Adam seems to have it all; he’s a successful pediatrician in London with 2 kids and is in a happy marriage. He’s truly living his life except he’s convinced that cctv, public cameras and stranger’s phones are recording his every move because of one life changing night at a party at his university. These fears of his seem to become a reality when one day an old fling comes back into his life which triggers a series of unwanted and horrifying events.

I loved this book!! We bounce back and forth between present day and Adam’s university years in the 90s and it gave me slight The Secret History vibes (I say this very lightly). I also loved the very Black Mirror like technophobia. Aspects of NO PLACE TO HIDE reminded me of the Black Mirror episode Shut Up and Dance (which was extremely awful and upsetting but so good). I thought the story unraveled perfectly with a good twist at the end and I couldn’t put it down.

Found this really difficult to get into and all the main characters quite unlikeable or realistic, sadly not for me

No Place to Hide is an original and exciting thriller full of wicked twists and turns and is a thoroughly enjoyable read.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Loved this book. Unlikeable characters, great twists and turns. You will not be able to put this book down. Highly recommend.

J. S. Monroe started out writing very good spy thrillers in the 2010s under the name Jon Stock, but more recently he has moved into broader crime novels, in the style of Harlan Coben, with clever ‘what if’ scenarios at their core.

His latest is No Place To Hide and it takes the recent paranoia about the prevalence of surveillance and notches it up a level or two.

Adam lives a picture-perfect life with a seemingly happy marriage, two young children, and a flourishing career as a doctor. There is, however, a dark side to Adam. Following an incident when he was at university, Adam has a paranoia about surveillance. He is convinced that the hospital CCTV, strangers’ mobile phones, city traffic cameras and the like are all watching him, recording his every move. That paranoia is increased when a seemingly chance encounter with an old flame from his university days sets in train a devastating series of events.

Utilising a dual timeline, Monroe’s novel flicks between the present day threats to Adam and the tragic events at university, which led to his predicament. Both stories quickly increase in interest and Monroe keeps you guessing as to what is going on.

No Place To Hide is a fast paced novel that quickly draws you into the story. Monroe is very good at steadily ramping up the tension in the opening stages and the final climax is full of suspense and action. The characters are well sketched, and the story certainly holds your attention. My reservations are that the basic premise behind the present day storyline lacks some credibility, and that Adam is very frustrating as a character. Nevertheless, it is very easy to move past this, and overall it is a brisk enjoyable tale.

Not as good as my favourite Monroe novel, The Other You, but still an entertaining read that raises some interesting points about surveillance.

I loved this.
It started out in a quite innocuous way and then the tension built chapter by chapter.
Told on two timelines it was not confusing and didn’t jump about like some books so was very easy to follow.
It was gripping and I didn’t want to put it down.

No Place to Hide by J S Munroe is a story combining a coerced faustian pact with a character suffering paranoia stemming from the way in which we might be observed by CCTV or hidden cameras and how our lives could so easily become matters of public interest, curiosity or voyeurism.

Dr Adam Pound, a pediatrician is becoming suspicious that his life is being observed by others for unknown reasons. Then Clio, a previous love from university meets Adam by chance bringing back memories of events that almost ruined his life.

The story is very well structured, taught and twisting throughout. The switching from the uni days to present time (24 years later for the Faust nerds 😉) is managed well also (this is a pet hate of mine when done badly!).

A first from this author for me and a solid ⭐⭐⭐⭐ so I shall be reading more from him.

My thanks to NetGalley and Aria and Aries Publishing for a copy of “No Place To Hide” for an honest review.

Another excellent book by J S Monroe..It is really cleverly written , and suspenseful, I felt genuinely unnerved while I was reading it !
The main character of Adam as a student ,due to disturbing events , and the way he dealt with them, led to a Faustian pact made with another student.This comes to its climax 24 years later, and who should he trust ?
This book is particularly of its time with the development of technology and social media.
Well worth a read

📷NO PLACE TO HIDE📷

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 Star Read)

Publish Date: 13th April

. This book was a fast paced (at points) thriller with loaaaads going on
. It kept me reading until the end
. I really liked Adam as a character and all of his family they were created really well
. It scans from current day where Adam is now a paediatric doctor living in London to his past university life where we was a medic student and obsessed with Clio
. The play/ acting bit of the book I got a little lost with however it didn’t defer from the actual plot/ storyline
. The current day stuff I did prefer as it moved on the story and made it slightly gripping particularly towards the end but obviously there wouldn’t be a plot without the previous uni life
. This story was unique, modern in the current plot with loads of technical jargon (but again you can work out what it is)
. A very cleverly written book, if you like thrillers you’ll enjoy this.
. Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a digital copy of this book in return for an honest review

#jsmonroe #noplacetohide #4starread #new #newbook
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This was an enjoyable read. It was non-demanding and a page turner at times.

Adam seems to live a normal life, living with his wife Tania, two young children and working as a doctor at the local hospital. But he is paranoid that security cameras and people are watching him. The story switches between present day and back to when he was a student at Cambridge. The reasons did just paranoia soon become apparent as his back story is revealed. It all built up to a big ending with the plot neatly sewn up. Overall I enjoyed this novel and gave it 4 stars. Thank you to the publisher and Net Galley for providing an advance copy in return for my honest opinion. I have also published this review on Goodreads.

One of the great pleasures in reading or listening to books is to be in a position to write a review or just say to your friends that you absolutely know which book they need to read next. Unfortunately No Place To Hide by J S Monroe is not one of those.

After about getting halfway through this story I was overwhelmed with the feeling that I had either read or seen this story before. I stand to be corrected but what could have been a really stunning original story just seemed to get lazy and rely on the Faustian myth of selling your soul and reaping the consequences later.

A well written story and still worth a read but not a stunner.

'No Place to Hide' is a modern take on the story of Dr Faustus. Faust makes a pact with the devil, selling his soul in order to obtain knowledge and power. J.S.Monroe's psychological thriller is alternating between 1998, where the medicine student Adam makes an arrangement with Louis, and 2022 in the present, where Adam is a successful paediatrician and family man. However he is starting to feel like he is being watched or is he just paranoid. The story starts to unravel fast.
This psychological thriller is captivating and keeps you on your toes until the end. An interesting version of a very old theme. Highly recommended!
Thanks so much to Aria and to Netgalley for providing an advance copy for review.

Oh wow, this was a great read. Twisty, suspenseful and very readable. Another good one from this author. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

No Place To Hide was unrelentingly tense to read, completely far-fetched but quite brilliant.

Adam has a wife, two children and is living out his dream of being a doctor. So why is he so paranoid about cameras watching him?

As we move between the present and Adam's university days in 1998, we start to understand why he is so anxious. It's been 24 years since he made a deal with the devil otherwise known as Louis. A man who manipulates everyone around him in the most depraved of ways. And a man who has come back into Adam's life to steal his soul.

This thriller really did keep me on the edge of my seat. Layers upon layers of deception and doubt. Brilliantly written, it's definitely one of the most addictive and memorable thrillers I've read in a long time.

This was a gripping psychological thriller that I was racing through in the final chapters. I loved the creepy big brother element with all the surveillance cameras possibly watching. Is Adam really being watched or is he just paranoid? What happened in Adam's past to cause this paranoia? Who and why could be watching him?

I enjoyed the dual time frame which alternates between the start of Adam's University life, twenty four years ago and the present day where Adam is a doctor with a wife and two children.
A great thriller with mounting tension, lots of twists and an unputdownable finale.

This is everything I want and need from a juicy page turner that kept me reading well in to the night when I should have been sleeping! Who done it? What is it that they have actually done? who is it? where am I? what the devil is going on? type of book!! A few other reviewers have commented on not particularly likeable characters but I didn't pick up on that in particular, I just couldn't believe what I was reading and how untrustworthy literally every character seems which I know is the point of the book - I couldn't wait to find out what was going on, what happened in the past that had led to this point. The lack of self belief and self doubt from our protagonist was great and helped with the tension in the book. My mum is taking this on holiday for sure! 10/10

With the story telling swapping between timelines of then and now, this book had me completely invested from the start! A very different take on a psychological thriller with very well crafted characters and great a book that is hard to put down!

A tense psychological thriller. As was all these books you have to have to get past the fact that the characters a;ways take the torturous route, but nicely done and the story cracked along.

Inspired by Christopher Marlowe’s play, Doctor Faustus, No Place to Hide explores the consequences of a bargain entered into with a fellow student many years before which turns out to be akin to a pact with the Devil of Marlowe’s play. Okay, so Adam doesn’t quite get twenty four years of ‘absolute knowledge and infinite power’ in exchange for his soul but he does get a successful career as a consultant paediatrician, untarnished by any whiff of scandal associated with the tragic event that occurred at a party whilst he was a medical student. Until, that it is, the person he entered into the agreement with decides it’s time to claim his prize.

Alternating between Adam’s time at college in 1998 and the present day, we get a keen sense of his increasing paranoia as he begins to believe he is being secretly filmed, and not just by someone with a camera, but by all the surveillence technology we see (or perhaps don’t see) around us. It puts a strain on his marriage, especially when the intrusion comes a little too close to home, threatening the safety of his young family as well as his career.

Having commenced with a theatrical performance – Adam’s starring role in Doctor Faustus – it’s fitting that the book’s closing scenes are full of melodrama. I liked how the author keeps Adam, and through him the reader, constantly unsure about who to trust. For instance, is Clio, the object of Adam’s unconsummated student lust, a willing accessory or an innocent pawn in a devilish game? This is particularly cleverly done when it comes to Ji, Adam’s friend from university who has progressed from video game addict to technology supremo.

The book’s equivalent of Hell is the so-called ‘dark web’ which turns out to be a very dark place indeed, the stuff of nightmares in fact. Adam’s adversary is not perhaps Marlowe’s Devil, the incarnation of pure evil, but a manipulative, damaged individual with demons of his own, and a very particular motive for tormenting Adam.

No Place to Hide is a skilfully crafted, thought-provoking thriller that is also an unsettling insight into the extent to which technology, and surveillence technology in particular, has become part of our everyday lives and the capacity for its misuse. Maybe you haven’t noticed how many security cameras there are in your high street or local shopping centre? You probably will after reading this.

‘You might be paranoid, but that doesn't mean they're not watching you.’ - cover tag line.

My thanks to Head of Zeus - Aria & Aries for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘No Place to Hide’ by J.S. Monroe.

This proved one of the best thrillers that I have read in a while. It’s a novel that I would suggest be read ‘cold’ for maximum enjoyment of its rollercoaster plot. Still, here’s a brief overview:

Adam Pound has the kind of life that is very familiar to readers of psychological and domestic thrillers. An apparently perfect life with a happy marriage, two young children, and a successful career as a paediatrician at a London hospital.

Yet Adam lives with a secret that dates back twenty-four years to 1998 during his first year as a medical student at Cambridge University. Something terrible had happened at a drunken party. Only two other people knew about it: Louis, an aspiring film-maker, and Clio, a fellow student that Adam had an unrequited crush on. Now Clio has strolled back into his life bringing havoc in her wake. No further details to avoid spoilers.

This was a terrific thriller moving smoothly between the past and present. At Cambridge Adam had been cast as the titular character in an university production of ‘Doctor Faustus’. Clio played Mephistopheles, Lucifer’s agent. Adam appears to be haunted by this role and the concept of selling one’s soul.

Monroe cleverly peppers his narrative with references including books and films that deal with pacts with the devil and Adam’s adversary Louis certainly gives off those kind of Luciferian vibes in both appearance and behaviour.

‘No Place to Hide’ has plenty of twists and turns and builds to a nerve-shattering climax at the Minack outdoor theatre during a stormy night on the Cornwall coast. The novel’s final scene also gave me goosebumps!

It was no surprise to read that Monroe has had a long career in journalism as his writing is very crisp. ‘No Place to Hide’ certainly packs a punch and proved an excellent read.

Highly recommend.