See How They Run by Tom Bale

Out Now

Published by Bookouture

Purchase from Amazon here

The Blurb:

How far would you go to save your family?

In the dead of night, new parents Alice and Harry French are plunged into their worst nightmare when they wake to find masked men in their bedroom. Men ruthless enough to threaten their baby daughter, Evie.

This is no burglary gone wrong.

The intruders know who they’re looking for – a man called Edward Renshaw.

And they are prepared to kill to get to him.

When the men leave empty handed, little do Alice and Harry realise that their nightmare is just beginning. Is it a case of mistaken identity? Who is Renshaw? And what is he hiding?

One thing is clear – they already know too much.

As Alice and Harry are separated in the run for their lives, there is no time for breathe in their fight to be reunited. And with their attackers closing in, there is only a choice:

STAY ALIVE. OR DON’T.

My Review:

Woaaahhh. This is one high octane book, that flies along at unrelenting pace! I barely had time to pause for breath as Tom Bale took me on a tense, action packed journey.

The opening drew me straight in as our first glimpse of Harry and Alice is them waking up in the middle of the night to find the most unsavoury characters in their bedroom looking down on them and their newborn baby. It felt like the stuff of nightmares, and even reading it and thinking of it scared the living daylights out of me! From this moment on I was hooked. Of course they live through this (or else the book would be very short). But this really is just the beginning of a living nightmare.

As a reader I was immersed bang into the middle of it all, and followed events with baited breath. I loved how the story is told both from Harry and Alice’s perspective and so we see more than one dimension as the journey is very different for them both. Not only did I see each perspective, but I felt like I had double the adrenaline coursing through me as with fantastically written short chapters catapulted me back and forth between scenes and situations that had me telling myself ‘just one more chapter and then I’ll put it down,’ and failing miserably.

I loved Tom’s writing style. He is very descriptive which is brilliant in helping me enter the characters worlds, and become part of their nightmare. He builds tension so so well, and really has a talent for developing nasty evil baddies. My god I hated them, and never quite knew whether they had any boundaries.

Oh how I want to talk about a couple of the most odious of the bunch, but to do so would ruin it for anyone who hasn’t read it yet. But arghh…..is anyone quite as they seem? And who can you really trust to tell the truth?

Would I make the same decisions as Harry and Alice? Hmm, I’m not sure I would, and I did want to transport myself into the pages, take control and go no no no……….and I guess this may make it harder for some people to read, but it certainly didn’t put me off. The darker the better for me!!

I read at the end of the book that this work has been a while in the making, and that Tom considered quitting writing. I cant tell you how pleased I am that he didn’t give up, as this is a piece of fantastic writing, and I would be delighted to have even a fraction of the skill he has at writing a top notch thriller. Thank you Tom for giving me some nightmares whilst sleeping after reading before bed, and for a page turning addictive read. I loved it, and would highly recommend this book to others.

Thank you to Bookouture for kindly providing a copy in return for an honest review.