The Bite by Nick Louth

Synopsis

The most gripping thriller you’ll ever read, Bite is a breath-taking ride of a novel, a high-concept conspiracy thriller about a virus outbreak and a man who will never give up the search for his missing girlfriend. 

Tomorrow should be the greatest day of Erica Stroud-Jones's life. In just 24 hours this brilliant young scientist will present her secret work to a conference in Amsterdam - research that promises to revolutionise the battle against a deadly tropical disease. Millions of lives could be saved; a Nobel Prize beckons. 

Arriving to watch her are sceptics and rivals, admirers and enemies. Erica's own eyes will be on sculptor Max Carver, her American new love to whom she will dedicate her achievement. 
Tomorrow never comes. 

Erica vanishes during the night. Max, desperate, terrified, sets out to find her, descending into an underworld full of malice and cunning. But even he is shocked by the dark terror he finds in the heart of the woman he loves. 

Review

Since I started blogging I have started to read more thrillers, and this one sounded really exciting and fast paced. This book is more gritty than others I have read and I think this is because while the main plot focuses on a couple, the setting has a side plot which has worldwide consequences.

The opening chapter is amazing, and got me hooked straight away. The tone started out incredibly mysterious and you learn very little about the protagonist and what he is doing aboard the plane.  It all sounds very sinister, but then at chapter 2 you are introduced to Max and I put the mysterious man into the back of mind mind.

Max and Erica have only been together three months, but you can tell Max cares immensely for her, even in the brief scenes we see them together before he finds out she is missing. When she does go missing he finds himself in more dangerous situations than he ever imagined.

I really liked Henk, he was such a good friend to Max, when others would have abandoned him.  My favourite character is definitely Lisbeth, she was unusual and funny, and the perfect lift to what is often serious and dramatic.

My favourite part of the book was the third part of the book where we are shown Erica's journals from when she was held hostage while travelling in Africa. These parts were chilling and compulsive reading, I could have read a book purely with these extracts. The punishments and things the hostages go through, especially the last one, is terrifying and made me flinch just thinking of it.

The ending was surprising and it was a great read overall.

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Published by:  Sphere
Gratefully received from the Publisher for review.

Thank you to Clara at Sphere for the opportunity to review this book and take part in the blog tour - check out the other fantastic reviews - Click to get a bigger picture!