Reviews of Safe House
Starred review, Pick of the Week! US Publishers Weekly.
"Set on the Isle of Man, this beautifully plotted thriller from Ewan offers as many twists and turns as motorcycle enthusiast Rob Hale encounters during the British dependency’s annual TT (Tourist Trophy) time-trial races… Ewan’s carefully placed clues will elicit several “aha” moments from readers as his heroes battle toward understanding and resolution."
The Guardian
"Proceeding at warp speed with plenty of twists and excellent use of its setting, SAFE HOUSE is a terrific holiday read."
Independent on Sunday
"Ewan keeps the twists coming . . . Rob and Rebecca are engaging company during this ride-by-the-seat-of-your-pants novel."
Spectator Books of the Year 2012
"SAFE HOUSE by Chris Ewan is set on an Isle of Man as you never imagined it and has one of the best new heroines for a long time … popular fiction at its best."
Sun Sentinel
"Both an emotional story of a family dealing with a tragedy and an action-packed tale of a young man caught up in an elaborate kidnapping."
Boston Globe
"Ewan exerts an admirable discipline for keeping clarity at bay without letting the mystery get too oblique or the plot too outrageous. It helps that Ewan resists turning SAFE HOUSE into a sprawling save-the-world spy epic. What we have instead is a nice, tightly focused story about love and corruption, about rural character versus big-city arrogance, and a rollicking adventure scaled down for your above-average plumber."
**** RT Book Reviews
"After reading only a few pages, you’ll know you’re in for a good, well-written story in Ewan’s stand-alone. A departure from his GOOD THIEF’s GUIDE series, this is more threatening and suspensful. Ewan is as comfortable and adept with this new style as he is with the lighter, comic style of his series."
Crime Fiction Lover
"A sophisticated reboot of the classic everyman thriller, which takes in high-level government conspiracies, rogue agents and international terrorism… Due to the Manx setting it’s impossible to read SAFE HOUSE without thinking of the TT event and Ewan has distilled the spirit of the race into a breakneck thrill-ride of a book, all unpredictable twists and wicked turns. It takes a skilled writer to keep a plot of this complexity on the rails and Ewan’s handling is impeccable. Safe House is a bona fide must-read. "
CrimeSquad
"With his debut everyman novel Ewan has ticked all the boxes and created a barnstorming tale of mystery and intrigue… In my opinion this thriller is every bit as good as any Linwood Barclay. I never thought I’d say this, but if this is what Ewan can do as a standalone then I don’t want him to write anymore “Good Thief’s” books!"
Mean Streets
"Classy writing and bone-jarring twists in this standout thriller… If you could judge this book like a knife, by the way it sat in your hand, you’d feel the quality at once. Finely made, perfectly balanced and razor sharp: you won’t want to put it down. "
Eurocrime
"An exciting start, to what promises to be an excellent addition to the genre of thriller reads, Ewan has with Safe House created a fast-paced, excellently written, and superbly plotted novel. With characters which burst off the page from the start, and a new setting in the Isle of Man which I cannot wait to see explored further."
The Word
"There are times when what you want is motorbikes, assassins and a chick with a “terrific silhouette” who can pack a rod. Say hello to Chris Ewan’s SAFE HOUSE, a kind of Dick Francis auctioneer crossed with a Francis Durbridge mystery … Ewan’s plotting is satisfyingly torsional."
The List
"The pace is heady: new information and revelations arrive in an avalanche but are never confusing. A credibly intricate plot."