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Breathe
The longer Sebastian survives and the closer he gets to the truth, the more he struggles to breathe—a thriller about a man for whom the only choice for survival—running—is not an option Sebastian suffers from acute asthma. He’s an ex-soldier, but the asthma meant he never saw combat. Working as a courier for a man he’s never met, Sebastian arrives in town early with a bag to deliver. An hour before the hand-over he meets Isobel, a weary nurse in need of a ride. But Isobel is a honey trap, and before Sebastian is even aware of the danger, she’s knocked him unconscious and escaped into the night. Sebastian is given 24 hours to recover the bag or a contract will go out on his life, his only lead the enigmatic Isobel. But Isobel is also a pawn, at the mercy of a man she calls Mr. Punch, the overlord of a criminal empire built entirely upon manipulation, blackmail, and fear. And Mr. Punch is not alone—his second in command is even worse.
327 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2015
About the author
David Ince
7 books9 followersI am an author and filmmaker. My books include 'Bubble Goes Bang', 'Breathe' and the forthcoming 'What Waits In The Red', which is due for publication in the summer of 2016.
For more information about my work please visit my website at www.davidince.com or catch me on twitter @DavidInceCreate
For more information about my work please visit my website at www.davidince.com or catch me on twitter @DavidInceCreate
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 14, 2015
It is a wonderful thing when you start to read a book and get totally gripped from the first page. Breathe did just that for me and I was devastated when it finished. However, the over riding sensation was one of shock – David Ince is not into sugar coating and the characters in his book get a very rough ride.
Sebastian is our lead character, acting as a courier (of what he prefers not to know) he manages to lose a bag he was meant to deliver to some rather unpleasant ‘businessmen’. This is not the greatest of his immediate problems as someone has locked him into a room and two men are waiting outside to kill him – just as soon as his starring role in a traumatic home-movie has ended.
Falling back on his military training Sebastian manages to escape from the room and soon negotiates 24 hours to track down the lost bag he was due to deliver. Thus begins a desperate race against time for Sebastian as the consequence of failure will almost certainly result in his death at the hands of the aforementioned ‘businessmen’.
Sebastian will have his work cut out. Although he does not know it, he is a pawn in the game of the notorious ‘Mr Punch’ – a sinister figure who blackmails everyday people turns them into killers and thugs. Mr Punch and his associates have decided that it is time for Sebastian to die and they are not interested in any 24 hour grace period to recover a lost bag.
Breathe is fast paced, action packed and often brutal and unforgiving. I want to rave about how good it was, share certain scenes with you and tell you how I was blindsided by some of the twists. But that would spoil your enjoyment – this is a book you simply have to read for yourself.
Breathe is the first part of the Meat Puppet Trilogy (which is quite possibly the best named trilogy I have encountered for many a long year!) Having rushed through Breathe I cannot wait to see where David Ince takes us in the next book. I just hope I don’t have to wait too long to read it.
An outstanding 5* read – Breathe is going top of September’s recommendations and it will take something pretty special to stop me thinking about some of those plot twists! I cannot recommend this enough – a must read for crime fans.
Sebastian is our lead character, acting as a courier (of what he prefers not to know) he manages to lose a bag he was meant to deliver to some rather unpleasant ‘businessmen’. This is not the greatest of his immediate problems as someone has locked him into a room and two men are waiting outside to kill him – just as soon as his starring role in a traumatic home-movie has ended.
Falling back on his military training Sebastian manages to escape from the room and soon negotiates 24 hours to track down the lost bag he was due to deliver. Thus begins a desperate race against time for Sebastian as the consequence of failure will almost certainly result in his death at the hands of the aforementioned ‘businessmen’.
Sebastian will have his work cut out. Although he does not know it, he is a pawn in the game of the notorious ‘Mr Punch’ – a sinister figure who blackmails everyday people turns them into killers and thugs. Mr Punch and his associates have decided that it is time for Sebastian to die and they are not interested in any 24 hour grace period to recover a lost bag.
Breathe is fast paced, action packed and often brutal and unforgiving. I want to rave about how good it was, share certain scenes with you and tell you how I was blindsided by some of the twists. But that would spoil your enjoyment – this is a book you simply have to read for yourself.
Breathe is the first part of the Meat Puppet Trilogy (which is quite possibly the best named trilogy I have encountered for many a long year!) Having rushed through Breathe I cannot wait to see where David Ince takes us in the next book. I just hope I don’t have to wait too long to read it.
An outstanding 5* read – Breathe is going top of September’s recommendations and it will take something pretty special to stop me thinking about some of those plot twists! I cannot recommend this enough – a must read for crime fans.
September 7, 2015
An interesting and exciting read.
Ince's characters are personable and relate-able, the crimes and situations in 'Breathe' are interesting and keep a grip on realism (although taken to a surreal scale - but ok, it's a novel not a history text). A fast-paced read, 'Breathe' is thrilling to the last.
I enjoyed the play between broader narrative brush-strokes, allowing my imagination to fire, and intricate details for checkable facts. Admittedly; at times, I wondered if the intricacy of the street directions was required; now in retrospect I see how these detailed sections were tools with relate-able substance used to ebb and buoy the pace of the narrative. It certainly didn't distract from the storyline.
My analytic and sceptical mind usually finds me either a step ahead of the storyline with poorly seeded clues - or thrown an eight-ball with a late-introduced antagonist; 'Breathe' is constructed in a way that kept me guessing and interested - and then didn't disappoint when the antagonist is revealed.
The text on the cover of 'Breathe' promises this to be the first in a trilogy 'The Meat Puppets'. I'll be adding David Ince to my author alert list.
Ince's characters are personable and relate-able, the crimes and situations in 'Breathe' are interesting and keep a grip on realism (although taken to a surreal scale - but ok, it's a novel not a history text). A fast-paced read, 'Breathe' is thrilling to the last.
I enjoyed the play between broader narrative brush-strokes, allowing my imagination to fire, and intricate details for checkable facts. Admittedly; at times, I wondered if the intricacy of the street directions was required; now in retrospect I see how these detailed sections were tools with relate-able substance used to ebb and buoy the pace of the narrative. It certainly didn't distract from the storyline.
My analytic and sceptical mind usually finds me either a step ahead of the storyline with poorly seeded clues - or thrown an eight-ball with a late-introduced antagonist; 'Breathe' is constructed in a way that kept me guessing and interested - and then didn't disappoint when the antagonist is revealed.
The text on the cover of 'Breathe' promises this to be the first in a trilogy 'The Meat Puppets'. I'll be adding David Ince to my author alert list.
January 21, 2016
This is the 2nd book that I have read by this author, and could not be more different to the first book, `Bubble Goes Bang`. I knew from the blurb that it was going to be a thriller of some description, but this author's books do not always fall easily into a single category, which makes his books rather more original than many that I read. Although I can't say I was riveted from page 1, it really didn't take long before I reached a point that I did not want to put the book down. I found the story both original and scary. Could this really happen? Yes, I think it could, so very scary.
Only one thing that I found slightly irritating, this is a book written by an English author, so why talk about "hang a left" or "hang a right", as far as I am aware these are americanisms. But perhaps they have been adopted as common slang by young British people now, I am from the older generation and also haven't lived in the UK for over 20 years, so it could be that I'm just out of touch, in which case I just need to get over it. But to the book, a very good read and I'm looking forward to the next one.
Only one thing that I found slightly irritating, this is a book written by an English author, so why talk about "hang a left" or "hang a right", as far as I am aware these are americanisms. But perhaps they have been adopted as common slang by young British people now, I am from the older generation and also haven't lived in the UK for over 20 years, so it could be that I'm just out of touch, in which case I just need to get over it. But to the book, a very good read and I'm looking forward to the next one.
October 2, 2015
Fast, suspenseful, and oh-so-dark, this is one of those crime/thriller novels that keeps you guessing and second-guessing until you're not sure what is going to happen to whom.
Sebastian is a nice guy with a job delivering unknown cargo. Isobel is a nurse that has been manipulated for years by the mysterious criminal overlord, Mr Punch. When Sebastian gives her a ride, their future collides in an explosion of action, intrigue and bleakness. May the best man win...
Tightly plotted, so fast that it will leave you completely - yes, I'm going to say it - breathless, and with well-drawn characters taken to the extremes of the human condition, this is a very good, and very different, take on the crime thriller. I look forward to reading more in the series.
*I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.
Sebastian is a nice guy with a job delivering unknown cargo. Isobel is a nurse that has been manipulated for years by the mysterious criminal overlord, Mr Punch. When Sebastian gives her a ride, their future collides in an explosion of action, intrigue and bleakness. May the best man win...
Tightly plotted, so fast that it will leave you completely - yes, I'm going to say it - breathless, and with well-drawn characters taken to the extremes of the human condition, this is a very good, and very different, take on the crime thriller. I look forward to reading more in the series.
*I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.
December 4, 2020
Started with an odd little tale whose relevance wasn't obvious for some while, but after that I got into the main characters and wanted to find out what happened to them. The first half of the book was good - but then it started getting a bit far-fetched and a bit trigger happy. Certainly by the end, the fact that the ending wasn't what I was hoping for didn't really matter so much. There is clearly a good writer behind this but I wish there'd been a little less gung-ho action and a little more subtlety and cunning.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 19, 2016
This book pulls no punches. From start to finish it's harsh, gritty, and unrelentingly bleak. That comes not only in the vivid depictions of sex and violence, but in the equally vivid exposure of the motives behind those acts - the fear and desperation of some, the rage of others, and the desire to be in control.
The setting is well chosen to underline this bleakness. A British city in winter, the skies dark, the streets choked with snow. The cold and wet and misery seeps into everything and everyone. But especially into the main characters. Sebastian is ex-army, a frustrated warrior who's drifted into borderline criminality, and someone who is physically and temperamentally unable to run. His courage and essential decency are among the few signs of hope in the book, and they shine all the brighter against the dark background. Isobel is trapped by her past, desperate to be free, desperate to be a better person than she has become. It is their uneasy alliance that drives the story along.
But they face a worse enemy than they realise. 'Mr Punch' as Isobel calls him is almost supernatural in his abilities and utterly implacable. He turns people into 'meat puppets', totally under his control, to the point that they will kill or die on his orders.
However, Mr Punch is a hollow man. He does what he does not for wealth or even for power but simply because that's what he does. His evil is essentially pointless. The sense of despair that pervades the story comes from him.
I can't really say that I enjoyed this book. I respect the craftsmanship, I give credit to the author's undeniable ability (hence four stars), but it wasn't pleasant reading. Of course, it is the first of a trilogy, and the ending leaves it well placed to continue. Perhaps by the final conclusion there will be some light and hope. But I suspect that there will be a lot of snow and misery to wade through first.
The setting is well chosen to underline this bleakness. A British city in winter, the skies dark, the streets choked with snow. The cold and wet and misery seeps into everything and everyone. But especially into the main characters. Sebastian is ex-army, a frustrated warrior who's drifted into borderline criminality, and someone who is physically and temperamentally unable to run. His courage and essential decency are among the few signs of hope in the book, and they shine all the brighter against the dark background. Isobel is trapped by her past, desperate to be free, desperate to be a better person than she has become. It is their uneasy alliance that drives the story along.
But they face a worse enemy than they realise. 'Mr Punch' as Isobel calls him is almost supernatural in his abilities and utterly implacable. He turns people into 'meat puppets', totally under his control, to the point that they will kill or die on his orders.
However, Mr Punch is a hollow man. He does what he does not for wealth or even for power but simply because that's what he does. His evil is essentially pointless. The sense of despair that pervades the story comes from him.
I can't really say that I enjoyed this book. I respect the craftsmanship, I give credit to the author's undeniable ability (hence four stars), but it wasn't pleasant reading. Of course, it is the first of a trilogy, and the ending leaves it well placed to continue. Perhaps by the final conclusion there will be some light and hope. But I suspect that there will be a lot of snow and misery to wade through first.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews