The Evader

by Thomas Wood

France, 1940. One British soldier tries to find his way home.

But with an ever-threatening enemy closing in on his tail, will he be able to get away?

Second Lieutenant Alfie Lewis, a newly commissioned officer in Britain’s Royal Tank Regiment enjoys a dull start to the Second World War. Spending his days with his comrades, enjoying the countryside and the French way of life, he begins to forget that a war could be a matter of hours away.

But when a reconnaissance operation descends into chaos, Alfie is forced into a continuous downward spiral, sending him into a long journey of evasion, deception and sheer luck.

The Germans are closing in on young Lieutenant Lewis and, before too long; he has no weapon, money or friends to speak of as he continues his journey through occupied France.

Can Alfie make it out alive? If he does, will he be executed by his own country?

The Evader is the first in the new, action-packed, Alfie Lewis thriller series from war fiction author Thomas Wood.

382 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 2, 2019

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 August 2019
Had an advance copy to review - nothing provided to influence the content or direction of this review.

A thrilling read, taking the protagonist through the chaos of the battle of France, the retreat towards Dunkirk and then evasion through occupied France. The book flows at the right pace, and the chapters through the retreat give a good sense of the confusion that abounded as opposing forces bumped into each other and were then on their own again.

This works represents a maturer prose than some of the author’s earlier works, representing his evolution as a military fiction writer. My only dislike was the first chapter, where I felt the protagonist explained too much of his background too quickly, it was forced and unnatural. However, the rest of the book flows much better, with a realistic sense of discussion and engagement between the characters. The balance of detachment and attachment between the protagonist and the support cast feels right, giving the reader just enough to be concerned about their fate without getting lost from the main character arc. The book had a good length, so despite a lot of action/events being incorporated it did not fee too heavy or forced.

Looking forward to reading future additions to the series. An entertaining thriller, nicely set in the context of real military events. Recommended.

[MR R MEALOR · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb

A very enjoyable book from cover to cover I really enjoyed every single page of the the book it was great

[Phil Altimas · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is the story of alfie Lewis, a tank commander with the BEF. he gets caught in France during the Nazi invasion, can he escape? how will he escape?

a great read, loved the pace and plot
also learned a bit about how the BEF worked
will be downloading the next book to read on alfies story

[Chris Payne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't do book reviews like you keep seeing, as I find that some give too much of the plot away and I personally hate that, as it makes the book not worth reading. I much prefer to take the authors back cover write up as a review as it can either intrigue you enough to read the book of provide you enough information to make you decide that the book is not for you.
My review rules are: The more stars, the more I liked it.
If there are too many typos or errors the less stars I give
If the storyline or plot is poor or contains too many errors, the characters are too weak, the ending lacking something, then the less stars I give.
Simple, uncomplicated and to the point without giving anything away.
Some of the books I read have been given to me by the author as a pre-release copy and this does not bias my reviews in any way.

[Woody James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read an advanced reader copy. I enjoyed the book but at times was hard to read because it took me back to my time slogging around in the jungles of Vietnam. The story was good but I was hoping for more history as my dad was in WWII. He's gone now and rarely talked about the war so I was hoping to get something more about the times and conditions he lived in. Still a good book worth the read.

[Brian Fraser · Rating 2 out of 5]

Years ago I read comics like The Eagle and Boys Own, they were written in a style appropriate for young minds.... this comic is written in the same vein. Childish, padded out with inconsequential ramblings, interspaced with modern-day pasted in expressions. Only reason I percevered to the end was to find out how much worse it could get

[dennis musk · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boreing

There was to much of self proclaiming and hardley any action , what there was was was short with no way to get the reader into it?.