100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock 🇳🇿

Fast Overnight NZ-wide Delivery 🚀

Strangers in the Car

3.87 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating.
( 1,114 ratings, 240 reviews)
Brief Description
Strangers in the Car (previously published as One Wrong Turn in hardback) is a heart-pounding thriller from C. M. Ewan, acclaimed author of The House Hunt, The Interview, A Window Breaks, and the half-a-million-copy bestseller Safe House. Late at night... Abi and Ben are driving home... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
TEMPORARILY OUT OF STOCK Please add to wishlist to be notified when back in stock

Sorry, we're currently out of stock of Strangers in the Car. Please add to your Wishlist and we'll send you an email as soon as it's back in stock.

C. M. Ewan, author of The House Hunt, delivers a claustrophobic thriller in which a young couple invite a stranded family into their car – with deadly consequences. Perfect for fans of T. M. Logan and Harlan Coben.

C. M. Ewan, author of The House Hunt, delivers a claustrophobic thriller in which a young couple invite a stranded family into their car, with deadly consequences. Perfect for fans of T. M. Logan and Harlan Coben. Previously published as One Wrong Turn.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Strangers in the Car (previously published as One Wrong Turn in hardback) is a heart-pounding thriller from C. M. Ewan, acclaimed author of The House Hunt, The Interview, A Window Breaks, and the half-a-million-copy bestseller Safe House.

Late at night...

Abi and Ben are driving home down foggy country roads, arguing about having had to cut short their weekend away, when they take a wrong turn. Abi's driving, but her eyes leave the road for a moment as she says something to Ben—just as he gasps. A man is in front of the car, waving a torch. Abi swerves to avoid him.

You see a family stranded...

Ben tells her they should stop and go back, but Abi refuses. It's dark, the roads are isolated, and they don't know this stranger. But, as Abi continues on, they see a broken-down car. Every instinct is still telling Abi to drive by, but then she notices the woman holding a car seat with a baby in it.

Would you stop?

For a moment, Abi hesitates, but they can't leave a mother and baby on the side of the road. Agreeing to give the family a lift, they set off again. But now these strangers are inside their car—and it might be the worst mistake they have ever made...

C. M. Ewan: Everyday situations. Deadly consequences.


Praise for C. M. Ewan:

'The tension mounts with every chapter in this edge-of-the-seat, tense and twisty thriller. Don't miss it!' - B. A. Paris, author of The Therapist

'Truly impossible to put down' - Chris Whitaker, author of We Begin at the End

'Once it grips you, it doesn't let go' - Jane Casey, author of Let the Dead Speak

'Nobody does heart-thumping, dry-mouth, claustrophobic thrillers like C. M. Ewan' - Sharon Bolton, author of The Pact

'Unbearably tense, effortlessly plotted and packed with twists' - Tim Weaver, author of No One Home

What readers are saying about Strangers in the Car:

'WOW, WOW, WOW! The twists in this story had my head spinning. I had no idea where it was leading. What a brilliant book.'

'I lost so much sleep reading this book, but it was so worth it. Brilliant!'

'The twists and turns are superb and the ultimate unravelling very satisfying. I loved it!'


Previously published in hardback as One Wrong Turn.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781035042975

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 24 April 2025

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Pan Books

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 28.0mm

Width: 131.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 292g

Pages: 432

About the Author

C. M. Ewan is a pseudonym for Chris Ewan, the critically acclaimed and bestselling author of many mystery and thriller novels. Chris's first stand-alone thriller, Safe House, was a bestseller in the UK and was shortlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. He is also the author of the thrillers The House Hunt, The Interview, Dead Line, Dark Tides, Long Time Lost and A Window Breaks, as well as the Good Thief's Guide series of mystery novels. The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam won the Long Barn Books First Novel Award and has been published in thirteen countries. Chris lives with his wife and their two children in Somerset, where he writes full time.

Also by C. M. Ewan

View all
  • Eye Spy
    Eye Spy is the chillingly intense original thriller from C. M. Ewan, author of The House Hunt, The Interview, and Strangers in the Car. Set on a fast-moving train over three hours, this high-octane thriller combines emotional family survival with edge-of-your-seat suspense. Waiting for the Eurostar in Paris, Mark's four-year-old daughter alerts him to a 'Bad Man' during a game...
    Paperback
    Sold Out

More from Crime & Thriller

View all
  • New Release
    Dying Days
    Award-winning writer delivers a pulse-pounding espionage thriller. Missing soldiers, MI6 secrets and European partisans collide in a deadly game where the lines between lies and reality are fast disintegrating. In the dying days of the Second World War, a new conflict is about to ignite. May, 1945: After fighting to liberate Europe from the Nazis, Tito's Yugoslav Army and Allied...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Country Road Murders
    Buy to Win
    New Release
    The Country Road Murders
    From the Sunday Times bestselling author comes a pulse-pounding thriller about justice, vengeance and the roads that lead us home. No one gets this big without amazing natural storytelling talent - which is what Jim has, in spades — LEE CHILD Cross Rivers is the kind of small town where everyone knows your name – and your secrets. Silas Tucker...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Every Lake
    Scary stories are fun... until your life becomes one. When Alice was fifteen, her father killed Mia Heywood in their lakefront cottage before vanishing into the trees. At least that's what the locals think happened. Over a decade later, Alice has lost her job as a journalist, she's going through an expensive divorce and she desperately needs to sell the...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Nautilus
    New Release
    Nautilus
    The follow-up to the bestselling novel The Turing Protocol. Nautilus is a machine with the astonishing power to send messages eight weeks back in time. Its users must follow a set of protocols established by its inventor, Alan Turing, including that it can only be used by a descendant of his family, and only to avert global disasters. But what...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Cold River
    New Release
    Cold River
    The sensational new novel from the author of the bestselling thriller, The Creeper, winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Fiction 2025. Deep in the mountains, secrets grow deadly... Detective Constable Sally White knows how easily hikers can go missing in Victoria's high country. But there's something about the disappearance of Louis Taylor, a young man lost up...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Buy to Win
    New Release
    It Could Have Been Her
    PREPARE TO BE HOOKED: The no. 1 Sunday Times and MULTI-million-copy bestselling author is back with a brand-new spine tingling thriller. It was the night she almost died. Jane Trevally, newly divorced and feeling a little lost, agrees to accompany a man she doesn't know to his house in the darkest corner of Hampstead Heath. She's offered a drink, goes in, and...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Buy to Win
    26 Beauties
    The twenty-sixth thrilling novel in the globally bestselling Women's Murder Club series. Beautiful young women are disappearing by the dozen. A celebration is cut short when a concerned father crashes Detective Inspector Lindsay Boxer's party. His daughter is missing - and she's not the only one. DI Lindsay Boxer has been tracking a chilling pattern: a Jane Doe washed ashore,...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    The Secrets We Hide
    The stunning new North Falls thriller by the bestselling author of We Are All Guilty Here 'Quite simply, Karin Slaughter is the best of us' Dervla McTiernan Welcome back to North Falls -- a small town with big secrets. The house at 1601 Iris Drive looks like any other in the quiet, residential street. But rumours are rife about the Vickery...
    Paperback
    $3099
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Buy to Win
    The Parkwood Murders
    They came for an escape, but can they escape a killer? Detective Nicola Bridge returns in another gripping and immersive mystery For its loyal guests, Parkwood Holiday Village in west Dorset is a haven- woodland walks, a tranquil lake, service around the clock. Until, just after midsummer, a body is found floating in the swimming pool. Detective Nicola Bridge, exhausted...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    Backorder
    Ships mid September
  • On Sale
    13% off
    Hope Rises
    'BALDACCI IS STILL PEERLESS' - THE SUNDAY TIMES REVENGE IS A DISH BEST SERVED COLD . . . Walter Nash, working under the alias of Dillon Hope, is on the road to revenge after becoming an informant for the FBI against a global criminal operation headed up by Victoria Steers. Steers has ripped everything Nash held dear away from him....
    Paperback
    $2700
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Slash
    A year after a brutal shootout left her lover dead, ex-police sergeant Honey Chalmers is a hot mess, drinking too much and eating too little, working casual gigs for a shady firm of private investigators — while holding conversations with a ghost. A desperate father asks her to investigate his missing son — a double-murder suspect last seen during the...
    Paperback
    $3200
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • A River Red With Blood
    The players call it the Game, and its aim is simple: to abduct and kill a stranger without getting caught. They're very good at it. They've been playing it for a long time. And they can keep playing as long as everyone sticks to the rules: No Killing Close to Home and No Killing Outside the Game. But those rules...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.