I was not able to finish the book and therefore do not feel that I can give an unbiased review about the book, its plot, characters, or the author's work. I might revisit this book at a later time and finish it then, but not right now.

High octane with a gripping edge. I could feel the danger building and maintaining a composed face was hard as I was scared witless. I feel for those in Witness protection. In this book Sarah is hiding for her life and it's plotted against her!

And it’s a yes from me.
A good, fast paced thriller that keeps you interested from the start and thinking further ahead.

Nowhere to Hide by Max Luther, a good read. Well written, engaging and a good read. A witness hunted and a outside person to the rescue, what more do you need.

Nowhere to Hide by Max Luther
Alex Drayce #1

Fast-paced, action-packed, thrill-ride from beginning to end ~ Couldn’t put it down!

What I liked:
* Alex Drayce: ex-policeman, bodyguard, orphaned at 2 years of age, widow, has made fighting skills, lethal, believes in fighting the good fight and defending those in need, moral, willing to do what needs to be done to protect those in his care, intriguing
* Julie Adler: works for the National Crime Agency, career in police-type work, willing to bend rules to make sure the right thing is done, wise, protective, marksman, strong, and savvy
* Sarah: in witness protection program, gave information to put away the cruel evil Marlowe Brothers and is set to give testimony before being moved to her new location and identity, being chased by hitmen paid for by her brother
* The plot, pacing, tension, character development, and writing
* That I was invested in the outcome and rooting for Drayce to keep Sarah alive
* Finding a new author and series that I enjoyed and knowing there will be another book in this series next year
* All of it except…

What I didn’t like:
* Who and what I was meant not to like
* Thinking about the evil that some are willing to do and how easily corrupting some people must be to do by those who are evil
* Having to wait to read the next book in the series

Did I enjoy this book? Yes
Would I read more in this series? Yes

Thank you to NetGalley and Canelo for the ARC – This is my honest review.

4-5 Stars

An action packed thriller involving witness protection and the crime underworld in London. The plot is well thought out, there is a lot of violence and a few unexpected twists in the story. I liked this book a lot. The main characters, Julie & Alex are well portrayed, the baddies are suitably nasty.
Thanks to Net Galley for a great read

This is a great action thriller.
Sarah is in witness protection but her whereabouts is comprised because of a leak.
She hires Alex as her bodyguard to keep her safe, but unfortunately the people who are looking for her are not far away.
There is lots of action and this is a fast paced story which I really enjoyed.
Thanks to Canelo and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

Nowhere To Hide is the first book in a brand new series called, ‘Alex Drayce’ and if this book is anything to go by then i cannot wait for the rest of the series!

I really enjoyed getting to know the wonderful characters of this book, especially Alex Drayce, the former police officer who is now working as a bodyguard.

The story is very well written and sets a perfect reading pace and gives us plenty of twists along the way. It has a very easy to follow storyline and honestly it’s action packed.

At the end of the book i was definitely left wanting more…..

It has been a while but I've read a few books in the meantime and one of them is Nowhere to Hide by Max Luther. It will be published on the 12th of October, my birthday, and I received a copy of it from Canelo via Netgalley.

Sarah Bennett knows something. Something some people don't want exposed. And that's why she was in witness protection. She wasn't the only one in witness protection who knew something about that particular case. The protection fails horribly and now Sarah has to run for her life. The agency is compromised and one employee is determined to keep Sarah safe. The only way she knows how to do that is to ask for help from Alex Drayce, a private bodyguard. He has to use all his expertise to keep Sarah safe from the powerful criminals.

This was an amazing action thriller. It absolutely read like a film and my imagination just took over when reading this book. I love these fast paced action-filled thrillers with a good storyline. The characters are quite interesting and well worked out. You get to know them a bit, you know the background so you understand why they do what they do. I just couldn't put it down because it would be as if I would pause a film just in the middle. Loved the tension and the suspense in combination with the action. As it is where these kinds of films, the story itself was sometimes a bit over the top that didn't take away from being utterly enjoyable.

4,5/5 ⭐

This is a very good, promising, debut novel from the author, set around the Witness protection programme. The main character, Alex, is portrayed well with this original plotting and there is enough suspense to occupy the reader until the end. It's an action packed easy read which I am sure fans of thrillers will enjoy. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

Good book! This book had a bit of everything! It had suspense, Action, intrigue, mystery, revenge, murder, hired hitmen, great police work, great plot twist, and some crazy twists and turns! The storyline was very interesting and kept me glued to my Kindle! I definitely recommend reading this book as it was well worth reading! Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for sharing this book with me

The basic story of Sarah in witness protection and bad guys trying to kill her is a fairly well trodden tale and I'm not sure that this had anything especially out of the ordinary in it; that is other than the very violent and gruesome action of both sides. The bodyguard spends a lot of time fighting; those trying to kill Sarah are a really violent and nasty bunch with not a lot of intelligence between them. This is probably deliberate as they are being "run" from the real perpetrators from jail. There are the inevitable bad/bent cops/prison guards. Car chases at 100mph around London and the south east were just ludicrous to me, and what about the bad guys shooting up a restaurant, wearing balaclavas and making people think they were in Covid masks? If you want action, action, action with little depth it's fine. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy.

(2.5 stars)
Nowhere To Hide is a brutal thriller buying into the usual witness protection anxiety: witnesses in the program being found. One of the lead protagonists works at the National Command Authority (NCA) "specifically with witness protection: the staffing, the logistics, the communications, as well as the skillful deployment of every single method known to law enforcement regarding how to keep a witness's whereabouts secret." The other protagonist is a trained killer with morals, Alex Drayce: "He's extremely well trained and his morals are carved into bedrock."

This doesn't ring entirely true because Alex went from protecting the President to being a bodyguard for hire for people who other people want to kill because they're crime bosses. Also Alex has deformed ears, and these sorts of deformities are, the author tells us: "Without exception... the mark of men long accustomed to violence." You might also find it convenient (though not necessarily believable) that Alex is able to flick between extreme violence and behaviour fitting his high morality: "Time to embrace the savage within him, to park his more civilised self in the wings for a later performance."

This juxtaposition makes Nowhere to Hide feel like a Mills & Boon novel for men who want to see themselves as both refined and capable of incredible violence. At its heart this is a crudely written book about thug life: violent men who take stimulants, enjoy torturing kids and animals with flicking switch-knives and smell of panic: "his body odour had achieved an antisocial level." While the first two chapters were fast paced and exciting, it petered off and hid behind graphic descriptions of excessive violence and torture: "The man's flesh opened up, briefly revealing the severed muscle fibres and layers of subcutaneous fat, instantly camouflaged by a torrent of blood." .

Acronyms, for example, NCA, CTSFO and RaSP, are over-used and annoying to anyone who isn't a part of American bureaucracy. There's also a lot of explaining, rather than showing. Alex for example, has "experience in planning for every contingency, while blending into the background, unnoticed". The baddies wore masks which "obscured their identities to any onlookers without highlighting themselves as suspicious; many people still wore COVID-19 masks while out in public."

You will probably get a giggle out of some of the author's descriptive clunkers though: "His flesh welcomed the warmth as a starving man would a plate of food, absorbing in hungrily and distributing it around his body, his extremities tingling in the process." That was about warming up after being in a river, or there's my personal favourite: "Drayce gambled on the gunman reloading, and carpe'd the heck out of the diem." More ow than wow...

I can never resist a good action thriller, and there was just something about the cover and blurb of this debut that caught my attention immediately. Nowhere To Hide seemed to be exactly the thrilling and high speed rollercoaster ride I have been craving, and I loved the sound of the private bodyguard stepping in to save a woman in danger after the National Crime Agency and witness protection program are compromised. Now that I've had the chance to read it, I'm happy to announce that this debut turned out to be everything I hoped it would be.

Nowhere To Hide is what you call a proper action thriller, and the plot will leave you breathless offering one dangerous and explosive situation after the other. This first book of the Alex Drayce series reads almost like one of those Hollywood action blockbusters, and I mean this only in the best possible way. Things can be said about the credibility of certain aspects of the plot and I know this story won't be for everyone, but if you like your thrillers on the fast, exhilarating and action-packed side you will be in for a real treat. Trust me, you won't find a boring minute along the way, and the term unputdownable most definitely applies here.

What I can appreciate is that Nowhere To Hide doesn't just offer us non-stop action, but also takes the time to give us more insight in the different characters in play. True, the main focus of the plot is on the events and how main character Alex Drayce deals with the danger along the way, but there was enough character development and background to make it easy to connect to the characters or at least start rooting for them. There were also quite a few twists and revelations incorporated along the way, and while I did guess some of them, as a whole they were very satisfying.

A little warning is in place, because things can get pretty gruesome and graphic along the way. If you don't mind a healthy dose of violence, fighting scenes and even torture though, Nowhere To Hide will without doubt deliver a story that will have you on the edge of your seat the whole time. And while some of those scenes might be a bit over the top and not completely credible, I personally didn't mind as the entertainment level is through the roof. Oh yes, this is one of those books where it's best to just sit back and enjoy the ride... I know I did!

I don't want to give away too much of the plot to avoid spoilers, but what I can say is that Nowhere To Hide is a high octane and simply exhilarating action thriller debut, and I loved every single minute of the ride. I will definitely be looking forward to discover what Alex Drayce will be up to next!

Nowhere to Hide is a fast paced thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat.

Sarah is in witness protection as she is to testify against a criminal organization in London. Then, her information is compromised and she has to take off on the run. Her bodyguard, Alex, is at her side but survival is not assured.

Full of twists and turns, Sarah's nightmare became my own.

This is one fast paced novel, action packed and very exciting, and I actually read it in one day. Alex Drayce is certainly someone you would want on your side, and not make an enemy of.

The story starts off with a girl named Sarah who is in witness protection via the NCA and her position is comprised because of a leak in the establishment. No one knows how far the tentacles go and which agency is involved. Julie hires Alex as her bodyguard to keep her safe, but unfortunately the people who are out to get her are not far behind. The plot is very tight and well written, but I did work out who it was, so that really wasn’t a surprise.

I hope the author continues with more adventures featuring Alex and the NCA who seem to weird more power than the police, and add more thrills and drama.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would like to thank you the author, Canelo and Netgalley for the ARC.

Not normally the type of read I would choose. Out of my comfort zone however I found it an intriguing and great read. I read it through very quickly.

As soon as you start this book prepare to do nothing else but read this book. Alex will do anything to protect Sarah who is in witness protection . This book is like watching a high speed chase from the very first pages your captivated by the storyline and the author makes sure he keeps you on the edge of your seat! I absolutely loved this book. Loved the page turning suspense. Highly recommend reading!!

Gritty thriller,not for the faint hearted. Interesting characters and plenty of twists. You think you know who done it,but you're probably wrong.

I was given this book by NetGalley for an honest review-
What a book! I was captivated from the first page.
Sarah is in the witness.protection program waiting to testify against an organized crime group. They want her dead- and there is a leak somewhere as she ends up running for her life,
Alex, a bodyguard is hired to keep her safe. They are up against a dangerous group . Can he keep her safe. Grab this book for a thrilling read!