Cover Image: One Dark Night

One Dark Night

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Member Reviews

A pacy read with an ordinary event becoming a terrifying nightmare that is gripping, although you have to work a little harder to believe some of the things that take place, but it's fiction after all...

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Great characters and suspenseful story line , can’t believe it took me so long to read it. Will download more by the author

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Tom Bale has once again worked his magic! This book had me hooked from the very first word, and I devoured every paragraph and page with an insatiable appetite. The story kicks off with a calamitous event when a reckless driver crashes into Adam's car, setting off a chain of misfortunes for his family of four. But that's just the beginning!

In a twist of fate, Adam's confrontation with the driver reveals a kidnapped woman in desperate need of help. From there, the nightmare unravels as the family is torn apart, with two members in each car, heading to an isolated and eerie abandoned house. The tension keeps building until they finally manage to escape, but that's when the real adventure begins!

The book keeps you on the edge of your seat, and just when you think it can't get any crazier, it does! The characters' plight will have you rooting for them, and the unpredictable twists will leave you breathless. The only downside to this thrilling ride is that it has to end!

In summary, Tom Bale has crafted a gripping and heart-pounding tale that you won't be able to put down. This is definitely a book that readers will devour eagerly. So, buckle up and get ready for a wild ride!

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Just nearing the end of this book and absolutely loved it! Couldn't put it down! Well written, believable and full of suspense. Will be looking out for more from Tom Bale.

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Classic Tome Bale - lots of twists and adventure and ended up with my heart in my mouth on occasions!

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Great read! Looking forward to reading more from this author! I highly recommend this book and author to all!

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This tense crime thriller bears the signature and all the hallmarks of a Tom Bale novel. It is a non-stop tension fuelled, fast paced story with plenty of action and the requisite villains.

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One Dark Night by Tom Bale is a gripping and fast paced thriller about road rage, murder and lots of action.

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Well, I must say that road rage in general scares the crap out of me. I have experienced it myself and try very hard to let it go and just breathe. However, if that had happened he would not have seen Or heard her screaming for Help. What happened to her? This story is plausible yet in some areas you have to wonder why some of the things happened which almost makes it ridiculous. I would have to say that after reading this book, it is hard to adequately review it. There are great parts and parts that make you want to put the book down because it is unbelievable.

Thank you to netgalley as well as the author/publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

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Road rage is a real thing, and even though I don't have it bad, this book made me think about being aggressive on the roads in future! This was a very well written book, and you can't wait to see how this nightmare ends for the poor family. This was an entertaining read, and highly recommended.

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The first part of this book goes off at a fast pace keeping the reader glues to its pages.
The secound half lost its way. I struggled with my attention plan, allowing anything to give me a reason to just go off and see to this or that.....
Then struggling to pick it up again.

For me it ended up pure silky escapism in the later parts as some seemed pretty far fetched.

I enjoyed his other books much more.

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This is a good book that will have you flipping the pages as you sit on the edge of your seat. What starts out to be an ordinary day turns out to be a nightmare for this family, as they happen upon some crazy passengers in another car that changes their lives.

A thriller that is full of twists and turns that you will not see coming.

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Adam and Katy are drivng home with their 2 children when the unthinkable happens. They almost crush when a car comes speeding behind them. Adam is angry so he makes the other driver to pull over to confont him. But than he notices someone in the other car’a backseat and hears her scream. And the nightmare begins...

I wasn’t sure what to expect. I was curious what will happen to the family. And I liked what I got. Once I started reading I simply couldn’t stop. The story flowed nicely, full of twists and turns. Quite enjoyable read.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and Tom Bale for my copy.

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All in all this was a good book. The plot was good, the characters were interesting, but there wasn’t anything that stuck out to me to make me really fall in love with the book.

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A completely different style of thriller to those I am used to, but oh so good! Tom Bake I am a convert and please write more books as I am currently off to find your back catalogue :-)

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Tom Bale is doing what he does best here, an action thriller that takes ordinary people and throws them head first into mental situations. His style is again quite cinematic - you could easily see this been made into a series on Sky or ITV. Fast paced and thrillingly this is an undemanding but hard to put down read.

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I'm a big fan of Tom Bale and was really looking forward to this one. I enjoyed it but didn't find it quite as compelling as previous offerings. It's very fast paced and action packed and the characters were definitely interested and well rounded. I couldn't put my finger on why I was a little bit disappointed for a while but on reflection, I think it was to do with the plot being a bit far fetched and effectively being in two halves, with the momentum slowing down quite a bit for the second half. I'm definitely looking forward to reading from the author in the future as I know they usually write incredibly compelling thrillers and I hope that will be the case in the future. I just felt this was a little too intense, especially for a situation that could have been completely avoided.

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You can find this review and all of my others over at www.readbookrepeat.wordpress.com

Actual rating of 3.5 stars.

There may be mild spoilers ahead, continue at your own risk.

Adam and Katy Parr are on their way home after a wonderful Sunday outing with their two children, Dylan - aged 7 and Freya - aged 9. As they're travelling, a car nearly sideswipes them as it flies out of another road, missing them barely, however it manages to throw up a stone which smashed the lens of their headlight. Infuriated by such recklessness and thinking of how much worse it could have been had the other vehicle struck their car instead of just breaking a headlight, Adam pursues the vehicle, flashing his lights in an attempt to get the vehicle to stop. What Adam doesn't realise is, this one act, borne out of rage will have a lasting impact upon him, and his family, as they get dragged into a situation that they were seriously not prepared for. Becoming embroiled in an international scheme, the Parr family are in for a terrible ride. And all because Adam couldn't just let a broken headlight go.

I've been putting off reading this book in my netgalley backlog, I'm not entirely sure why either, I guess it's just one of those titles that keeps getting overlooked for more "interesting" sounding stories. I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed this one, after reading a few reviews for it on different occasions, I wasn't holding out terribly high hopes for it, but I was pleasantly surprised. You're probably wondering "then why only the 3.5 star rating on it?" I did enjoy it, the story telling was fine, the story line itself was fine, but that's just it, everything was just fine. Nothing really stood out for me as amazing or gave me that WOW factor that I really look for in books. It was fine.

I liked the cast of characters that we were introduced to in this story. Adam and Katy have an imperfect marriage just like the majority of the rest of the human race, there's been secrets, lies, worry that they wouldn't make it. And I think that really added to the anxiety inducing story line. They were just normal people, a normal family out for a normal day of adventure on a Sunday, heading home to their normal house. When all of a sudden this totally abnormal situation arises and they find themselves involved in something actually quite huge. I found the characters to be well rounded. We can't help but feel empathy for some of the more unsavoury ones which just proves that they were written as real people. They had some redeeming qualities. Though you could also feel the danger that went along with them. I have to admit, I really sympathised with Katy when everything hit the fan. I was so irritated at Adam for having to be the big man in this situation over a headlight. It really hits home that in this day and age, road rage is even more dangerous because you have absolutely NO IDEA who is driving that other vehicle. You don't know if they carry weapons with them, you don't know how many people you're about to face, you don't know their mental state, YOU JUST DON'T KNOW! Yes it may be incredibly frustrating and it may make you angry, but do you really want to take that chance?

The story itself was interesting, I was wondering how the story could be made to last for 400 pages, but there's a whole other dimension to the story after the incident, and I felt that is was told really well. At first I didn't know if I was liking the story, it made me feel anxious, and that's when I realised, no, it is good, and stuck with it. When a story can invoke emotions in you even if they make you feel uncomfortable but that's what they're meant to do. So I felt that the story was entertaining. It was well thought out and executed. The POV jumps between many of the characters which gives us another look at a side of the story which was done well too. Sometimes this can become confusing, but not in this case.

I really enjoyed that we got to see what happened after the incident. I did however feel that at one certain point Adam was a total dickhead for not disclosing something to Katy, but I guess the story wouldn't have played out how it did it he had, so I can forgive that.

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Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for this arc.

Fast and furious gory action throughout. Twisty, twisty story lines. Work-a-day characters developed well enough to be credible, but not all that memorable. A good read for a rainy evening, no real "brain strain" required. Purely action driven.

3.0 to 3.5 stars

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I've read Tom Bale before without realising I had when I got this book. I wasn't sure what to expect and it has sat on my kindle for a good long while and I picked it up at random the other day when I wasn't sure what to read next.





It is a normal day and Adam and his family are driving along on the way home from a day out when a bad driver in a hurry cuts them up throwing stones up and smashing their front light. Adam, slightly infuriated by the driver follows them and flashes them to they pull over. When Adam gets out the car, what started as a simple case of slight road rage escalates into a hostage situation.



The only way to describe this book for me was ridiculous, and now I am not saying that in a bad way but in a sort of wow what on earth is happening kind of way. The pacing is so fast that before you know it you are half way through wondering how you got there. The situations go from zero to what is actually happening right now at a hundred miles an hour.



I found Adam slightly irritating as a character, I mean his traits frustrated me, I know he meant well for his family but at times I just wanted to shake him, I mean if he had kept his cool they wouldn't of even been in that situation (I mean but then I would just be reading about a family day out so … ) I found the rest more tolerable, at times again they frustrated me but I know they all had their reasoning's for acting as they did.



I was discussing this book today, and I was literally saying I cannot decide what I think, I think for the most part I enjoyed it, and I cannot fault the fact it kept me gripped as a reader, I mean I was up late and waking early hours and I was determined to finish it. I think it was good, and it was totally unexpected how it made me feel. I think if you are after a fast paced thrilling read this ticks all the boxes, I feel like if this was a film or tv show you would leave with brain ache because you have been so focused the whole time.



I would certainly read more Tom Bale and seen as he already has a fair few books out I plan on picking some up.

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