Lloyd Lofthouse

Thin Ice is Huw Thomas’s fourth title and the first that I have read of his work.

In “Thin Ice” we are introduced to two Danny Harpers. The first Danny, the main character, is riding a bicycle on a country road and is in an accident with an out-of-control car sliding on black ice.

After a banged up and bruised Harper wakes up in the hospital, he soon discovers that he is no longer in the England he knew or the same body.

In addition, Rebecca, his fiancée and the woman he loves doesn’t know him in this alternate England causing Danny to fall into a depression. He decides he has to win this Rebecca’s (Becca to Danny) heart, which makes for some interesting reading to see how he manages to pull this off — or not.

In this alternate universe, the first Danny discovers he has inherited the unhealthy body of a Danny that was a heavy drinker and smoker.  In addition, instead of being an editor with a secure job, Danny is now a reporter on “thin ice” in danger of losing his job.

It doesn’t take long before Danny discovers that a wealthy and powerful deranged serial killer already in jail in the England he came from hasn’t been caught yet in this alternate world, and Danny knows where the bodies of several dead woman will be found after they are murdered, but some of them are not dead yet.  Armed with this knowledge, Danny risks his life and sets out to stop and catch the killer and save some of the intended victims.

“Thin Ice” is a cleverly crafted book, which kept my attention from start to finish. Although I found that the novel could use a professional copy editor to clean up a few misplaced words, those minor glitches did not distract from enjoying the story. Usually an author is the last person that should copyedit his own manuscript, so do not be surprised if you run into a few of these errors in the narrative, but at the same time, don’t let that stop you from reading this entertaining, complex story.

I read for two reasons: to learn and/or be entertained—not to harp on the occasional slip of a distraction. The odds favor that anyone who reads for the same reasons, will enjoy this novel.

After training as a journalist, the author, Huw Thomas, worked on a number of regional newspapers around the UK – covering everything from sheep shows to major murder inquiries.  According to the Cumberland & Westmorland Herald (established in 1860), “FORMER Herald reporter Huw Thomas won first place in the national final of the Undiscovered Authors Writing Competition for general fiction, winning a prize of £10,000 plus publication of his book, The Tale of Findo Gask.

The first novel by Thomas was The Tale of Findo Gask (July 2007) about a 20th century British-orphan and thief without an identity; the second was Fractured Lives (Dec. 2011), a collection of short stories, and his third was The Vault (March 2012).

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Lloyd Lofthouse, a former U.S. Marine and Vietnam Veteran, is the award winning author of The Concubine Saga.

His latest novel is Running with the Enemy. Blamed for a crime he did not commit while serving in Vietnam, his country considers him a traitor. Ethan Card is a loyal U.S. Marine desperate to prove his innocence or he will never go home again.

And the woman he loves and wants to save was trained to hate and kill Americans.

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