Strangers in the Car
C. M. Ewan
Grand Central Publishing
Nov 2026
Strangers in the Car by C. M. Ewan will take readers on a roller coaster ride.
The plot has Abi Foster and her boyfriend Ben Simmons driving home, having cut their weekend vacation in Cornwall short due to a crisis at Ben’s law firm. They are arguing about cutting the weekend short when Abi misses a turn in the foggy country roads. They spot a stranded family with a young baby whose car has stalled. They learn the father is Paul, the mother is Samantha, and the baby is Lila. They offer the family a ride to Bristol but offering them a ride takes Abi and Ben down a treacherous road. It seems Paul has a lot of gambling debts and is trying to avoid the bad guys. At this point the story is told from three different perspectives with dual timelines. The author weaves in flashbacks from Samantha and Paul’s events from prior in the day.
This is a story where readers will think of the idiom, no good deed goes unpunished. The story is intense from beginning to end and people will be on the edge of their seats.
Elise Cooper: Idea for the story?
C. M. Ewan: All the books I write are contained thrillers. They have ordinary people caught up in extraordinary circumstances. People can do something normal in everyday life, and it can go sideways.
EC: Why have a hitchhiker picked up?
CME: I thought what would make me stop and allow someone into the car. Maybe if someone else was in the car instead of on my own; or on some quiet rural roads in the safe areas of England; or if there was a seemingly well to do family with a fancy car that broke down; or if a small child was involved. I combined all these what ifs in the plot to put the characters potentially in danger. The fog was a useful tool for atmosphere and heightens the sense of the mystery. Fog restricts vision, muffles sound, and affects someone’s senses, which increase the situation Abi and Ben are in.
EC: What is the theme?
CME: It is the consequences of people’s decisions. Also, how an ordinary person can find the hero within themselves. Abi, the heroine, was not that well equipped to deal with the situation she was in. She had to call on all her reserves and come up on top. The strength that lies within all of us when tested.
EC: How would you describe Abi?
CME: She can be intimidated by wealthy people, subservient, affected by her miscarriages which have caused her to be isolated, depressed, anxious, and lost. Once she had the trauma in the car, she becomes terrified. I think she is broken and does not fully understand why she is broken. This trauma becomes a healing exercise for her since she is forced to confront looking after the child, Lila. She is suffering and fully does not understand why she is suffering yet in the story she will find healing.
EC: How would describe Abi’s boyfriend, Ben?
CME: He insists on doing the right thing. He is responsible, law-abiding, a middle of the road guy. He is also innately selfish. Ben is tested throughout the story where he wakes up to realize Abi’s priorities must be his priorities. He was a complacent character living in his own world inoculating himself from the trauma Abi has been going through. This entire situation forces him to grow up, mature, and confront these things.
EC: Why write the timelines in the style of going backwards when the time is given and the current situation when there is no time?
CME: The Abi and Ben’s story is the essence of the plot and is played out in real time fashion. The excerpts with the time are from earlier in the day until the car breaks down. In the book there is a point where both timelines come together. It did not occur to me to put time markers in the main thread, which is what is happening now. The Abi and Ben timeline is a real compressed timeframe, while the hitchhiker’s backstory of Samantha and Paul is spread over many more hours during the day.
EC: How would you describe one of the hitchhikers, Samantha?
CME: She was an accessory to the crime of what Paul was doing and complacent. She is Paul’s wife who is troubled. She is a cowed wife to Paul who is a very dominant figure. She is a mystery.
EC: What about Paul?
CME: He is mean, complicit, jealous of Samantha’s family’s money, frustrated, terrorizing, violent, unstable, dangerous, antsy, unpredictable, and frustrated. He was a bully and not that smart. He is very self-serving.
EC: How would you describe the bad person, Collette?
CME: She is a psychopath, ruthless, uncaring, money hungry, violent, a planner who is deceitful, a liar, dangerous, and evil. She is an expert criminal.
EC: What was the role of baby Lila?
CME: She is a baby to be protected. Lila is the reason Abi does everything she does because she wants to protect all children. This is also true of Samantha. The theme of most of my books is how far would someone go to protect those they love, especially children. Lila is needed for everything to make sense and is the driver for Abi to become the heroine she does not know that she is.
EC: Next book?
CME: It is titled Eye Spy. It is a contained thriller set on the Eurostar high speed train from Paris to London. A father travels home to his wife with his four-year-old daughter and his teenage stepdaughter. His younger daughter says she spied a badman on the train with the family. It will be out in March 2026 on Amazon.
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