One Wrong Turn by C. M. Ewan

 

Late one foggy night a young couple stop to help a couple and their baby whose car has broken down, little realising the nightmare they are about to unleash.

Having read two of C. M. Ewan’s previous novels, The Interview and The House Hunt, I had a very good idea of what I was letting myself in for with One Wrong Turn, a nightmare situation full of twists and turns that are impossible to predict. I’m pleased to say that the author delivered in spades.

Abi and Ben are in their late twenties. Their weekend away has been interrupted when Ben has to return home for work. The urgency sees them setting off late at night, travelling along deserted country roads in thick fog. This sudden change of plans hasn’t gone down well with Abi and you get a real sense of the friction between the pair.

Not long after setting off, they see a man in the middle of the road, signalling for them to stop. Ben wants to stop but Abi, who’s driving, ignores him. A short while later, they come across a broken-down car and a woman holding a baby seat. Pulling over Abi and Ben have a heated discussion about offering help, with Ben eventually winning. It turns out the couple are Samantha and Paul, along with their baby daughter, Lila. With no other options available Ben and Abi reluctantly offer the couple a lift to the nearest hospital, a twenty-minute drive away, so that Samantha can get treatment for a cut on her hand.

Once the journey resumes the level of tension within the car becomes palpable. Not only do we have the ongoing disagreement between Abi and Ben, which has now been intensified, but it is obvious that there is something disquieting happening between Samantha and Paul. Slowly, the reader begins to learn of Samantha and Paul’s backstory, the nightmare situation they have found themselves in and their desperation to get to their destination.

As the journey continues, we are given alternate views. We feel the anxiety, building to terror, that Abi and Ben are suffering on their nightmare journey. Alongside this, we discover that Samantha and Paul are prepared to do anything to help them overcome the anguish they are suffering.

There are twists galore and a race against time, leading to a conclusion that has you completely gripped and fearful.

One Wrong Turn by C. M. Ewan will be published on 18^th July 2024 in hardback, ebook and audio format. My thanks to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for a review copy.

Author Details

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.