‘The Drift’ by C.J. Tudor | @cjtudor @MichaelJBooks

Author : C.J. Tudor
Title : The Drift
Pages : 400
Publisher : Michael Joseph
Publication date : January 19, 2023
Source : Owned

| ABOUT THE BOOK |

Survival can be murder . . .

Hannah awakens to carnage, all mangled metal and shattered glass. Evacuated from a secluded boarding school during a snowstorm, her coach careered off the road, trapping her with a handful of survivors.

Meg awakens to a gentle rocking. She’s in a cable car stranded high above snowy mountains, with five strangers and no memory of how they got on board.

Carter is gazing out of the window of an isolated ski chalet that he and his companions call home. As their generator begins to waver in the storm, the threat of something lurking in the chalet’s depths looms larger.

Outside, the storm rages. Inside each group, a killer lurks.

But who?

And will anyone make it out alive?

| MY THOUGHTS |

If you’re thinking of picking up C.J. Tudor’s newest offering, hoping for something along the lines of ‘Annie Thorne‘ or ‘The Chalk Man‘, you are in for a big surprise. Or well, you would have been if I hadn’t just warned you, I suppose. ‘The Drift‘ is absolutely nothing like this author’s previous books. Except that it’s just as awesome and brilliant, and I loved it!

There are three different threads in this story. There is the aftermath of a bus crash, where we meet Hannah. Hannah and her fellow passengers were being evacuated from a secluded boarding school to a retreat. You’ll have to find out why for yourselves. Elsewhere, Meg wakes up high in the sky, trapped in a cable car that is going nowhere fast, with five people she doesn’t know, and no idea how she got there. Quite frankly, the stuff of nightmares, if you ask me. Finally, there is Carter. He and his colleagues are up in the mountains in a ski chalet, protecting … something or someone? These characters need to find a way out of precarious situations. But with a killer inside each group and a fierce snowstorm raging outside, will anyone make it out alive?

My goodness, this book! As soon as I started reading, it was like the entire world just disappeared. I was right there in the cold and snow, utterly enthralled by all three threads to this story and that really doesn’t happen every time. It often feels as if one thread lets the other ones down, but that is most definitely not the case in ‘The Drift‘. There are so many things to discover, things I was trying to figure out before they were revealed to me. Obviously that included the identity of the killers but also how did these characters get into these situations, what led up to it, are these threads connected in any way, what’s happening “out there” and how will any of them survive?

C.J. Tudor is an auto-buy for me. So I had no idea whatsoever what ‘The Drift‘ was about. Going in blind, not knowing what to expect, really worked out extremely well for me. I was on the edge of my seat throughout. January was a crappy month for me, but ‘The Drift‘ allowed me to escape reality for a few hours and forget all my worries. It was quite honestly the best time I’d had in weeks.

It feels like ‘The Drift‘ is just non-stop all-systems-go from start to finish. By the end of the book, I was exhausted in the best way possible, feeling as if I hadn’t taken a breath since I flipped open the jacket. As action-packed as it is, it would make a fabulous film. There was a little something I was able to predict, and I will never stop feeling smug about something like that, but the bigger picture? Hoo boy! So incredibly cleverly done, a bit of a gasping-out-loud, jaw-dropping moment for me.

Did I mention I’m a C.J. Tudor fan? Not sure that was clear. ‘The Drift‘ proves, that just like with Karen Slaughter, I will gladly follow this author wherever she goes. Like I said at the beginning, not at all like her previous books but equally full of awesomeness and great writing, and thus currently (because I realise it’s only February) my book of the year. Hugely addictive, chilling, thrill-a-minute, where-is-my-oxygen-tank-I-can’t-breathe thriller and I loved it! Add it to your TBR now and fasten your seatbelt!

Incidentally, if you’re an enjoyer of audiobooks, one of the narrators is the ever fabulous Richard Armitage. *le swoon*

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