Sorry for late response

I reviewed The Drift for LoveReading.co.uk and chose it as a LoveReading Star Book and Liz Pick of the month for January.. I will also be featuring it on the LoveReading LitFest. Please see link for review.

Well this was a story of murder, virus and revenge....
This story bounces between four different sets of people. They all have different stories to tell but for most, the ending is the same......death.
A group of teenagers are being moved from their boarding school to a place of safety, where the destination is most definitely not safe. Their bus crashes and leaves them trapped in the middle of nowhere.......
A group of adults living together in a place called The Retreat, where experiments could help the ailing human race become unsettled as one by one the inhabitants start to die or disappear......
A group of adults are trapped in a cable car bound for The Retreat. It may not be an accidental breakdown and if not who has done this and why?.
While an unknown number of "Whistlers", the product of the virus and what everyone was trying to avoid becoming, pop in and out of the stories and seem to live in the woods out of most people's sight, for their own protection as well as others.
It was quite graphic in places and made me feel quite sick!!!. The emotion was high, bearing in mind these were all people who through no fault of their own, were trying to stay alive and to carry on living..
I loved every minute of this book and can highly recommend it!!. You'll be suitably sickened and scared in equal measure!!!!
I received this free arc book for an honest review.
#Netgalley, #michaeljbooks, #cjtudorauthor.

DNF @ 19%

I've loved the majority of this authors books, however this one just wasn't for me. There's 3 different characters in 3 different scenario that it felt like there's too much going on at once. If you like apocalypse, survival and viruses then this one will be right up your street.

I enjoyed the previous books by the author and was looking forward to reading her new story especially after reading the blurb and seeing so many people excited for it.
I love a good thriller type and while horror is not my go to genre, the mix of genres or genre bending how I would actually call this one, wasn’t really something I was looking forward.
I was invested after that first chapter to see where the story takes us and how they get away from that situation, if they actually get away. But halfway through, I just find that I don’t actually like all the violence and gore scenes, some to a high level adrenaline pulsing even. Which is always thrilling but somehow it didn’t worked out for me this time.
I’m looking forward to read by the author in the future because I never give up an author just because one story didn’t worked out for me as I know it will be a great read for so many other readers.

Very grateful to the publisher for my review copy through NetGalley

This book is far darker than anything she has written before, this dystopian horror really set my senses tingling. Set in a brutal future ravaged by virus where only the fittest (or richest) survive, we are taken on 3 seemingly distinct journeys.

Hannah is trapped with a small group of survivors following a coach crash in the middle of a treacherous snow blizzard. Meg is trapped in a stopped cable car with a dead body and a few other people she has never met before. Carter is holed up at a ski chalet with a few other people trying to survive the strange world they find themselves in.

Each individual has to navigate the group they are with; everyone seems to have an ulterior motive and trust is a dangerous game to play. As the tension mounts between the groups and the plot moves forward it soon becomes apparent there are far more dangerous adversaries to overcome than just the snow and the virus.

Scattered throughout the story are little nods to previous books that I really enjoyed discovering. There are shocks and scares that kept me on my toes and the atmospheric chill of the book had me reaching for my blanket. It's the utterly brilliant way that the link between the three characters gradually come into focus I have to applaud. What an immensely satisfying and brilliant plot twist.

If you are reading this review, what are you waiting for? Go grab a copy and thank me later!


My thanks go to the publishers and Net Galley for the advanced copy in return for an honest review.

I read The Drift by C.J. Tudor on a 30 degree day - that’s 30° Celsius, so around 86F, but I was quickly chilled to the core.

“At the start, there is simply relief at being alive.”

Hannah slowly regains consciousness to discover the bus she was travelling in, carrying a dozen or so students from Invicta Academy heading to The Retreat, has careered off the road and rolled part way down a mountainside in the middle of a blizzard. Hannah is trapped in the mangled bus with a handful of survivors, the bus driver is missing, and one of the dead shows signs of a deadly infection.

“As ever in this life, if you wanted to be saved, you had to do it yourself.”

The last thing Meg, an ex police officer and recovering drug addict, remembers is having breakfast in her hotel room, so she’s disoriented when she wakes in a stalled cable car as a snow storm rages outside. She’s not alone, there are four others stirring, all volunteers headed for The Retreat, and the body of a man she once knew.

“You’re either a good guy or you’re a survivor, someone had once told him. The earth is full of dead good guys.”

It’s Carter’s turn to ski down the mountain to stock up on provisions for the residents of The Retreat, a chore he hates given the threat of what lurks in the woods outside of the electric wire fence. On his return he finds the chalet is dark, Julia is dead and Nate is badly injured, but worse, the basement locks have been released.

In a post apocalyptic setting amid falling snow, three storylines eventually converge in an unexpected way in The Drift, telling a story of loss and hope, betrayal and compassion, death and survival.

Suspense wars with horror as each claustrophobic situation poses obvious and hidden dangers to the characters. The dynamics of each group are tense, confused and fascinating. Everyone is suspect, and has an agenda of some kind, assumptions are a mistake. The body count is high.

The complexity of the overarching plot is impressive. Each story thread exposes a new piece of information that often answers the questions others raise, and adds to our understanding of their world, one ravaged by a deadly uncontrollable virus, killing millions. One mystery will appear to resolve, only for another to be triggered. There is a cascade of surprises and shocks with the pacing well balanced between all three storylines.

With a compelling blend of horror and mystery, The Drift is an atmospheric, frightening, and clever novel.

I read this thrilling book in practically one sitting. The characters are easy to remember and the decisions they are forced to make quite believable. I particularly liked the swapping between the drama in the coach, the cable car and The Retreat. It added to that ‘just one more chapter’ which kept me up last night. I admit I am a fan of C J Tudor and now a huge fan of this latest book.

Another chilly thriller perfect for the cold January days. This is my second snow-filled thriller this month, so I added an extra blanket to my reading spot (who can afford to put the heating on at the moment?) and pulled my Chihuahuas in closer for their doggy heat.

First of all, I can’t believe this is my first C. J. Tudor book. I have heard so much about The Chalk Man and The Burning Girls but apparently never got around to reading either! I will have to add them to my never-ending TBR and try to get them both read this year – I have twelve whole months, but then again, Authors keep on bringing out new books!!! I seem to be easily distracted – As they say, buying books and reading books are two very different things.

The first rule of survival. Know when to run and never look back. Also, don’t be last.”
At the top of a mountain is the Retreat which is surrounded by wilderness, wild animals, and another threat even more terrifying. High on the mountain is a cable car transporting six recruits to the Retreat that has snapped and is lying precariously in the snow, hanging by a cable. Further down the mountain a bus filled with students, also on the way to the Retreat (for their safety) has careened over a hillside road in one of the year’s heaviest snowstorms and is stranded on its side.

The book is split into these three stories; Carter is at the Retreat, which is an abandoned Ski Chalet that he and his ragtag compatriots call home. Together, they manage a precarious survival, manufacturing vaccines against a deadly virus in exchange for life’s essentials. But as their generator begins to waver, the threat of something lurking in the chalet’s depths looms larger, and their fragile bonds will be tested when the power finally fails… for good. Meg, a former detective awakens to a gentle rocking; she is stranded in the cable car that is suspended far above the snowstorm and surrounded by strangers in the same uniform as her, with no memory of how they got there. They are heading to the mysterious Retreat; but when they discover a dead man among their ranks and Meg spies a familiar face, she realizes that there is something far more insidious going on. Hannah awakens to carnage, all mangled metal and shattered glass. She is trapped inside the crashed coach with a handful of survivors, a brewing virus, and no way to call for help. If she and the remaining few want to make it out alive, with their sanity… and sec and secrets intact, they’ll need to work together or live with the rest of the dead. The imminent dangers faced by Carter, Meg, and Hannah are each one part of the puzzle. Lurking in their shadows is an even greater threat… one threatens to consume all of humanity!!

“You’re either a good guy or a survivor, someone had once told him. The earth is full of dead good guys. It was a salient piece of advice. Of course, the person who had imparted it was dead.”

I absolutely loved this book, it was smart and caught my attention from the very beginning and kept my attention until the very end. I couldn’t wait to pick my kindle up every chance I got to continue with the story, and if I didn’t have to do boring things and very adult things like work and heaven forbid – look after my kid, then I would have been finished with the book a lot sooner. I love the wit in the author’s writing and lost count of the number of quotable sentences there are – I would, and wanted to put them all in this review, but that would have made it way too long, so I’ve noted some of my favourites! It wasn’t easy! The book kept its steady pace throughout (I’m a big fan of that) and the closer you get to the end, the shorter the chapters are, giving you a faster pace and an impending sense of danger. Just past the halfway point, you begin to see the three stories connecting – and there is one hell of a clever twist. The author really trusts the reader to figure it out by themselves instead of spoon-feeding and overexplaining, which I also loved.

Highly recommend this if you love smart, action-packed horror/thrillers that require some brain power to figure out.

My thanks to the author and Penguin Random House for my advance copy to review via Netgalley. Due out 20th January 2023.

“People are not black and white, and we all see situations in different ways. One person’s freedom fighter is another’s terrorist. One crazy genius is another’s dangerous psychopath. One person’s leader is another’s oppressor. That is how society rumbled or crumbled.”

“The dehumanising had been gradual but deliberate. Fear was all part of the plan. We’re always closer than we think to the edge. Every day we’re just teetering on the precipice. We just never dare to look down.”

This book was so clever! Honestly I was not expecting the way things to pan out the way they did, but when it did I was there for it. CJ Tudor is an amazing thriller writer and I have enjoyed her previous books although they are all very different.
The 3 scenarios in this book were told from 3 different POVs -Hannah, Meg and Carter and I was on the edge of my seat for every one on them. Going from one scene to the next was such a thrill ride. Nail biting just doesn't seem to justify it enough. Terrific dystopian near future thriller set in the icy snow peaks. Wonderful!

I have never read a book like this one! It is absolutely bloody brilliant!

This chilling apocalyptic thriller had me racing through the pages, hooked from the start, I craved my next fix of the story each time I had to put the book down. It is certainly not a book for the faint-hearted, but if you don’t mind something a bit darker that will chill you to the core, then this is an absolute must-read!

Hannah and a group of others were heading to a place of safety after being evacuated from their school. They don’t quite make it there and find themselves trapped inside a coach after it crashes during a snowstorm. Those that have survived must work together to find a way out and get help. Will they make it?

Meg wakes up to find herself trapped with five others in a cable car that has stopped moving on its way up the snowy mountains. Dressed identically, stripped of their belongings and with no memory of how they came to be in the cable car! They initially hope that there is a technical glitch and that they will start moving again soon, but it soon becomes apparent that they won’t!

Carter lives and works at the retreat with other survivors. Those that live there have had things ticking over quite nicely, but when the generator packs up and their supplies begin to diminish, things start to go horribly wrong and the bodies begin to pile up! Will those left work together? Or against each other?

This fast-paced, action-packed thriller has not one but three gripping storylines that take you on a high-octane journey through the snowy mountains. This has to be one of the most atmospheric books that I have ever read, jeez I almost got frostbite just from reading it!

The high level of description put me right there on the coach, in the cable car and at the retreat, each chapter played out in my mind like a scene from a movie. I didn’t trust a single character; each one gives you more than one reason to doubt them and their motives. I didn’t even try to guess where each story was going and if they would connect, as I was so engrossed in the moment. Each twist and turn had my jaw on the floor, and nothing about this book was what I expected. I loved it!!!

I’d describe this book as Contagion meets 28 Weeks Later in the snow! If you catch my Drift!

This is my first C J Tudor book and it most certainly won’t be my last. I love the way that she crosses the bridge from thriller to horror. Move over Stephen King!

Thank you so much to C J Tudor, Penguin and NetGalley for my copy of this fantastiac book.

I have enjoyed CJ Tudors previous novels.

This one was a little different as dystopian which is not normally what I would enjoy.
This book had twists and turns and was very dark.
I enjoyed how it came together

This is a great thriller, well written with several different storylines, great plotting. It was more of a horror than I was expecting, having not read CJ Tudor before, I found it a little much perhaps but that didn't take away from the thriller aspect of the storytelling, just ramped up the anxiety! I would read more of her work and would recommend.

4.5 of 5 stars
My Five Word TL:DR Review: Clever, ever spiralling downwards, horror

Well, this was a surprise. I don’t think I looked at the description for this one at all before I picked it up. I really like the author’s style and quite often these days prefer to pick up my reads knowing as little as possible. So, yes, this was a surprise. A compelling read, totally engrossing in fact, it’s not going to give you a grin on your face when you’re reading but it will keep you turning the pages into the early hours and it’s just the most unusual combination of post apocalyptic survival meets locked room mystery (well mysteries to be correct) that I’ve ever read.

I really don’t want to give away too much about the plot with this review because I’m keen to avoid spoilers, primarily because the story follows three POVs and certainly one of the ‘big’ intrigues is trying to figure out how these three characters are connected. What I can say without giving away too much is this is a novel that takes place in the near future (I don’t recall seeing any dates but that’s where I would hazard a guess). A pandemic has changed society beyond recognition killing great swathes of the population. Those that survived, known as Whistlers because of the noise they make when breathing, are altered into an almost zombie like state, a few becoming violent and bloodthirsty. The remaining population are basically trying to stay alive whilst hoping for a cure. I would say, before going further, that this isn’t a typical zombie apocalypse type story so if that isn’t usually your type of read then this may still be of interest. Of course, the Whistlers still play a part here, this is horror and it can be quite bloody and brutal in parts, but this is more a suspenseful thriller, a race against time and a locked room style mystery that is positively claustrophobic.

We have three key characters. Hannah, a young woman trapped on board a coach that has careened off the road killing a number of the passengers in the process and effectively leaving the others trapped on board. It doesn’t take long before a couple of characters figure out that the journey was sabotaged before it set off. Meg is an ex police officer who wakes up to find herself on board a cable car, she has no idea how she got there, her personal possessions have been removed, the car is stuck (very high above ground) and a storm threatens, on top of that there are others on board and one of them is already dead. The final character is Carter. He is based in a retreat with a number of other characters, the place is protected by electric fencing and digital locks but unfortunately the power seems to be faltering and with it any semblance of security (not to mention the locks on the doors in the basement).

I found this totally absorbing and I loved the way the stories eventually come together because it was completely unexpected – which could of course be simply a result of my tiny brain not making the necessary leaps to connect the dots – but, I think it’s very clever, well executed and compelling.

The writing is excellent, the characters really jump off the page, the pacing is perfect and there’s a steady stream of action mixed with periods of reflection. The dialogue is really good and manages to prevent the book from becoming dismal or too dark.

On top of this I loved that we start off with a number of players in each story and eventually they become less in number. It’s like a less cosy version of an Agatha Christie novel (think, for example, of And Then There Were None). Gradually, we lose characters along the way, the central POVs eventually start to discover more about their companions and eventually the reveals are made, with much drama and jaw dropping.

In terms of criticisms. Well, this isn’t a laugh out loud sort of story, the characters are in a fight for survival and quite often make shocking decisions. At the end of the day they’ve become almost immune to death and used to making tough decisions to stay alive – as is stated during the story ‘the earth is full of dead good guys’. The thing is though, this could very easily become the type of read that feels too dark and maybe drags you down but that’s not the experience I had. I think I was too caught up in the mystery of the three and how they would come together combined with the intrigue of each of their own separate stories and how they would each overcome the difficulties they were facing.

I enjoyed this very much, it was quick and clever, darkly humorous at times, horrific at others and frankly unputdownable. A cunning plot executed with confidence and ease.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the author, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

The Drift is an apocalyptic, dystopian horror with a chilling murder mystery at its heart. Three groups of people in three different locations, each fighting for their lives. Who are they and how do they intersect?

In The Drift, C.J. Tudor brings together the horror and mystery elements of her writing in the strongest way yet. This is a genuinely horrific story, not least because it brings to the fore memories of the pandemic, which for some have barely faded.

This is dystopian fiction, but like a lot of dystopian fiction I am currently reading, it doesn’t feel all that far away. The horrors that C.J. Tudor is projecting may be fiction, but they are also all too believable.

The locations are freezing, presumably due to climate change. Two sets of people are trying to get to The Retreat. One group is on an upturned bus after an accident. They don’t know each other and the trust is low between them. Trust is also low in the cable car suspended by just one cable now and its occupants are stranded.

Getting out of these precarious situations would be difficult enough in any circumstances, but knowing that outside there are other serious challenges to life facing them, makes this a really tricky scenario. Pretty much no-one in The Drift is who they claim to be. Add a killer to the mix and the tension is ramped high and only gets more nail-biting as the book progresses.

The Drift is like a cross between Contagion and The Walking Dead. There are plenty of unlikeable characters and one or two who you really feel have had a really bad deal from life and that makes you want to root for them. But getting to their destination isn’t necessarily the great goal it seemed to be when they set out. In a well-paced novel, the snow is constantly shifting and what lies below is ever more horrific than the original landscape implied.

There is danger and duplicity in every scene and Tudor does not flinch from including some pretty grim scenes, making this an icy, disturbing story where your blood really will run cold.

Verdict: The Drift is dark, menacing and a true horror story. I would genuinely caution you if you have a nervous disposition, because this is a no holds barred C.J.Tudor and that makes this a scary and very brutal read, exceedingly well executed in plot and style.

Hannah – crashed bus: five dead; Meg – cable car: one dead; Carter – ‘The Retreat’: almost everyone dead. What connects these people, the central characters in their particular scenarios? They are all living in a post-apocalyptic world, after a fast spreading, rapidly mutating, multi-vector virus has wiped out much of the world. Susceptible people mainly die quickly, but some survive with massive physical trauma, especially to their lungs. Breathing causes them to make a whistling sound, hence their nickname.
Hannah is the daughter of Professor Grant, the virologist in charge of DRIFT (Department of Research into Infection and Future Transmission). She and a group of fellow students were being to transferred to ‘The Retreat’, a place of safety when the bus crashed. It is evident that it was sabotaged. The survivors must escape from the bus, all exits are blocked, and flee before the saboteurs arrive to kill them.
Meg, a former police officer, was one of a small group being transported to a secret research facility, ‘The Retreat’, high in the snow-clad mountains. To preserve secrecy, they had all been drugged before setting out. They awoke (apart from the dead guy who’d been stabbed in his sleep) to discover they were in a cable car which had stopped moving, leaving them suspended 1000 feet above the forest covered slope. They need to escape before someone else is murdered or they all freeze to death.
Carter, half his face lost to frostbite, is in ‘The Retreat’, having been rescued from the mountain side. The others there are a mixture of research volunteers and surviving staff, most of the original complement having died of the disease. Professor Grant is in the Isolation area of the basement, apparently still researching a cure. Carter isn’t allowed not that area because he is neither patient nor staff. He is useful because he does a number of chores, including going down the mountain to get supplies. He is also stealing antiviral treatments to send on to his daughter.
In the hands of most other authors, the conclusions to each of these scenarios would be (after a few plot twists) fairly predictable. But Tudor is not “most other authors”, so none of the twists are quite what they seem, none of the stories ends predictably, the connection between them is hard to spot until very late on, and the final scenes are a whole other surprise. It is a very clever story. As usual, her writing is tight while feeling relaxed, whether she is writing scenes of extreme jeopardy, mayhem and horrific death, or writing more gentle empathic scenes (there are, admittedly, very few of the latter and a hell of a lot of the former). I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

A story of three groups of people trapped in the most severe weather.
One group is stuck in a cable car hundreds of feet from the ground.
The second are trapped in a coach after it has crashed, and the third are in a chalet on top of a snow bound mountain.
All three groups of people are stuck with each other, knowing a killer lurks among them and that there is far worse waiting for them on the frozen outside.
C J Tudor has written some scary intense stories, but this one is off the charts.
I found it impossible to put down. It’s one of those books that keeps you awake to its mind blowing end. It’s superbly written, with characters that you’ll love and some that’ll scare your pants off! It’s a frozen masterpiece. I loved it.

I loved Burning Girls so I was really looking forward to this one. For me personally it didn’t hit the mark - I enjoyed it, don’t get me wrong, but I struggled with the narrative set out, it felt really clunky and disjointed for me. I will caveat that I do have a heavy cold, maybe it was me…

Overall, I enjoyed it, but it’s not on par with Burning Girls, I think personally.

My thanks to Netgalley. My review is based on an advance copy that I received from the publisher. My views are my own.

I personally have never read any books by CJ Tudor, but I know my sister has and when I tell you that she RAVES on the books they have written… from that, I just knew I had to request this book. I am a huge fan of thriller books and I went into this book with a lot of expectations and I was far from being disappointed.

I particularly loved how Tudor made me keep guessing throughout the book and blew me away with the story and the level of tension in her writing. I adore tension but I hate how on edge it makes me feel. This is the perfect locked room mystery and it had me hooked from the beginning. I need to get the physical copy asap so I can give this a reread in the future!

I feel as though this was inspired by the pandemic (I could be completely wrong) because the deadly virus’s impact seemed so familiar and I found that Tudor was able to capture the influence a disease had in society which definitely reminded me of the time of the pandemic.

I honestly really enjoyed this book. I cannot thank NetGalley and C.J. Tudor for allowing me to read a copy of this book before its release date!

A cable car is stuck in a terrible snowstorm, swaying to and fro with people trapped on board.

A coach has crashed over a hillside and the passengers are trapped inside due to the snowstorm. Some of the dead passengers were infected with a fatal virus, are any of those still alive infected too?

They were all heading to ‘The Retreat’. Does someone want them all dead or are both incidences accidents?

This is a fantastic story, with plenty that I didn’t see coming! It is a story of grief, survival, determination and vengeance. It really does ah e a bit of everything to keep all readers happy - horror, sci-fi and definitely plenty of action. Great characters throughout and an ending that I wasn’t expecting.

My thanks to Michael Joseph and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

Anyone who knows me, knows I love to read a gory thriller and this one really has some lovely “ooooh” and “ewwww” moments in it! Wintery setting with a dystopian feel, a great read to start the new year off with!


4 Stars – Dystopian Winter Read!


Publication Date: 20th January 2023


Thank you to #NetGalley, #MichaelJoseph, #PenguinRandomHouse, and #CJTudor for an ARC of #TheDrift in exchange for an honest review.