriller fans should hitch a ride elsewhere. Agent: Mel Berger, WME. (Oct.)