Blog Tour: Bite by Nick Louth

Blurb: The most gripping thriller you’ll ever read, Bite is a breath-taking ride of a novel, a high-concept conspiracy thriller about a virus outbreak and a man who will never give up the search for his missing girlfriend. 

Tomorrow should be the greatest day of Erica Stroud-Jones's life. In just 24 hours this brilliant young scientist will present her secret work to a conference in Amsterdam - research that promises to revolutionise the battle against a deadly tropical disease. Millions of lives could be saved; a Nobel Prize beckons. 

Arriving to watch her are sceptics and rivals, admirers and enemies. Erica's own eyes will be on sculptor Max Carver, her American new love to whom she will dedicate her achievement. 

Tomorrow never comes. 

Erica vanishes during the night. Max, desperate, terrified, sets out to find her, descending into an underworld full of malice and cunning. But even he is shocked by the dark terror he finds in the heart of the woman he loves. 

*First of all I would like to thank the publishers for sending me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

Review: I found Bite to be a really clever and intriguing thriller. Maybe not the most gripping one I'll ever read but it certainly kept me on my toes during the whole story. The story revolves around Malaria and combines a story in the present, when a new type of this disease has been released and a world expert who might have a cure has been kidnapped, and a story in the past (1992) when this Malaria expert was in Africa and was captures by a guerrilla. I especially liked reading the part in the past as it was written as a diary and we could really connect with the character of Erica, all her emotions, thoughts and struggles when she was kept as hostage in terrible conditions in the middle of Africa, felt very real and really got me.

In the present time, we've got Max, Erica's boyfriend, as the main character. He is supposed to be an artist but with a military past so when Erica disappears, he takes it on his own hands to find her. It's admirable to see his determination to continue searching and unmasking what is going on. He certainly finds a lot of obstacles in the way and some macabre characters. The story turns quite dark and complicated as more secrets are uncovered and the malaria infection expands, first in the Netherlands, where the first one appeared, and then in multiple countries, leaving all the experts with no clue of how to stop it.

You can tell there's been a lot of research behind this novel. All the information about the disease and its ramifications can be a bit overwhelming but it certainly caught my attention. Also very critical with the pharmaceutical companies it has made me think a lot of how much of it is not only fiction unfortunately.

Intriguing until the last chapter, when everything finally fits together, Bite is fast-paced and unpredictable thriller that will surprise you more than once. 

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About the author:
Nick Louth is a bestselling thriller writer, award-winning financial journalist and an investment commentator. A 1979 graduate of the London School of Economics, he went on to become a Reuters foreign correspondent in 1987. It was an experience at a medical conference in Amsterdam in 1992, while working for Reuters, that gave him the inspiration for Bite, which was a self-published bestseller in 2014. Freelance since 1998, he has been a regulator contributor to the Financial Times, Investors Chronicle and Observer Money section, and has published seven other books. Nick Louth is married and lives in Lincolnshire. Follow him on Twitter @Investmtinsider