The Breakdown

By: Robert W. Kirby

Many thanks to Zooloo’s Book Tours for the ARC of this book and the stop on the book tour!

About the Book

A breakdown—A secret—A trip that will change everything.

Two years after suffering from a stress-induced breakdown, defence lawyer Beth Gunning is struggling to cope with life. When her husband, Rory, suggests they join Beth’s sister and partner on a wild camping trip in a remote part of Montana, she decides that the freedom and tranquillity of a place far away from London might be what she needs. A chance to repair, relax, and get her head together.

Rory’s brother, Elliott, invites himself and his two teenage kids along for the trip. So it’s set to be a wild adventure of a lifetime. Provided that Rory and Elliot can set aside their sibling rivalries, that is.

Apart from some quarrelling and physical struggles, the trip seems to be going well. The Bob Marshall Wilderness is a stunning place, and everybody is embracing the fabulous experience.

But after a GPS malfunction and one wrong turn that leads them off course, cracks quickly form within the group. As some clash and others struggle with their dire predicament, the situation goes from bad to worse.

But Beth’s dark past is about to come back to haunt her and rock the very foundations of her world. Because it appears that someone in their hiking group has an ulterior motive for joining this trip.

Something extremely sinister that could ruin everything.

And out here in the vast, untamed wilderness, Beth knows she can no longer run from her bleak past and must finally face her dire demons…

But at what cost?

My Review

This is not my first book by Robert W. Kirby and it CERTAINLY will NOT be my last! This book took me by surprise! Once the action started, it did not stop. The set up took a little bit of time, but otherwise, this book was seriously unputdownable.

Kirby takes you on a wild ride throughout this entire book. I went exactly where he wanted me to go, suspecting the people he wanted me to suspect. Then I got really confused as to who it could be, what could have happened to the kids, and what to believe!! Talk about thrown for a loop!

I really enjoyed the chapters that were the “audio” chapters – the interview with Beth’s blast from the past. Those chapters sort of led me astray too, but in SUCH a clever way. It’s hard to know which character to trust, which character not to trust, and I was here for ALL of it.

This is the best way to put Kirby’s writing in this book – he skillfully, artfully, and cleverly wrote this book, and it’s amazing.

Oh yeah and that ending… it blew my mind! I can’t say any more than that because I don’t want to give anything away, but if you’re read this, DM me because I’d love to discuss it!

This is available now, so hurry up and read it. You can find it here.

About the Book

Robert was born in 1979 and lives in Kent with his wife, children, and bonkers dalmatian, Dexter.

He ran a private investigation agency for over fifteen years, dealing in cases that involved breach of contract claims, commercial debt recovery, and process serving. Robert’s agency also specialised in people tracing; so much of his work revolved around tracking down debtors, dealing in adoption matters, and locating missing persons.

At times, he worked on some pretty bizarre cases and dealt with plenty of interesting and sometimes colourful individuals.

Since 2014, Robert has worked self-employed in the pet care industry, and is a keen trail runner, mountain biker and kayaker. Robert has a huge passion for screenwriting for many years and started writing novels during the first lockdown.