No Place To Run by Mark Edwards (Audio Book)

 

No Place to Run by Mark Edwards.

Published 21st June 2022 in paperback and ebook by Thomas and Mercer, and in audio book by Brilliance Audio.

Audio book narrated by Will M. Watt.

From the cover:

In this exhilarating thriller from four million copy bestselling author Mark Edwards, Aidan’s spent years looking for his sister. Will he ever find her?

Two years ago, on a trip to Seattle to visit her brother Aidan, fifteen-year-old Scarlett vanished into thin air. After years of false leads and dead ends, Aidan has almost given up hope. But then a woman sees a girl running for her life across a forest clearing in Northern California. She is convinced the girl is the missing Scarlett. But could it really be her?

Heading south, Aidan finds a fire-ravaged town covered in missing-teenager posters. The locals seem afraid, the police won’t answer any questions and it looks like another dead end—until a chance meeting with returned local Lana gives Aidan his first clue. But as they piece together what happened, Lana and Aidan make deadly enemies. Enemies willing to do anything to silence them.

Only one thing matters now: finding Scarlett—even if it kills him.

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Two years ago, British ex-pat Aidan's fifteen-year-old sister Scarlett went missing during a trip to visit him in Seattle. She has not been seen since, and despite all Aidan's efforts to trace her, she seems to have vanished into thin air. Until now... A woman contacts Aidan claiming to have recently seen Scarlett running for her life through a forest clearing in Northern California, and he feels compelled to follow-up the lead, however unlikely it sounds.

Aidan heads south to the rural town nearest to where his sister was sighted, finding a forest scarred by wildfires, locals who are not keen to talk, and rumours of other missing teenagers. He finds an ally in returned town resident Lana, who has been trying to trace her missing brother. As they join forces to put together the pieces of the puzzle, they draw the attention of the local mayor, chief of police, and some shadowy enemies who are all keen to put them off the scent, but Aiden and Lana are determined to get to the bottom of what is going on here... even if it puts them in danger too.

Mark Edwards is a master of the slow-burn thriller that raises the hackles on the back of your neck, whispers creepy nothings in your ear, and takes you on a circuituous route through the highways and by-ways in pursuit of the truth. Lashings of all these delicious Edwards' trademarks can be found in this brand new thriller, No Place to Run, though perhaps not quite in the way you might expect, as this is a storyline more expansive that any I have read from the Edwards' stable before.

This is a spoiler-free zone, so there is only so much I can reveal, but expect heart-pounding elements that drive the story along at a rapid pace, and beautifully contrived misdirection. Woven throughout the page-turning action, there are also some of my favourite kinds of threads around taut small town dynamics, and the-enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend; and Edwards impressively covers a lot of ground with the themes he touches on - corporate greed, corruption, environmental activism, drug-farming hillbillies, and even New Age mysticism, all get a look-in. There is a lot of morally grey stuff to wade through too, especially in the way Edwards has his unlikely bed-fellow villains playing off each other, and a gentle romance to pluck at the heart strings. If all this wasn't enough to please, he then tops it off with a Dystopian vision that uncomfortably blends fanatical burning madness with stark reality about environmental change. I loved it!

High praise to the narrator of this audio book. I have not listened to anything read by Will M. Watt before, but found his dulcet tones very pleasing indeed. The changes in pace and character, particularly the variety of accents, were all handled with aplomb, and I was easily able to get lost in the story. I will definitely look out for this narrator again, which is the best compliment I can pay to any voice actor.

I'm a big fan of the thriller that holds you gripped and makes you think, and this ticks both those boxes for me. It also ends with a very sinister sting-in-the-tail ending that is completely discomfiting in the very best of ways - and could easily spawn a chilling sequel. I have a feeling that this one might divide the Mark Edwards fandom a little, but I thoroughly enjoyed the whole cracking mystery. 

No Place to Run is available to preorder now!

Thank you to FMcM Associates for sending me an audio recording of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author:

Mark Edwards writes psychological thrillers in which scary things happen to ordinary people.

He has sold 4 million books since his first novel, The Magpies, was published in 2013, and has topped the bestseller lists numerous times. His other novels include Follow You Home, The Retreat, In Her Shadow, Because She Loves Me, The Hollows and Here to Stay. He has also co-authored six books with Louise Voss.

Originally from Hastings in East Sussex, Mark now lives in Wolverhampton with his wife, their children and two cats.