The Eris Ridge Trail, by Larry Hinkle

Four Winds Bar Publishing, 2025

ISBN: 9798992454215

Available: Paperback, Kindle edition

Buy: Bookshop.org | Amazon.com

The trail in The Eris Ridge Trail is not a friendly one for thru-hikers!  Instead of the serenity of nature, the four unfortunates who end up on the trail find themselves in a confusing alternate dimension with frequent landscape shifts.  The setting shifts frequently, with little explanation for the hazards encountered by the characters.  Does it work for this story?  Yes.  Readers who want entertainment and aren’t concerned with a story where all ends are tied up neatly will find this quite enjoyable.

The book wastes no time getting down to business, as Wayne, Shelley, Craig, and Erik each get a quick chapter that tosses them right into the other dimension.  This is also the only part of the book that feels like it could have used a bit more fleshing out, to lead into the main story.  Two of the characters simply give a quick recounting of their arrival to their companions later in the book, while the other two protagonists get a very quick narration chapter.  It would have been nice to make all the lead-in to the main plot part of the third person narrative, as it sounded very intriguing.  There’s a car ride with a very odd individual, and a tunnel crawl through the basement of the Stanley Hotel (yes, THAT Stanley Hotel) but little detail is given.  That might have helped build up some anticipation for the main story, which only Shelley’s opening chapter did.

That minor quibble aside, the story takes off at a run, as the four of them (and two lovable dogs) find that their new home almost is like an LSD-laced dream.  One minute they can be in a desert, take five steps and PRESTO!, they’re in a desert.  A bit further, and SHAZAM!, it’s a prairie.  It could be confusing, but the author writes well enough that the transitions don’t seem jarring or random:: they flow with the story and are believable.

Although this is an adventure story, the real core of the story is the character interactions.  Craig, Shelley, Erik, and Wayne are four strangers tossed into a reality that makes no sense, but they have to survive and maybe find a way out.  That requires teamwork and trust, which develops over the course of the story, and is done very well.  The author clearly has a flair for writing characters, and he does an excellent job having them overcome their foibles and gel together into a cohesive unit.  Their new reality throws all sorts of fun stuff at them: weird skittering sort-of humans, six-legged freak squirrels called Squixells, and DINOSAURS!  (can’t go wrong with those!)  It’s all well-imagined and written in a style that keeps the reader turning pages quickly.  Sure, there is little to no explanation given for why or how these things happen, but who cares?  Much like the classic novel Picnic at Hanging Rock, The Eris Ridge Trail works better leaving explanations to the reader’s imagination.  The ending is excellent.  It doesn’t resolve things, but does wrap the story up perfectly.

Bottom line: take a hike along the unique Eris Ridge Trail, it’s a brain-tweaking journey.  Recommended.

Reviewed by Murray Samuelson