Took my breath away, this is a fast paced thrilling read. I could almost feel the fear and pain that this family were going through. It was so well written and it certainly makes you wonder about people, are they really who they seem to be!
Thank you netgalley.

Tense gripping thriller keeps you guessing right until the end. Tom's world is thrown in to turmoil, first his son dies and it appears it's his fault which Tom finds hard to forgive, then his wife and daughter get mugged and Holly assaulted. Tom's boss Lionel lets them use his lodge to find peace and recover. Little knowing it's the start of a nightmare, someone breaks in and they want to kill Tom and his family, but why! It becomes apparent there is more to Michael's death and Holly's attack. I don't think I could have guessed who the intruders were and the real reason they are at the lodge. Can Tom save his family and find peace over his son's death

After losing their son Micahel in a high-speed car crash and, their daughter Holly is mugged, Tom, Rachel and Holly head off with their dog buster to a remote Scottish lodge to relax and reconnect with each other.

On their very first night, they are awakened in the early hours by the sound of footsteps on broken glass.

From this moment on, the tension of this story never lets up as the family do their best to stay safe and escape their attackers.

Alongside the stress of the invasion, the family try to unravel why this is happening adding immense personal tension into the mix.

Highly recommended.

With thanks to Pan Macmillan & NetGalley for the ARC.

One of my favourite books of the year so far.

An intelligent, psychological and suspenseful home invasion story that had me reading late into the night.

Tom, Rachel and their daughter Holly are set to enjoy an idyllic highland retreat to clear their heads and have some much needed downtime after a traumatic and tragic year.

The idyll doesn't last long before a family's worst nightmare is unleashed.
There are people in the house and they mean business.

There follows a night of cat and mouse as they fight to stay clear of the intruders and stay alive. They also have to unravel the reason the intruders are there and how it relates to their personal tragedies of the past year.

An absolutely riveting, roller coaster of a book that at times I struggled to put down.

I now have another author who I have to catch up on his back catalogue.

100% recommended.

What starts off as intriguing soons becomes a heart-in-mouth read. Chris Ewan just keeps ramping up the tension until the climax of this nail-biting novel. I read it in one evening and my nerves were shattered by the end of it. Well-written and plotted, "A Window Breaks" is ideal for anyone who enjoys an action-packed thriller. Great stuff!

This is tense! It is written in a way that you can imagine it being a thrilling TV drama. Having said that, I got a bit confused as to why all the drama was happening in the first place and wasn't completely convinced by the conclusion, but if you want a gripping ride along the way - this certainly has it in spades!

"Once you are in there is no escape"

A Window Breaks By C.M Ewan is a psychological thriller with the story focusing on fighting for your family's survival and trying to escape.

Tom, Rachel and daughter Holly are looking for an escape from there everyday life's after two tragedies beset them in the space of 12 months that have left the family shattered and Tom and Rachel separated, They set off to a remote lodge in the Scottish highlands, when woken in the early hours of the morning by the sound of a window breaking the family soon realise that they need to flee to save their lives.
This is an edge of your seat rollercoaster ride and once Ewan starts he never lets up with the tension and the perilous atmosphere that he creates.
All the characters are well-rounded and believable the story is mostly told from Tom's first person narrative as the family lunge from escape to the next.
The plot moves along fast and in Flashbacks as the full story starts to unwind for Tom and the reader, Ewan throws in a few red herrings along the way and manages to keep almost all the surprises in his back pocket however I did work one out, the ending is very satisfying.
This is a solid summer read and a book I can see being on everyone's lips once it's released I enjoyed it.

well worth your time and hard-earned cash.

I really liked the cover. It is very appealing designed. The writing style is pleasant and very fluently to read. The characters are very well described and look well thought out and consistently interesting. The tension is always present. The descriptions of surroundings, feelings and scenes were also very good. The story is told pleasant and it succeeds from the first pages to dive directly into the story. The storyline as a whole is very coherent and it seems very understandable and authentic. A very fascinating story that you won't like to stop reading.

I really enjoyed this thriller. Most of it anyway. The storyline was great, the suspense was intense, BUT. It was too great a detail for too long, so it became implausible. Would make a great film - in fact it felt like I was reading a script for the action part of a movie. Now THAT would work.
Thanks to Author, Publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

4 Stars from me

This is a really solid good old fashioned edge-of-your-seat style thriller.

It really is one of those books that has everything - a fractured relationship, deep emotional baggage, remote setting, a pet, a secret, a few red herrings, a hero and some bad guys - add to that a massive dollop of sheer fear for virtually all the flipping pages and you'll get the general idea!

Lovely suspense building, great characters - really strong and well defined, clever plot, believable actions and motives.

I really enjoyed A Window Breaks and I won't be staying in any remote lodges for a good while!




Synopsis:

It's 2am.

You are safely asleep in bed.

A noise wakes you.

You stir, unsure why, and turn to your partner.

Then you hear it. Glass. Crunching underfoot.

Someone is inside your home.

You can stay and fight. Or run.

What would you do?

In C. M. Ewan’s thrilling novel A Window Breaks, can a family survive being targeted for death at a remote Scottish hideaway? Perfect for fans of T. M. Logan's Lies and Mark Edwards' The Retreat.

Very fast moving, plot driven, unusual British thriller which explores the extent to which a parent will go to to avenge the death of a child. Highly original and cinematic.

Whenever I read a book, the storyline plays in my head and sometimes famous actors take the roles of characters, and other times they’re blank faces. This book was so perfectly written that I could genuinely see this being made into a film. I was on the edge of my seat throughout reading it. Staying up late into the night to continue reading.
I described the storyline to my partner as delicious, and I truly mean it. If I had to write about it, I couldn’t recreate anything that could set the reader’s teeth on edge and have their pulses racing like the author has with this. I really think it will be winning awards.
Absolutely fantastic and I loved it.

This book went from a normal home invasion book to something much more twisted. It's not what I expected and I finished it but if you don't read this you are not missing anything.

This is a good read overall. I feel that the story went on for too long and it was a struggle in places to keep reading.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

This book wasn’t for me.
There were a few occasions which disturbed me
This was well written but wasn’t for me at all

I love a remote, chilling novel as much as the next, but it did drag on! there were parts that were too disturbing- especially the animal cruelty (just doesn’t sit as well with me as regular person cruelty!)
Not really for me.

My thanks to NetGalley and publisher Pan Macmillan for the ARC.

For a start I will say that this book has an engaging and complex plot-line, but at times I felt it was just too drawn-out with unnecessary detail which, probably given to enhance the desperate atmosphere of the story, actually became a tad tedious.

Tom is a corporate lawyer; his boss is Lionel, an extremely wealthy businessman and head of a foundation called Justice For All, set up to provide support to released prisoners. Tom's wife Rachel is a GP and has become involved in Lionel's foundation. Their son, Michael, just 16 nine months ago, died alongside his girlfriend Fiona whilst joyriding his father's car and smashing into a tree. Tom and Rachel's marriage began to deteriorate and were now on a trial separation - one which neither of them really wanted.
Lionel is determined to help Tom and Rachel (and daughter Holly + Buster the dog) to repair their split and offers them the use of his Lodge in the remote Scottish Highlands. The 'lodge' turns out to be a somewhat hi-tech modern mansion surrounded by strong security fencing and electronic gates.
Two o'clock in the morning they wake to the sound of breaking glass. Why are there 2 men, dressed as CSI technicians laying-out tools and guns on the living room floor?
The family need to flee for their lives and try to find a way out of fortress they find themselves in.
There's no phone signal, the landline is out of reach and the Wi-Fi disabled.

Michael's story is told in retrospective passages gradually revealing the circumstances leading up to the crash. The two main story-lines come together in an appalling truth about Lionel.
If you can stick with it, it has a good plot and atmosphere, lots of twists and no, you can't guess THAT ending.

This was a good read. It wasn't what I was expecting - I was expecting a totally different type of story, but I enjoyed it nevertheless. Struck a few chords with me as a parent and made me wonder if I would be the sort to forgive my child or blame them. An enjoyable read.

Excellent book with a clear cut depiction of characters. The storyline is fluid and constant, and my concentration never waived. Highly recommended.

I stopped reading as soon as I got to the animal cruelty. Not interested in any book that needs to hurt animals to create shock value.
Wasn’t enjoying the writing style anyway it’s really repetitive.
1/5.