Trapped in the Unknown with Mark Edwards: One in the Family

Review Rating: ★★★★★

What a ride! I’ve just got back from a long trip to Penrith, and my constant companion on the trains to Cumbria, the buses to Pooley Bridge, and the winding roads to Kendal was the audio version of Mark Edwards’ latest thriller, One in the Family. And let me tell you, it made the miles absolutely fly by.

If you've read The Magpies or The Wasp Trap, you already know Mark is a master of making scary things happen to ordinary people. But One in the Family is something beautifully different. It is tense, it is odd, and it packs an unbelievable amount of drama into a tight, relentless timeframe. Time doesn't matter when a writer knows exactly how to build tension like a pressure cooker.

"It gave me total Agatha Christie vibes—that classic setup where a group of people are completely cut off from the rest of the world..."

But instead of a sun-drenched island, we are dropped into the brutal wilderness of the Scottish Highlands. The weather and the landscape create this fiercely isolated, locked-off world where you instantly feel trapped in the unknown right along with the protagonist.

The twists in this book will have your head absolutely spinning. Every time I thought I knew who the killer was or where the danger lay, the rug was pulled right out from under me. I actually asked Mark myself if there would be a sequel, and he said no—which means you get a complete, explosive, standalone ride that finishes exactly where it needs to.

I sat in my own little bit of wilderness this week listening to this, completely gripped. If you want a psychological thriller that makes you think, keeps you guessing, and refuses to let you go, add this to your playlist immediately. Just don't expect to breathe easily until the final sentence!

Comments

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