This was a speculative buy, principally because it was on special offer in my local bookshop, and it was payday! Still, it proved a serendipitous discovery, and I found it very gripping.

I don’t know how many dystopian novels set in the aftermath of a destructive and disruptive pandemic. Until not long ago, it was all too easy to shrug and dismiss such a story as an intriguing idea, but not one that could really happen. Of course, we all know differently now.

The pandemic context underpinning this novel is that the world has clearly been challenged by a devastating virus, to such an extent that society has been riven, and some people whop have succumbed to the virus have been driven away, expelled like medieval outlaws.

The book takes the form of three narratives that seem to unfold simultaneously. One follows a group of people on a coach destined for a ‘Retreat’ although their role there is never made entirely clear. As the novel opens, while traversing some remote countryside, the coach crashes, and is pitched off the main road into a deep snow. Meanwhile, a small group of people find themselves in a cable car suspended high about a snowy landscape, which suddenly grinds to a halt. When the occupants recover their balance, they see that one of them is dead.

The third narrative follows a group of people at the Retreat itself, Located in remote countryside, the people running the centre have to contend with extremes of weather and wild animals , but their greatest concern comes from the Whistlers, terrifying strangers left to survive on the fringes of society.

C J Tudor weaves these threads together very capably, and the book fairly fizzes along. There are numerous twists along the way, and virtually all of them had me fooled. ( )

It’s about 3.5 stars as it got confusing with the plot and characters. I did enjoy the deceptive characters all trying to survive a clearly impossible scenario. I was not prepared for the gory apocalyptic story. It was all anticlimactic for me given the deadly virus to which they had all been exposed. ( )

Another entertaining read from Tudor. Triple closed-room mystery with a twist. Apocalyptic dystopia thriller! So many genres stuffed into one book. Bombs! Explosions! Gun play! Government facilities and helicopters! Anti-heroes! Tattoos! Yay! It all made me a brain-dead and happy reader. ( )

I have read two of C J Tudor's books, both of which were like Stephen King dupes, whereas this one was a bit of a departure from the author's standard fare and was more of a Richard Laymon knock off. There were also too many characters in similar situations - one group trapped in a crashed coach, another in a sabotaged ski lift and a third in a ski chalet turned research facility - and none of them had distinct personalities. In fact, I kept having to remind myself that 'Hannah' was on the coach, 'Meg' on the ski lift, and 'Carter' in the facility - beyond that, I couldn't keep track of who was who and cared even less. Also, the 'viral apocalypse' setting is about three years too late to be topical - lockdown is so 2020 - and I hate 'zombies' of any kind, such a ridiculous concept.

Hope there's still chance to end the year on a winner! ( )

I liked the book, but I thought it took a little too long to get going. I had mostly figured it out by the big reveal but then the ending felt a little contrived. Again, still enjoyed it but was left feeling that it could have been better. ( )