None of it would have happened if I hadn't missed a bus… Fifteen-year-old George's life is sent careering down a cataclysmic course when he misses his bus by seconds, notices a fire and selflessly rescues a baby from the flames. Hailed a hero, George is awarded a National Badge of Courage, and a chance to take the Ultimate Bushcraft Gold Star Challenge in the Australian wilds with a select group of fellow teenagers. But a succession of serious accidents soon transforms this once-in-a-lifetime trip into a paranoia-fuelled fight for survival. Or maybe they’re not accidents… With all means of communication sabotaged, and wracked by fear and distrust, the dwindling group venture through unforgiving wilderness territory towards the next base camp. Those who survive deadly spiders and the treacherous ravines and rapids find themselves at a crocodile-infested lake, where things reach a catastrophic climax. Told from multiple perspectives in the form of statements from George and the people who know him, and the first-person accounts of a disturbed perpetrator, this is a tautly plotted, powerfully characterised novel told with the intensity of an action-thriller movie. ~ Joanne Owen
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