One Cop who is convinced that one of them is lying
Three suspects who may or may not be telling the truth A string of murders Three statements A complex case packed with twists and turns, lies, deception, secrets, danger, betrayals and with fingers that reached back into the past. This fast paced thriller is narrated from the perspectives of the three suspects Matt, Kate and Sir Hugh Roper and also the detective in charge of trying to separate the truth from the lies DCI Cameron Doyle. In Matt's chapters we follow his desperate search to find his fiance Kate after he returns home after a night out and discovers that she is missing. According to Matt after her disappearance, he found himself being pursued by a very nasty character who insisted that Matt knew where Kate was and if he didnt start telling the truth then Matt was going to have to lose a kneecap or two. He also insisted that during his search he was forced into doing things that were against his nature and caused him to feel disgusted and ashamed of himself. His story did sound rather implausible and very much like a script for a very bad cop show, so was he telling the truth or were his acting skills better that he was ever given credit for? In Kate's chapters we learnt about the terrible ordeal that she was subjected to whilst she was missing. She also took the reader through events in her past as she tried to figure out who would want to kidnap her and why? We learnt that Kate had a very troubled past and that people who she interacted with had a very bad habit of winding up dead. But how much of her statement was actually true? Matt and Kate's parts of the story were fast paced, intense and gripping and were my favourite parts of the story. The third suspect Sir Hugh Roper was a aging business man who was used to getting his own way no matter what the cost and didn't care who got hurt in the process. He was a very ruthless and not very likeable character but how did he fit into Matt and Kate's story. In DCI Cameron Doyle's chapters we witnessed his interrogations of the suspects, learned about his thoughts and suspicions and his theories about their statements and the case. He seemed like a likeable, trustworthy character but fans of Simon Kernick's books know that his police officers can very often have a dark side to their character's. So was Doyle who he appeared to be or was he harbouring secrets of his own? Wow....just wow, this is a fast paced, page turner that has more twists and turns than a roller coaster. As with all of Simon Kernick's incredible thrillers, it is extremely well written, has a cast of well rounded and believable, diverse characters and a plot that hooks you in, keeps you guessing and frantically turning the pages. Many of the chapters ended in a cliff hanger giving the reader a very bad case of just one more chapter syndrome. I love Simon Kernick's books and think that he is a very talented author who has definitely excelled himself with this latest incredible thriller. I would love to watch a film or mini series adaptation of this book. Worth far more than five stars and very very highly recommended..
AUTHOR BIO
I've always been a huge crime fiction and thriller fan so I wrote a crime novel that, unfortunately, pretty much every literary agent and publisher in the land rejected. So I wrote another one with exactly the same result. I have enough rejection letters to decorate a whole house- three hundred in all-but finally I struck gold with my first novel, The Business of Dying, about a cop who moonlights as a hit man named Dennis Milne. It was released in 2002 (seven years after I first tried to get published!) and was described as 'the crime debut of the year' by The Independent, which was a very nice compliment.
Since then I've written a book a year (fifteen in all now) as well as a total of three novellas. I specialise in very fast-paced thrillers set over a short space of time which I like to think grab the reader from the very first page and don't let go. My fifth novel, Relentless, was a Richard and Judy summer read, and the ninth and tenth, The Last Ten Seconds and The Payback, both reached number 1 in the UK book charts, so they're good, I promise!
I don't have a series as such and most of the books can be read as standalones, but I do have recurring characters. Dennis Milne, my vigilante cop, returns in A Good Day to Die and The Payback, and my female detective, Tina Boyd- a woman who finds herself in dangerous situations seemingly at every turn- appears in the vast majority of the recent books.
Anyway, I hope you get a chance to take a look at one or more of them and please feel free to let me know your thoughts.
Happy reading.
HARDBACK PUBLICATION DATE: 26th November 2020
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