6 stars out of 6

I was very disappointed to find out this was a first time author as I enjoyed her book so much I was looking forward to reading many more, now I will have to be patient! I was also surprised that she is a first time author as the quality of writing is up there with the likes of Ian Rankin and similar, although of a different style.

It was very difficult to put the book down to get on with everyday life; if I could have I would have read it non-stop. The characters were very well developed and there were no inconsistencies – unlike even some famous authors.

I very much look forward to reading her next books.

Lynn Chambers

I believe this is Ms McCarthy's first book, well what I found was an first class story, a sense of being there, knowing the characters and a different ending, all of this in only 292 quick pages.
Satisfying reading, what more do you need!
I think it would make a super Christmas gift for a good friend, avid reader or not and as John Craggs says "Well worth a read".

Brilliant. Well crafted, beautifully written and exciting. A good book for a long weekend as I found it hard to put down once I started reading. Sometimes when I did, it was hard to leave the Scottish Highlands behind and get back to my familiar surroundings. The characters also came to life and I felt that I really cared what became of them.
I look forward to Jeanette McCarthy's next book.

From the atmospheric front cover, this is a very satisfying, intelligent and easy to read novel, which grips the reader till the final sentence. If you can, read it slowly to savour the text and the characters. It portrays survival on several fronts, and also gives an insight to a condition well publicized today, but perhaps little understood.Definitely to be recommended.

Abandoned by Jeanette McCarthy.

Mike Dole, ex-Soldier, mentally scarred by his military experiences and an abusive childhood is smotheringly over-protective of his girlfriend, Tess. Until the day she inadvertently triggers the darker side of his nature.

As a result Tess wakes from a drugged slumber to find herself abandoned, with only a very basic survival kit, on a small uninhabited Scottish island.

Mike, his mental 'demons' temporarily calmed by this sacrifice takes up with another girl.

The police search for the missing Tess and, as one clue leads to another, Mike does a runner and attempts to dump the second girl on the same island. But Tess has survived and turns the tables.

Tess is no longer the timid little thing she once was, and now Mike is the target of a manhunt, by the police and his old major,but the motives for hunting him down aren't as clear cut as one might expect..

The story builds to a surprising climax, and no character is left untouched by the events.

This story is - essentially - a 'chase', but with three dimensional characters and surprising depth.

What it most definitely *isn't* is another Rambo pastiche.

Well worth a read.

Gyppo (John Craggs) April 2008