A thriller set on the Eurostar. At its heart it’s such a compelling idea. A locked door mystery. A race against time. Action and excitement guaranteed in what is paradoxically a very simple set. Add a set of non-thriller-standard characters and we’re all aboard. Everyone to whom I’ve mentioned Eye Spy, by C M Ewan, has wanted to know more. It’s such a straightforward proposition. Of course the question is whether the execution is going to be routine and uneventful, or whether readers will be making a memorable journey.

You probably won’t be surprised to learn that within this thriller’s pages lie themes of betrayal, disguise, unfinished business, people who are not what they seem, secrets and lies. But the family we meet at Gare du Nord are not whom we would expect. Mark is a jumpy, middle-aged TV producer, Freya his stroppy 15 year-old stepdaughter, and Molly his busy-being-four-years-old daughter. The three of them are returning from a trip to Paris that had been blown out by Mark’s wife Claire. 

Mark’s jumpy because his parents were killed by a bomb in Helsinki six years previously. He never got to the bottom of who was responsible. And now, Molly, playing I Spy at the station, spies with her little eye, a B M: Bad Man. It’s not too much of a spoiler to reveal that, yes, this fellow passenger, is indeed a bad man.

As the train glides out of Gare du Nord, we’ll find that much of what we assume to be the case isn’t, really. In itself, the mystery part of the thriller is executed smoothly enough. There are a couple of really bold twists and one which would have been a little tired if it wasn’t so satisfying for the reader. 

What really makes this come alive is Claire – who is back in the hotel at St Pancras doing something we know not what except that we don’t like it – and more pertinently Mark who is a fairly unusual protagonist. We are used to the idea of the everyman who delves deep into the power inside of them, but Mark takes the concept further. He’s been online, trying to find out what happened in Helsinki all those years ago. Slowly we find that he had become a conspiracy theorist. A conspiracy theorist running around the Eurostar would be one thing. A conspiracy theorist running around the Eurostar with an exhausted and fretful four year-old is another. It isn’t that Mark learns what he has to do. He just doesn’t know. He’s petrified and determined to protect his family and all his ideas are terrible. (Most of the other adult characters do actually know what they’re doing, in fairness. Slow Horses they are not.) I’ll confess that this is the first time I’ve really rooted for a conspiracy theorist. Meanwhile, each chapter heading – and there are lots of chapters – tell us exactly how time is elapsing before arrival at St Pancras.

Although a great deal of the tension in this thriller comes from Mark’s inner voice – he’s the first-person narrator – I can see this working really well on screen. As I mentioned, the sets are simple, although you would need to build in some scope for the odd explosion.

Like the Eurostar it features, this novel is smoothly designed entertainment, but with enough jolts and signalling changes to keep it interesting. You’ll want to know how things terminate: there’s just the right balance of bite and redemption to bring the journey to a successful conclusion.  

Thanks to Pan for the review copy and to Anne Cater for the blog tour invitation.