Ever since Mabby died suddenly while picking beans in their garden û with the pock-a-pock of a helicopter overhead û four-year-old Valley knows what her job is: hide in the underground den with her brother, Bo, while Da is working, because Those People will kill them like coyotes.

But now, with Da unexpectedly gone and no home to go back to, a teenage Valley (now Valkyrie) and her big brother must bring their message to the outside world û a not-so-smart place where little boys wear their names on their backpacks and young men donÆt pat down strangers before offering a lift.

Blythe Woolston infuses her white-knuckle narrative, set in a day-after-tomorrow Montana, with a dark, trenchant humour and a keen psychological eye.

Alternating past-present vignettes in prose as tightly wound as the springs of a clock and as masterfully plotted as a game of chess, she ratchets the pacing right up to the final, explosive end.