A Window Breaks by C M Ewan
Published by PanMacMillan
Publication Date 20th February 2020 (paperback)
Genre: Mystery & Thrillers
My thanks to publisher PanMacmillan for the opportunity to read this book via NetGalley.
Book Description:
If your family was targeted in the middle of the night, what would you do?
You are asleep. A noise wakes you.
You stir, unsure why, and turn to your partner.
Then you hear it.
Glass. Crunching underfoot.
Your worst fears are about to be realized.
Someone is inside your home.
Your choices are limited.
You can run. Or stay and fight.
What would you do?
You stir, unsure why, and turn to your partner.
Then you hear it.
Glass. Crunching underfoot.
Your worst fears are about to be realized.
Someone is inside your home.
Your choices are limited.
You can run. Or stay and fight.
What would you do?
My Thoughts:
Tom, Rachel and daughter Holly have had a traumatic few months. Things started when their 16 year old son Michael stole his dad's car and crashed it into a tree, killing both himself and his 15 year old girlfriend Fiona. Then as they struggled to come to terms with that the three of them are mugged in an alleyway as they left a charity event for Justice For All, a cause close to the heart of mum Rachel.
Arriving at the remote lodge in Scotland which belongs to Tom's wealthy boss Lionel the first impression they get is of an imposing estate surrounded by high fences and secured by electric, intercom controlled gates. Narrated from dad Tom's point of view the reader is well aware of the sense of foreboding he feels from the moment they arrive. It seems more like they are being locked in rather than the fencing keeping the world out. He tells himself he is over-reacting, being paranoid after the traumas his family has had to deal with recently, and does his best to relax into the holiday as planned. The burly presence of Brodie, who oversees the property on Lionel's behalf does nothing to calm Tom and the secretive looks which pass between Rachel and Brodie make him wonder if the two of them have met before.
Then in the early hours the family's world is shaken once more when Tom and Rachel are woken by the sound of breaking glass. This is where the pace of the story changes and the reader starts getting a hint that someone in the group hasn't been completely open and honest with the others - but who? What are they hiding and just how much danger are the family actually in?
I have to admit that this is the point my heart rate started to crank up and the hairs on the back of my neck kept prickling with all the sinister situations which bombarded the family over the hours of darkness through to the next morning. If someone had told me that a whole book could be set over a few intense hours and still manage to keep me gripped to the edge of my seat I would perhaps have doubted that would be possible but this is exactly what this book did. The conundrum of who knew what, who the bad guys are and how they knew the family would be isolated at the lodge is eked out perfectly right to the very end of the book without getting boring.
This is the first book I have read by this author and I am suitably impressed. Definitely one I would recommend, although maybe not one to read on your own on a dark winter's night!
Arriving at the remote lodge in Scotland which belongs to Tom's wealthy boss Lionel the first impression they get is of an imposing estate surrounded by high fences and secured by electric, intercom controlled gates. Narrated from dad Tom's point of view the reader is well aware of the sense of foreboding he feels from the moment they arrive. It seems more like they are being locked in rather than the fencing keeping the world out. He tells himself he is over-reacting, being paranoid after the traumas his family has had to deal with recently, and does his best to relax into the holiday as planned. The burly presence of Brodie, who oversees the property on Lionel's behalf does nothing to calm Tom and the secretive looks which pass between Rachel and Brodie make him wonder if the two of them have met before.
Then in the early hours the family's world is shaken once more when Tom and Rachel are woken by the sound of breaking glass. This is where the pace of the story changes and the reader starts getting a hint that someone in the group hasn't been completely open and honest with the others - but who? What are they hiding and just how much danger are the family actually in?
I have to admit that this is the point my heart rate started to crank up and the hairs on the back of my neck kept prickling with all the sinister situations which bombarded the family over the hours of darkness through to the next morning. If someone had told me that a whole book could be set over a few intense hours and still manage to keep me gripped to the edge of my seat I would perhaps have doubted that would be possible but this is exactly what this book did. The conundrum of who knew what, who the bad guys are and how they knew the family would be isolated at the lodge is eked out perfectly right to the very end of the book without getting boring.
This is the first book I have read by this author and I am suitably impressed. Definitely one I would recommend, although maybe not one to read on your own on a dark winter's night!
About the Author:
Chris Ewan is the critically acclaimed and bestselling author of many mystery and thriller novels. Chris’s first standalone thriller, Safe House, was a number one bestseller in the UK and was shortlisted for The Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. He is also the author of the thrillers Dead Lineand Dark Tides and the Kindle Single short story, Scarlett Point. He is the author of The Good Thief’s Guide to . . . series of mystery novels. The Good Thief’s Guide to Amsterdam won the Long Barn Books First Novel Award and is published in thirteen countries.
Born in Taunton in 1976, Chris graduated from the University of Nottingham with a degree in American Studies with a minor in Canadian Literature, and later trained as a lawyer. After eleven years living on the Isle of Man, he recently returned home to Somerset with his wife, their daughter and the family labrador, where he writes full time.
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