Oft! This was absolutely amazing. So original, well written with characters I was immediately invested in. Really cleverly plotted out and the tension it builds had me up all night reading. A must read

WOW!

This book was so full of suspense my heart was hammering in my chest. I won’t say too much about the plot because I didn’t really look that much into it myself and I thought that worked well.

I think this is a fantastic summer read and would definitely recommend to anyone who enjoys a thriller but needs to be hooked immediately, like myself.

This would make a fantastic film or series, I hope it gets adapted!

This had me hooked from the start.

The MC has boarded a plane but is stuck on a timeloop and has to figure out how to stop it before time runs out and everyone on board is killed in a crash.

It's very similar to the Groundhog Day plotline, but with dark consequences. I was on the edge of my seat trying to work out how she would do it. The tension and anxiety was real. It's very entertaining, and I'm keen to read more by this author.

I've never read any books by Cameron Ward until now and can't understand how I've missed him. I was absolutely blown away by Spiral. I read it in one sitting as it was so captivating and exciting. I really enjoyed the build up of tension as the chapters alternated between telling of Theo's downfall and Charlie's race to save the plane and it's passengers. As if this wasn't enough we also get an organised crime story thrown in for good measure! My heart was in my mouth as Charlie's time was running out. As a mother of sons I knew exactly where she was coming from. I can't recommend Spiral highly enough. I'm off to find Cameron's other books!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy. All opinions are my own.

When I tell you my stomach flipped with pure anxiety within a couple of chapters I am not lying. Tense is an understatement.

Jetting off from Heathrow to LA, Charlie is off to try and fix her broken relationship with her son Theo who is the first pilot on the flight. BUT during the journey Charlie keeps repeatedly dreaming of the aeroplane crashing and waking back up replaying the same scenes stuck in a time loop.

Told from both Charlie and Theo’s pov but with Theo’s chapters being in the past leading up to the flight, this book had me on pins, like I couldn’t put it down. So cleverly written, captivating and seriously intense.

Many thanks to author, publisher and NetGalley for my gifted eARC in exchange for my honest review.

My first Cameron Ward book but it most definitely won’t be my last…

Crafty. Atmospheric. Tense &chilling. Just wow. What an incredibly clever twisty thriller!

Perfect for those who enjoy:
- Time loop fiction
- Aviation thrillers
- Organised crime links
- Trail of destruction storylines

With thanks to Penguin Random House, Michael Joseph and Netgalley for an ARC copy in return for an honest review.

Passenger and concerned mum, Charlie, boards a plane to LA on her way to see her son Theo. First Officer Theo is flying the plane his mum is on. Mid-flight the plane encounters turbulence shortly before it crashes, killing all on board. Then Charlie wakes up, thinking it’s all a dream, before it crashes again. Charlie realises it is her job to save everyone by preventing the plane from crashing, and save her troubled son in the process.

I loved the style of this book. I have read a few others with a similar concept and I enjoyed Charlie using the time loops to discover more details and seeing how it changes her actions. I think both Charlie and Theo are quite naive but their personalities and backgrounds lend themselves well to the plot. I found some of the story a bit convenient and didn’t quite buy the relationships between Theo and Charlie and Logan, Theo’s dad. Overall I enjoyed it and thought it was clever how the author structured the story and revealed plot details. I would recommend for thriller and sci fi fans.

This sounded like a great thriller especially as its not the usual plot line that most seem to follow. I was really enjoying the story, following along in the airplane with Charlie while reading how her son had got himself in this position over the previous months. I loved the time loop factor and Charlie knowing she was running out of time to save not only herself, her son and also a whole load of innocent people on the plane.
Unfortunately I didn't enjoy the storyline so much when focusing on Theos time leading up to this day in LA, it was just hard going at times, he was very self centered and had a bad attitude.
I enjoyed the bond with mother and son as I connect well with it and my heart broke at times but my biggest disappointment was how the time loop was explained, or lack of explanation really. It just kind of felt like it was a great idea but not really executed well sadly which was a huge let down as I wanted reasons for this event.
An exciting book with if the time loop had explanations better I would rate alot high and could make a great film but as it is, I rate #Sprial 3 Stars. Thank you #NetGalley for the arc

You're on a routine flight from London to LA. Hundreds of people are on board - including your estranged son, Theo. Ten hours into the flight, something goes terribly wrong. The engines fail. The plane enters a steep dive. You, and everyone else on board, die instantly. Then, you wake up.

Wow this book is insane. Insanely tense, insanely readable, insanely good. I was utterly gripped by the plot, the characters (some who I loved, some who I loathed) just the whole premise of the story, a Groundhog Day of sorts with all the play for if only Charlie can figure it out.

No spoilers here but utterly un-putdownable, absolutely 5*.

It took me a while to warm to this book but I got there in the end. Part of the story involves a time loop and I initially got annoyed with the repetition.

Charlie is on a flight that her son Theo is co-piloting. The first time loop we encounter is when Charlie experiences the plane plummeting towards earth. She then experiences it again but with subtle differences and she needs to work out how she can prevent the crash.

A decent thriller

Having recently enjoyed other thrillers that use commercial flights as their plot device, such as Clare Mackintosh's ‘Hostage’, I jumped at the chance at reading the ARC of Cameron Ward’s treatment of the same genre to see what he would do with the same raw material. I was not disappointed! The main characters in his work are Charlie, whose experiences of a flight form one point of view of the novel, and Theo, her son, whose flashbacks a year previously provide the second point of view. Both are fairly unreliable narrators, and Theo appears to a great extent only by way of his appearances in Charlie’s thoughts, so it takes a while to establish what his precise issues are. In the end, I enjoyed this thriller that also blends in elements of science fiction and romance novels. I felt that perhaps the storyline could have been dealt with in fewer than 400 pages, but I am sure the novel will gain Ward a large readership regardless, and deservedly so. Thank you to the publishes and to NetGalley for the free ARC that I was gifted in exchange for leaving and unbiased review.

Wow a real thrilling story from the first pages full of twists and surprises which kept me wanting to read more. Charlie boards a plane on which her son Theo is the first officer and ten hours into the flight the plane starts to nosedive and everyone dies apart from Charlie who relives the moment over again and is desperate to stop the ground hog event.
A tense and gripping story of a mothers love and what ends Charlie would go to end the nightmare and save her son.
Thoroughly enjoyed and would highly recommend.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

A deadly plane crash killing all aboard. Except a passenger awakens an hour before the flight takes off and is the only Passenger aware of what is to come.
A Groundhog Day type book, a a message you need to learn. A good overall read which is fast paced and keeps you on your toes

The best way to tell you about this book is to say…..think jumbo jet carrying 300 passengers and a time loop…..

Its riveting and scary and genuinely mesmerising as we find ourselves on the plane and time re appearing every few minutes to one of our fellow passengers

It is written VERY believably and that’s no short task on a subject that is unbelievable, but is it?….

Some wrenchingly nasty characters and a mum who will do anything, anything to save Leo, her son, who is the Captain of the plane

Would be my most unusual book this year so far and one that will stay in my memory, on the hour, every hour!

Intriguing, fresh and will be impossible to not to gain a reaction from any reader

Thank you Penguin Random House for offering this ARC!

Charlie is on a flight to LA to reconnect with her estranged son Theo, the first officer on the flight, who is unaware that she’s also on the plane. However, ten hours into the flight, something goes wrong — the plane enters a steep dive, and everyone on board dies instantly. But Charlie wakes an hour before the doomed crash and is the only one that knows what is about to happen…

I really enjoyed the ‘Groundhog Day’ aspect and how Charlie pieces together more information in each loop. Theo’s flashback storyline was intriguing as it connected his past experiences to the present events on the flight — even if he did annoy me at times.

I preferred the scenes on the plane as they gave me more of that tense, suspenseful feeling that I enjoy in thrillers, especially in the final loops of that final hour. However, the ending just fell a little flat for me — maybe it’s just because the resolution wasn’t what I was expecting or would have wanted.

Nethertheless, I finished the book in a day because I was eager to see how everything would play out and connect, and enjoyed it, despite the ending that didn’t completely satisfy me.

In a Groundhog Day version of Hostage/Falling, a mother tries to save her son as their plane crashes.

In a desperate bid to reconnect, Charlie boards one of pilot son Theo’s flights. They have been estranged for over a year, since he found out that she had kept his father’s identity deliberately secret.

But Charlie lied about his father for a very good reason, as Theo finds out as he gets sucked into a dangerous LA underworld.

As the plane crash scenarios cycle, Charlie is running out of time to save them.

When only one choice matters, will you make the right one?

An exciting action thriller with an important message.

Ooh, loved this one, tense at times, thrilling. Groundhog day but it's an aeroplane crash, over and over. Charlie is the only one who knows it's repeating and must find a way to stop it happening. She's a passenger on the flight and her son Theo is first officer.
I would recommend this book.
Thanks to netgalley for the arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Spiral by Cameron Ward is a tense time loop thriller that will have the reader turning pages as the clock ticks down.
Charlie is trying to make up with her estranged son Theo, who moved to LA to find his father, so decides to book a seat on a flight where he is first officer as a surprise. Theo has not forgiven her for hiding the truth about his father, Logan, a criminal who has spent years of his life in prison for armed robbery, but his attempts to reunite with Logan go badly wrong leaving him in massive debt to a criminal overlord and an accidental witness to murder. When Charlie learns what has happened from Theo's former girlfriend Laura she is desperate to try to help her son however she can, even if that help is not welcome.
At first the flight is smooth but just as midnight strikes something goes terribly wrong and the plane starts to fall from the sky dooming everyone on board. Just as the darkness claims her Christine wakes again just after 11pm with what feels like a terrible case of deja-vu. As the loop repeats itself resetting each time the plane crashes Christine realises that she is the only one who knows what is going to happen and it is going to be up to her to figure out how to stop it...but the loops are getting shorter each time so time is rapidly running out.
I love a good time loop story and really enjoyed the extra tension the shortening loops gave to this one. I also liked that it meant that only a finite number of loops were possible so there really was a feeling of a ticking clock. What did let the book down slightly were the characters or rather the character of Theo specifically, his naivety felt a little much and I found some of the choices he made decidedly questionable for a supposedly clever man. This in turn made the ending less emotionally engaging for me than I think the author intended. That being said I did devour the book, eager to see how it woud all play out and I was well entertained by the story.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

Entertaining but not the thriller I expected. Having read other reviews, I am in the very small minority that didn't find the book tense or thrilling.
After rowing with his mum, Charlie, Theo moves to LA to find his father. Things go badly for Theo so Charlie flies out to LA on a plane on which Theo is first officer. The plane crashes at 12.00 but suddenly it's 11.00 and all is well. The cycle repeats. Between each cycle we find out more about Theo. A spoilt mummy's boy, he is unbelievably stupid and naive. I found these sections broke the suspense. I really didn't like Theo so was disappointed by the end.
As I have already said, this is an honest personal view but I'm sure many people will enjoy it. I will certainly look out for more of Ward's books.

Charlie is on a flight to LA to see her estranged son Theo, and hopefully solve their issues. Ten hours into the flight the engine fails and the plane dives. That should be it but Charlie finds herself waking up an hour before the crash, which then repeats again and again. Will she manage to work out what’s going on and save everyone on board?

I was really drawn to the concept of this one and the cover. Although I have read a few Groundhog Day style novels, this seemed to hold its own and have a unique premise. I enjoyed that it was set in an aeroplane as it added to the sense of doom and there was great suspense.

The story is told mainly in the voice of Charlie now and Theo before and I found both storylines engaging. I found that I understood Charlie and could understand how she was feeling. Some of Theo’s actions did grate at times however. This book is fast paced, fun and well written. I’d definitely recommend to those who love an action packed thriller, offering something slightly different, to get hooked on. A great read where I found my mind literally spiralling at times. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this copy in return for an honest review.