Follow You Home by @mredwards ~ Psychological #Thriller #bookreview

• Author: Mark Edwards
• Published: June 2015 by Thomas & Mercer
• Category: Thriller, Mystery, Psychological 
• 

After a perfect start, Daniel and Laura’s travels end abruptly when they are thrown off a night train in the middle of nowhere. To find their way back to civilisation, they must hike along the tracks through a forest…a haunting journey that ends in unimaginable terror.

This was one of my choices in Rosie Amber’s Friday Five Challenge. I chose to buy on the strength of the book description, cover and after a general look at some reviews.

The story opens with Daniel and Laura catching the overnight train to Sighisoara, Romania, from Budapest, as part of their two months trip of a lifetime travelling around Europe, before settling down to marriage and a family. Little did they know that chatting to another couple, Alina and Ion, who are travelling on the same train, would provoke a haunting, nightmarish situation. Robbed of money, passports and tickets Daniel and Laura are thrown off the train, along with Alina, in the back of beyond with no sign of civilisation. 

As they followed the train tracks through the forest, Daniel regrets not booking a sleeper compartment on the train. Alina has to answer the call of nature and disappears into the trees. When she fails to return, Daniel and Laura set off to find her. What they encounter in the woods changes their lives permanently.

Out we came, bursting from between the tress, back onto the path, stumbling in the half-light, almost falling, one of us catching the other, stopping only to scoop up our backpacks from the edge of the forest.

We ran all the way into town.

We didn’t talk.

We didn’t look back.

This is a dark and disturbing psychological thriller with quite a convoluted plot line, lots of twists I didn’t expect. Daniel and Laura have been together for years but their experience in Romania, and the fact they made a pact not to speak about it, ever, have unnerved them completely. They are unable to pick up the threads of their lives and at Laura’s instigation, are no longer together. Their nightmare is not over, it’s only going to get worse.

After the initial few chapters, Follow You Home is told in the present with flashbacks to Daniel and Laura’s time in Europe, slowly revealing the horrors they witnessed and the terror that’s followed them home. Although the story is a little clichéd in places and falters slightly just after the half way point, it soon picks up again and the sense of terror and dread is prevalent. I did enjoy it and love the plot twist at the end. 

The one character I didn’t warm to, and couldn’t really connect with, was Laura. She seemed quite weak and ineffectual, but maybe that was the idea after what she witnessed and what she did. Edward’s character was my favourite and I liked Alina. It’s my first book by Mark Edwards and I’ll definitely be reading more.

About the author

I write psychological thrillers. My influences include writers such as Stephen King, Ira Levin, Ruth Rendell, Ian McEwan, Val McDermid and Donna Tartt and movies like Rosemary’s Baby, Single White Female, Fatal Attraction and anything in which scary things happen to ordinary people.

I love hearing from readers and always respond. I can be contacted in the following ways:
Email: markcity@me.com
Twitter @mredwards
Facebook: www.facebook.com/vossandedwards

You can download a free box set of ‘Short Sharp Shockers’ by visiting http://www.markedwardsauthor.com/free

THE MAGPIES (2013) and BECAUSE SHE LOVES ME (2014) topped the Kindle chart in the UK. FOLLOW YOU HOME (2015) was a top ten bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic. My other solo novel is WHAT YOU WISH FOR (2014) and I have one short story, KISSING GAMES, available on Amazon.