A nerve-shredding thriller is being launched at the Henry Bloom Noble Library on February 19.

’A Window Breaks’ by C M Ewan asks the disturbing question: If you heard a window being smashed at 2am and your family was asleep upstairs, what would you do?

In the tense thriller the family must pull together to survive a night in an isolated Scottish lodge when intruders break in.

For former island resident Chris, who now writes under the name C.M. Ewan, this is something of a homecoming as he lived here for 11 years.

Born in Taunton in 1976, Chris graduated from the University of Nottingham with a degree in American studies and later trained as a lawyer. After living in the island, in 2015 he returned to Somerset with his wife and two children, where he writes full time.

He left but the island didn’t quite leave him and proved to be inspirational not only as a place for contemplation but also as a setting for several dark tales as he told the Manx Independent when he spoke at Manx Litfest in 2017.

Chris said he has taken a lot of joy out of gleefully examining the dark underbelly of Manx culture to influence such books as ’Dark Tides’, a tale of six friends who have a fateful Hop-Tu-Naa night, or ’Long Time Lost’, which uses the island as a hiding place for people on the witness protection scheme.

He also tapped into the world of motorcycling on the island for the suspense thriller ’Safe House’, which the Daily telegraph described as a ’... clever nail-biter that reveals the Isle of Man to be a Heart of Darkness.’ and sold more than 500,000 copies internationally and was hortlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year in 2011.

Chris said living in the island had a major influence on his writing, and that he saw a great deal of potential around him for the setting for further stories in the future.

’It really allowed me to be creative, giving me that space by going for walks around the countryside and along the coast.

He said he is inspired by ’everything from the history, the culture, the landscape, even the skeet and listening to the gossip, and the rumours I picked up all went to creating many of the backgrounds to my stories’.

Borough librarian Jan Macartney said: ’Chris has long been a supporter of the library and always attracts very appreciative audiences for his book launches and talks. We’re delighted that once again he’s chosen to come to the Isle of Man and the Henry Bloom Noble Library to launch his sensational new twist-packed thriller, one that will keep the reader gripped from page one.’

Chris launches his book at the library at Duke Street, Douglas, on February 19 at 7pm when he will read extracts from his book critics have hailed as ’a real rollercoaster of a thriller’ and ’totally addictive’ and take questions from the audience.

Tickets priced £2.50 (redeemable against a copy of the book) which includes light refreshments are available from the library counter and must be collected in advance.