Judges notes:

There are plenty of books that ask how far one would go to help a loved one but this asks how far one would go to help a stranger. Dark Ride is a moving yet nail-biting novel so different in scale and characters to Berney’s prior book November Road. A sublime thriller full of heartache and humanity, an unusual protagonist and unforgettable characters, filled with realistic yet atypical events, and a tough-but-fitting finale; slimline but powerful.