The Mother
by Brett McBean

The Hume Highway stretches for more than 800 km from Melbourne to Sydney.

For most people, it's simply a way to get them to their destination; a mostly uninteresting route dotted with low hills, scrubby bushland, and the occasional petrol station and rest stop to break the tedium.

But for one woman, the Hume is a place of death, of sadness, of loss.

And of revenge.

For this woman has a plan; a plan involving hitchhiking - hopping into any and every car that will stop and pick her up. Because she's seeking a man. A man with a tattoo.

The man who brutally murdered her teenage daughter.

Even if it takes her the rest of her life, she aims to find him.

Even if it means pain, loss...

And death.

BLURBS:
"The Mother is one helluva read.  Sleek, dark, and impossible to put down.  Reading this one good woman's descent into grief and madness felt like a sledgehammer to the stomach…but I couldn't stop turning the pages.  The Mother did what every great book should do — it made me think."
—Richard Chizmar, Cemetery Dance Magazine

"I love Brett McBean's writing, and The Mother is McBean at the top of his form.  It's a thrilling, scary, and heartbreaking story.  I highly recommend it."
—John R. Little, Bram Stoker-winning author of The Memory Tree, Placeholders, and Miranda

"The Mother is a brilliant new offering from McBean that sees him slide among contemporaries such as Jack Ketchum and Richard Laymon. McBean manages to capture something rare in The Mother — a book that is both moving and horrific, demonstrating that good horror can do more than just scare your pants off. The Mother does for hitchhiking what Psycho did for showers and I guarantee you’ll think more than twice before thumbing a ride again…"
—Mark Smith-Briggs, Oz Horrorscope

"McBean drags you to hell and back, screaming all the way. "
—Steve Gerlach, author of Rage and Lake Mountain

BIO:
Brett McBean is the author of the books The Last Motel, The Mother, and, most recently, Tales of Sin and Madness. His stories have appeared or will appear in anthologies such as Asylum Volume 3: The Quiet Ward, In Delirium II, and In Laymon's Terms, and in magazines such as Dark Discoveries and Post Mortem. He currently works part time as a library officer and lives in Melbourne, Australia. Visit him on the web at: www.brettmcbean.com.