In an interview C.J. Tudor said she got the idea for The Drift in 2019, thinking of the book as a mosaic of locked room mysteries. Then the Covid pandemic hit, and the entire plot came together. The book is a page-turner with 'thrills, twists, and turns, and edge of your seat tension'.....perfect for mystery fans.

*****

The story takes place in the not-too-distant future when a virus pandemic has devastated the world. An especially ghastly viral variant called Choler turns victims into creatures called Whistlers, who look like skeletons sheathed in skin. Whistlers have black gums, blood red eyes, and pitted scarred lungs that cause a whistling sound when they breathe.

The only reliable vaccine against the virus is blood plasma taken from living victims of infection. Therefore survivors - such as Whistlers - are isolated in rural seclusion centers, called Farms, where they're milked for plasma 'for the greater good.' Patients who don't survive the infection are incinerated, to help contain the spread of the pathogen.

To try to get the virus under control, a research center, run by a scientist called Professor Grant, is built on the campus of a school named The Academy, and a nearby abandoned ski resort is converted into a facility called The Retreat, to house medical personnel and research subjects.

Much of the story takes place during a raging blizzard with massive snowfall and gale force winds. The book has a large cast of characters, but there are three main protagonists: Hannah, Meg, and Carter.

⦾ Hannah

During a huge snow storm, a coach carrying twelve students from The Academy to The Retreat overturns into a large snowdrift, and the occupants are trapped inside. A medical student named Hannah, who happens to be Professor Grant's daughter, assesses the situation and determines that about half the occupants are dead, one is seriously injured, and the rest are relatively alright. The survivors find the coach was sabotaged, since the exits are jammed shut and the hammers to break the windows are missing.

The passengers' cell phones and duffel bags are locked in an outside luggage compartment, and the students know they're doomed if rescue doesn't come soon. Fresh discoveries make the situation even more dire, and the survivors take measures to try to save themselves. This is especially risky with hungry wolves sniffing and creeping around the coach and someone out to kill everyone on board the bus.

⦾ Meg

A former cop named Meg wakes up in a ski lift cable car that's stalled on it's way up a mountain. Meg realizes she was drugged, and looking around, observes five additional doped passengers, most of whom are beginning to stir. Meg understands she and the others are trapped in the small swaying cable car, buffeted by the howling wind, with the windows caked with snow.

As the roused passengers introduce themselves, they realize they're all volunteers on their way to The Retreat. One rider remains still, however, and when Meg tries to awaken him, discovers that he's dead....stabbed.

Meg determines someone on board must have committed the homicide, and unease escalates when another person is killed. The remaining passengers feel helpless, knowing the situation is futile if they're not rescued, or if the car doesn't make it to the cable-car station, a few hundred yards away.

Meg hardly cares about being saved, since she's been inconsolable since her daughter succumbed to the virus. However, the ex-cop feels compelled to help the volunteers and to discover the murderer.

⦾ Carter

Carter, half of whose face was eaten away by frostbite, is currently residing at the old ski resort that's now The Retreat. The former ski chalet, which once housed a fair number of medical personnel, research subjects, and staff, now contains seven people and a dog. The Retreat is relatively comfortable, with a gym, a pool, a community room, a barbecue grill, and bedrooms for the residents. The Retreat also has a basement with locked cubicles that are carefully secured. Things are shaky though, because the power fails periodically, leaving the cubicles unsafe.

On a rotating basis, a resident from The Retreat skis down the mountain to the one open store, to pick up groceries and send a package. Carter grumbles when it's his turn to go down the mountain, .and as Carter is climbing back up with the provisions strapped to his skis, he's stymied by whipping snow and fierce winds.

When Carter finally gets back to The Retreat he finds one resident dead in the swimming pool and another resident who's dying. Things go from bad to worse as more people are killed and Whistlers in the surrounding woods make their presence felt.

The three story lines intertwine as the book approaches it's climax, and the denouement is clever and engaging in this smartly constructed novel.

I don't often find it hard to put down a book, but I found myself anxious to get back to this one, to see what happens in the freezing coach, icy cable car, and decaying ski lodge.

Highly recommended to fans of thrillers and suspense stories.

Thanks to Netgalley, C.J. Tudor, and Ballantine Books for a copy of the manuscript.

THE DRIFT by C.J. Tudor
Published: 01/31/2023 by Random House Publishing Group / Ballantine
Hardcover: 352 pages



An instant Classic ! This is the fifth novel from multiple award winning author C.J. Tudor , Her debut novel, The Chalk Man - was the winner of the Barry Award, and the International Thriller Writers Award for Best First Novel. All her other novels and short story collection were met with critical acclaim. The setting of this gem is the near future, in a world ravaged by an ever changing and mutating virus. What follows is a suspenseful and horrific locked room mystery involving three main protagonists, fighting for survival, while maintaining their humanity. Tudor masterfully intertwines the three narratives with extensive twists and surprise reveals that ratchets up the suspense, producing a page turner …. It defies the reader turning the pages faster, as all chapters seem to end with a cliffhanger.
First let’s consider Hannah, who wakes up confused and apparently drugged, aboard a coach/ bus that was filled with students on their way to the Retreat. The bus is on its side and trapped in a snowdrift with a storm raging outside. Half of the students are dead and the bus driver is nowhere to be seen. There certainly is no obvious way out .. is help on its way? Was this truly an accident or an act of sabotage. Temperature is dropping fast and hypothermia is a real threat.
The chapter alternate between different points of view and the three varying situations. Meg is an ex-cop who awakens in a precarious situation …. Trapped in a swaying cable car that was on its way to the Retreat. One of the passengers was dead … apparently not by accident, but by murder. The cable is suspended over a snow covered landscape, with the howling wind and snow buffeting the car. There is no obvious way for rescue or escape. Lastly the reader meets Carter, who is a member of a small group confined to the lodge built on the side of the mountain …. known as the Retreat. Carter is somewhat of a physical freak, being a victim of expensive frostbite damage. The right side of his face has been decimated, blackened and dead with the center of his face being a gaping cavity, only his sparkling blue eyes remain untouched. All members of the group have daily tasks and jobs to keep the Retreat functioning.. However, one of the members has just now disappeared, and power outages are occurring more frequently for longer intervals. There safety and security is at risk. Something very secretive is taking place in the basement.
In the outside world ravaged by the virus, the scientists have started Seclusion Centers in an effort to contain those infected, and provide a milieu for studying the disease process and possibly finding a cure. The critics say these are no better than concentration camps… some people call them “The Farms” …. the Retreat is one of these facilities.
The DRIFT is an acronym for Department of Research Into Infection and Future Transmission. Tudor masterly weaves the three narratives together progressively providing hidden secrets and motivations , ratcheting up to an explosive denouement. Naturally the story is infused with fear, paranoia and uncertainty as the principles strive for survival and the maintenence of their threatened humanity. An often repeated theme or advice: “You’re either a good guy or you’re a survivor. The earth is full of dead good guys”
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group / Ballantine Books for supplying an Uncorrected Proof in exchange for my honest review. C.J. Tudor is firmly entrenched in my list of “Must Read” Authors.

Post-pandemic revenge mystery with multiple POVs and plenty of carnage. Expect to be twisted up in several ways. Don’t worry, nothing is as it seems, and most of it is far worse than you can imagine.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my free copy. These opinions are my own.

An ominous and intriguing beginning. It was a decent, post-apocalyptic story however, I think it would have flowed better if I knew the story was flipping between past and present. The structure of the story threw me. The link between the 3 perspectives took a while to connect, so it got a little confusing. An ok read for me. Thanks #NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for the ARC.

Unpopular opinion: this book was somehow boring even with the giant cast of characters and multiple POVs. I also found the writing to be a bit on the fat phobic side-- in the typical "fat people are gross & lazy" depictions. Yawn.

I thought this would be scary but it wasn't. It's like that movie that takes place entirely on a chairlift --- you know it can't end well and you don't want to see the details, but you know how it ends all the same.

I did love this author's recent short story collection, A Sliver of Darkness so go read that instead

4.5⭐️

<b> There’s always a moment, in a crisis, where a divide happens. Any group of people, however small, will begin to form alliances, and to display enmity. Discord will grow. Minor to start with, but there will come a crux point.</b>

I love a good survivor thriller/horror, and this one is no different. The setting is a snowy wasteland after a deadly pandemic sweeps the globe and society collapses. Some of the infected become Whistlers, whose lungs have been so damaged by the infection that they whistle with each breath, and those infected with the Choler variant that affects the brain become dangerous.

The book follows three groups of people: those trapped on a stalled cable car en route to the Retreat, students being evacuated from their academy and trapped on their crashed bus, and those who are already at the Retreat. This books is so delightfully suspenseful and fun to try to figure out! It’s fast paced and interesting the entire time.

<b> Death was a horror, and everything we did–the ceremonies, eulogies, flowers–were just a way to try to convince ourselves otherwise.</b>

Beautifully told, eerie and compelling. C.J. Tudor writes beautifully and this book kept me guessing right til the very end. There are three separate stories following three different characters, so it's like 3 books in one. I'm not much of a fan of pandemic-based dystopian stories (having just lived through one) but I loved this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for gifting me with an ARC of The Drift by C.J. Tudor. In exchange I offer my unbiased review.

This was my first time reading CJ Tudor but certainly won’t be my last. While some reviewers labeled this book as horror, I found The Drift to be a seat of your pants, can’t slow down, compelling thriller with some great twists and surprises. Set in an alternative present day, we are presented with three “locked-in” settings as a snowstorm barrels down and a pandemic has changed the landscape. There’s no cure for this new pandemic and almost all infected will die or morph into savage beings, but the real threat isn’t necessarily coming from the outside. This book has a LARGE cast of characters and I will admit it was hard keeping track of who’s who and what secret they may be hiding, that drawback is also a plus, as it keeps the reader turning the pages and trying to connect all the dots. While it seems the three stories are all about surviving the elements, there’s more than meets the eye.
This book would make for a great screen adaptation as the writing is atmospheric and action packed. Pick up a copy today or do what I did and download the audio! The multicast narration was FANTASTIC and really added to my overall enjoyment.

This book is written about 3 separate people.
Hannah awakes to find herself in a bus that has been involved in some type of accident. The survivors are trapped and can't break the windows or find the driver.
Meg realizes she is in a cable car that is stuck way up in the mountain and the people also trapped are all freezing and scared..
Carter is in the chalet. But something is not right.
This horror story slowly connects all three characters.
I am not a fan of horror stories and didn't realize that this was one until I started reading.
I do thank the author,publisher and Netgalley for my ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I was really excited for this one since The Burning Girls is one of my all time favorite thrillers, but unfortunately this one fell a little bit flat for me. I loved the apocalyptic atmosphere and the idea that a virus similar to Covid is what caused it. I also loved that there were three "locked room" mysteries to tell the story. Eventually, though, it all got to be too much. There were too many characters and SO much happening that I was just super confused by the end. I think my biggest issue was that up until the 70% mark, I thought that the three different storylines were happening at the same time, so when I realized what was happening at the end, and that there was actually quite a few years in between each of the events, I was left even more confused. I'm not sure if this was done on purpose to try and make the twist a bigger surprise, but I feel like it still could've been a surprise even if it was made more clear that the timelines weren't happening simultaneously. I'll still absolutely pick up more books by CJ Tudor because she has a great way of building the suspense and building unique storylines, this one unfortunately just wasn't my favorite.

Thank you NetGalley, Random House Publishing/Ballantine Books and C.J. Tudor for the chance to read this e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

I LOVED this book! It hooked me immediately and didn't let me go until the last page! I could not put this book down and I absolutely loved it! This was my first C.J. Tudor book but it definitely won't be my last. I loved the multiple pov's and short chapters, it had the perfect amount of suspense and horror without being too scary. It was just perfect! Can't wait to check out her other books!

5 stars for me!

I struggled with this one. When I read about this book, I figured it would have been perfect for me. I love a good horror mystery, but I just couldn’t get into this book.

From the get go, I felt lost. I understand that’s how you were supposed to feel, but it never seemed to get better.

The lack of character development/backstory made me confused on why I should get attached to the characters. Then between the three POVs, I kept confusing which character in each POV and who they were. I feel like I can typically grasp these things, but I just couldn’t follow along in this book.

I have also noticed I don’t like when books try to slide in a political agenda that is a touchy subject. I guess I didn’t think this book was going to feel like going through the pandemic all over again. There were discussions on vaccinations, quarantining, etc.

This book just felt slow. Maybe if I listened to the audiobook I would have had a better experience.

Thanks NetGalley and publisher for the digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

Wow. This is a post-apocalyptic thriller that takes place in the middle of nowhere, in a snowstorm, during a massive unknown pandemic. There are three different storylines and even though each one was interesting, it was driving me crazy trying to figure out how they were all connected. But the connection, once revealed, was quite clever and pretty twisty. Tudor did an amazing job with the snowstorm. I could almost feel how cold it was. And one of the storylines involved people trapped in a cable car in mid-air. I am scared of heights, so these sections made my stomach lurch as though I was the one trapped. Kudos to the author for that. This was a fantastic read!

CJ Tudor delivers big time on this blood bath of a thriller. This one isn’t for the faint of heart if death isn’t your thing…but all my fellow seasoned thriller readers will have no trouble.
This is told from 3 different situations taking place where a group of individuals are somehow tied into a school for a very dangerous deadly disease where there is no cure.

I loved how the book was laid out and thought the ending was phenomenal when it all came together. Definitely one to pick up.

I really enjoyed this thriller that starts off with a group of students trapped in a bus after it flips over in a crash during a heavy snowstorm with what appears to be at least one victim of the deadly virus that is gripping the world. At the same time, a group of people wake in a cable car that is supposed to be heading towards “the retreat” when the power goes out leaving them suspended with no signs of help. In a large unmanned facility a group of people are facing power issues of their own, trying to keep people infected with virus out while keeping up a supply of medicine that may help them from being infected. This book is quite dramatic, intense, and very suspenseful. Well worth the read.

Surprisingly this is my first CJ Tudor book and I cannot wait to read more by her cause this book was a chilly stunning thriller.

Could not finish at 42 percent. I really loved CJ Tudor’s other books but there were a few things that made me give up. This alone bothers me because I hardly ever not finish a book.

One thing was, I felt like a came into the book in the middle. There were so many characters and I felt like had been tossed in, not knowing who anyone was.

The other thing I had a problem with was the mother losing her daughter and cursing God. I don’t have a problem with that, per se, even the strongest faith filled people question. However, I felt the author was just downright vulgar about it. I didn’t like that and don’t want to see it. To each their own.

Third, not only were there too many characters, I was 42 percent in and still didn’t even care about any of them. I hope Ms Tudor has the best success with all her books but also hope she gets back to her usual formula. I’m sorry I didn’t finish it, but, as always, appreciate the opportunity.

A complex, dystopian, apocalyptic mystery full of blood, guts and gore. Well written but not exactly what I was expecting, at least not to this extent! A deadly virus, demented survivors, frigid snowstorm, and everybody pretty much trying to kill everybody else. Ugh. A depressing, distressing tale.

There is something about a good snowed in thriller that makes me wish for snow. Maybe not to the extreme that is in this book, but I’d be happy with a few inches. If you’re like me, and are craving a more white winter, read this book and let your imagination take you there.
The Drift is a post pandemic, apocalyptic isolation thriller. There is only a fraction of the worlds population living, and most have the virus that makes them zombie like. There is a Walking Dead vibe, with the constant fear of being attacked. The difference between this story and The Walking Dead, is the government is to feared as well.
Three narratives, all in totally different isolated settings, propel you through this book at a fast pace. I was on pins and needles, turning pages quickly to see what happened next. Thrilling and suspenseful, with some large twists, this book is a white knuckled ride.

Yes, Yes, Yes! Thank you C.J. Tudor for another great entry! The Drift was so well-done. Books like this are truly why I read.

This book is told from multiple viewpoints and throughout the entire story, I kept wondering how they would all pull together. I had theories. Of course I did because I ALWAYS have theories. It's half of the fun. But let me tell you, my early theories were so off base and I love that they were. I love nothing more than a good surprise.

The Drift was a post apocalyptic/dystopian read with a heavy horror tone because of the gruesome factor that existed. The premise of the book is that a virus has ravaged the world and either killed people or left them mutated into beings referred to as "whistlers." The virus is highly contagious. So much so that drastic measures have been taken if people have been exposed even if they aren't showing symptoms. Those who have survived are living in a hard, cold and unforgiving world.

I'm not going to tell much more. I would advise that you go into this one blind and enjoy the ride. Even when you wonder where it's going, just keep going. It will all make sense in the end.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to read and review it and the opinions contained within are my own.