By: Mark Edwards
ISBN: 978-1542027908
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Publication Date: 06/21/2022
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Will M. Watt
Brilliance Audio
My Rating: 3 Stars
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.
Praise
“No Place to Run is that most wonderful of things—a book that opens with a breath-takingly startling premise and then keeps the momentum going until the very last page…Just brilliant, Mark Edwards really is in a league of his own.”
—Lisa Jewell, #1 New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author of The Family Upstairs
“Like a Reacher, but with a hero like the rest of us.”
—Linwood Barclay, bestselling author of Take Your Breath Away
“No Place to Run is another cracker from Mark Edwards.”
—Elly Griffiths, Sunday Times bestselling author of the Ruth Galloway Mysteries
“A tense, nail-biting read.”
—Steph Broadribb, author of Death in the Sunshine
“Another intriguing, exhilarating, and compulsive read from the master of psychological suspense. Mark Edwards just keeps getting better and better.”
—Emma Haughton, author of The Dark
“This is a belter of a story. A big screen high tension adventure.”
—William Shaw, author of The Trawlerman“
My Review
Mark Edwards steers away from his usual suspense horror/psychological thrillers with a dark conspiracy action mystery tale— NO PLACE TO RUN.
The author takes readers down a rabbit hole with amateur sleuths. A dangerous world of unsolved crimes and conspiracy theories with dark, strange, control, chaotic, dystopian, eco-terrorist groups, environmental ruin, technological control, government oppression, fires, cults, fraud, evil doers, feds, kidnapping, brainwashing, apocalyptic, sci-fish, and a world of madness. I realize these are topics ripped from today's headlines, but we get enough violence on the news every day, and when I read, I want something else. This one may require a greater suspension of disbelief.
I was not too fond of the direction the novel took. This novel may attract other readers with an interest in these subjects. Just not my cup of tea. I skipped over half of it to try to get to the end.
A great start: The novel starts with a 75-year-old older woman, Francesca traveling on a train in California to scatter her recent husband's ashes. It gives you the feeling of The Girl on the Train. I liked her character and wanted to see more of her.
She sees a red-headed young woman in the forest running from a man from her window on the train. She looks straight at her. She has seen this face before. The woman is so shocked she does not know what to do. The train keeps going and it is all she can think about.
She quickly does an internet search. It is a missing woman from two years prior. She recognizes her from the media. Her name is Scarlett and she went missing a few years. After the elderly woman returns home she contacts the number and gets the girl's older brother Aiden from Seattle.
Aiden has been searching for her for years and spent most of his savings and their parents with PIs and police investigations leading nowhere.
Francesca is an intriguing woman with unique skills. She remembers people from seeing them years earlier. She works with Aiden and he takes the train to the location that Francesca mentions. He spends time in the town sleuthing asking questions. The locals nor the police are accommodating. I was hooked up until this point.
Two years prior, Scarlett went missing when she came to visit Aiden from the UK to Seattle. They were out in town sightseeing, and there was a big protest in the city. Scarlett got lost in the crowd (or did she)? Aiden has not seen her since and he has been guilt-ridden since he was responsible for her.
When about to give up on his search, Aiden meets Lana.
One evening when questioning people at a local bar, Lana overhears him. Her brother Samuel also disappeared with other missing teens in the Seattle area. They never found his body. She believes there is a conspiracy and coverup. This gets very complex and Aiden and Lana join forces to find their siblings and dig into the unknown.
However, they have no clue about the danger and darkness they are about to uncover. This is where the book takes a turn and downhill from here.
Not what I was expecting when I purchased the audio. However, the narrator Will M. Watt did a good job and I did enjoy the Seattle setting but not the book. I had to return the audiobook for another credit.
What starts as a 5 Star interesting premise quickly falls into a 2-3 star, thus rounding to 3 stars. Such a shame because I have always loved Mark Edwards's books in the past, but this is not his usual high-standard quality.
I hope he will return to his usual books and subject material. I will definitely look for his next book.
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 3 Stars
Pub Date: June 21, 2022
About the Author
Mark Edwards writes psychological thrillers in which scary things happen to ordinary people.
He has sold 3 million books since his first novel, The Magpies, was published in 2013, and has topped the bestseller lists several times. His other novels include Follow You Home, The Retreat, In Her Shadow, Because She Loves Me, The House Guest 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, three cats and a golden retriever.
Mark loves hearing from readers and can be contacted through his website, www.markedwardsauthor.com, or you can find him on Facebook (@markedwardsauthor), Twitter (@mredwards) and Instagram (@markedwardsauthor).
