Eye Spy by C.M. Ewan #BookReview #BlogTour

Waiting for the Eurostar in Paris, Mark’s four-year-old daughter alerts him to a ‘Bad Man’ during a game of 'Eye Spy'.

Things only get worse when Mark notices that the man is on their train with a suspicious-looking suitcase, and he’s sitting ominously close.

With secrets unravelling from the past, can Mark piece together the jigsaw of his life in order to save his family?

Or will their journey come to a fatal end?

I'm  delighted to be sharing my review of Eye Spy by C.M. Ewan today. Many thanks to Pan Macmillan for my advance copy of the novel and Anne Cater from Random Things Tours for inviting me to take part in the blog tour.

Eye Spy features an everyman protagonist thrust into a terrifying locked room mystery and while that's not a new premise, the propulsive setting on board the Eurostar, the emotional heft of the narrative and the clever twists and turns mean this is definitely not a pedestrian thriller. 

The book opens with a written report from BBC News, reporting on a bombing outside a hotel in Helsinki, which claimed the lives of a retired British couple among the victims. At the time of the explosion, they were talking to their son, Mark on a video call and so, it isn't surprising that even six years later, travelling should still make him nervous. Mark has been in Paris on a short break with his young daughter, Molly and teenage stepdaughter, Freya. His wife, Claire should have travelled with them but a last-minute emergency at work meant she was forced to cancel. Anybody who has ever travelled with children will know how stressful it can be, whether they are over-stimulated, tired toddlers or snarky teenagers but Mark's already heightened sense of anxiety is ratcheted up when Molly points to a fellow passenger at the security hall and declares him a "bad man". It's an excruciating moment for Mark but could have been put down to a four-year-old's colourful imagination until he notices the man is sitting in the same carriage as them – and appears to have a different suitcase …

C.M. Ewan vividly depicts Mark's nervousness at the station and the sheer panic that washes over him when he realises the bad man is watching him is almost palpable. He is no hero and doesn't want to be one. but the tragic loss of his parents and his love for his children compels him to attempt to take a closer look at the rogue suitcase. His actions don't go unnoticed, of course. and he is quickly propelled into a nightmare which threatens his family, exposes secrets and has implications far beyond anything he ever believed possible, as the terrible truth he has so long sought about his past is finally revealed.

The chapters which follow Mark are told from his first-person perspective which gives readers a breathtaking birds-eye view of his terror as the situation he finds himself in escalates wildly out of control. As the train speeds towards the Channel Tunnel and on to London, the start of each of his chapters remind us of the diminishing time he has to save his family. Meanwhile, there are also chapters which elevate the nailbiting tension still further by revealing that Claire wasn't being truthful about her reasons for staying at home. The pair were drawn together by the tragedy in Helsinki, where she also lost her father, but now it looks as if the bond between them which turned to love may be doomed thanks to the secrets she has been keeping. To up the ante even more, there are a few nerve-racking scenes set across Europe which suggest a ruthless assassin has old scores to settle and it doesn't become clear until some way through proceedings how this is linked with the main narrative.

To Mark’s horror, he doesn't know who he can trust on board the Eurostar and with little Molly so upset by the traumatic events, he has little choice but to carry out the man's instructions. C.M. Ewan uses the juxtaposition between the fixed environment of the train and the speed at which it is travelling to devastating effect as Mark frantically moves between carriages, desperately trying to find a solution before they reach their destination at St Pancras. However, even after the journey is over, his ordeal continues as shocking revelations and a heart-stopping cat-and-mouse chase culminates in an electrifying conclusion.

Eye Spy is a relentlessly compulsive, high-octane thriller; the claustrophobic, cinematic sense of place is complemented throughout by the high emotional stakes and the chilling, edge-of-seat plotting. I raced through the pages and very highly recommend it!

Eye Spy is published by Pan Macmillan, purchasing links can be found here.

Follow the blog tour, details are below.

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 A Window Breaks, 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.

Chris's linktr.ee