Late at night . . . Abi and Ben are driving home down foggy country roads, arguing about having had to cut short their weekend away when they take a wrong turn. Abi’s driving, but her eyes leave the road for a moment as she says something to Ben – just as he gasps. A man is in front of the car, waving a torch. Abi swerves to avoid him.
You see a family stranded . . . Ben tells her they should stop and go back, but Abi refuses. It’s dark, the roads are isolated and they don’t know this stranger. But, as Abi continues on, they see a broken-down car. Every instinct is still telling Abi to drive by, but then she notices the woman holding a car seat with a baby in it.
Would you stop? For a moment, Abi hesitates, but they can’t leave a mother and baby on the side of the road. Agreeing to give the family a lift, they set off again. But now these strangers are inside their car and it might be the worst mistake they have ever made . . .
I'm delighted to be hosting the blog tour for One Wrong Turn by C.M. Ewan today. Many thanks to Pan Macmillan and Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me and for sending me a copy of the novel.
Would you stop to pick up a stranger? I think for many people, our reaction would be no. What if it was a cold, foggy night though and the people needing help were a family of three – including a young baby? One of the joys of reading is imagining what we would do in the same situation and I suspect the presence of a vulnerable infant would influence the decision of most of us. It certainly does for Abi and Ben in One Wrong Turn, in spite of Abi's intuitive reluctance but their act of kindness soon turns into a nightmare. It's a terrifying ordeal for them and a compulsively heart-pounding thriller for the reader.
The chapters switch between the main storyline, which follows Abi and Ben, and events of earlier in the day, which resulted in Paul and Samantha's car breaking down at the side of the road. It's immediately clear from their chapters that something has left them fearful and utterly desperate, and there's a fascinating sense of ambiguity created between our empathising with their predicament and questioning exactly who or what they are running from.
Meanwhile, Ben and Abi are also troubled, even before they make the fateful decision to stop. They are travelling through thick fog late at night because Ben's job has led to them cutting their weekend away in Cornwall short. At first, their arguing means they appear to be the more insecure couple but in this fast-paced, gripping novel, nothing is quite as it initially seems.
The short chapters – many are just a couple of pages long – and shocking revelations ensure One Wrong Turn is irresistibly addictive from start to finish. There are a few minor characters but it's the two couples who we are inevitably most concerned with, and each are intriguingly unpredictable. It's Abi, though, who is the central figure throughout and her determination to survive, in spite of everything, makes for a compelling read.
While Abi's doubts and Paul's taciturnity mean the earlier chapters fizz with suspenseful uneasiness, there comes a pivotal moment which changes everything. From that point on, I scarcely drew breath as I was drawn into this intense fight to escape from an apparently hopeless situation. I don't want to give anything away here but it's only too easy to plan to read "just one more chapter" of One Wrong Turn before discovering it's impossible to put down until the nerve-shattering conclusion.
One Wrong Turn is a propulsive, high-octane thriller which has more twists and turns than the Cornish lanes which add such a sense of atmospheric tension to proceedings. I flew through the book and enjoyed it immensely. Highly recommended.
One Wrong Turn is published by Pan Macmillan, purchasing links can be found here.
Follow the blog tour, details are below.
About the Author
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.
Thanks for the blog tour support x
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