Product Description

Straight off I knew it was going to be a bad day. The room was stifling hot; and when I did finally manage to drag open my eyes, all I could see was blood. I thought I'd stepped into the middle of a nightmare. But I was wrong. The nightmare was only just beginning. Ex-soldier Sean Tyler wakes up in an unfamiliar room next to the headless corpse of a girl he's met recently. With his memory of the previous 24 hours wiped clean, he's hardly out of bed before the he notices a note next to the TV telling him to press play on the room's DVD machine. The film shows him stabbing someone to death. Tyler is confident that the footage is fake, but will a jury see things the same way? The man on the end of the phone tells him that if he wants the evidence to disappear, he must go to an address in east London, and await further instructions. Tyler knows he must do as he is told. He also knows that the phone caller has no intention of keeping him alive. To survive he must recover the missing 24 hours of his life and find out who's setting him up before his time runs out for good. The clock is ticking...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #120350 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-18
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

From the Inside Flap
When formersoldier Dan Tyler wakes up in a strange room on a bed covered in blood, with no idea how he got there, he thinks he’s stepped into someone else’s nightmare.

But he’s wrong. This is reality.

The corpse beside him is Leah, a girl he’s met recently. And it gets worse.

As he staggers from the bed the phone rings, and a voice tells him to press play on the room’s DVD machine.The film shows Tyler killing Leah. Then he’s told to go to an address in East London where he’s to deliver a briefcase and await further instructions.

There’s no way out. The evidence against him looks rock-solid.

Tyler’s heading into terrible danger. If he’s to survive the next 12 hours, he must find out who really murdered Leah and why.

From the Back Cover
‘From the moment I open my eyes, I know it’s going to be a bad day. The room’s stifling hot; my head feels like a dwarf on speed’s dancing a jig on it, and the blood … Well, the blood’s everywhere.

It feels as if I’ve stepped into the middle of someone else’s nightmare.

But I’m wrong. This is my nightmare. And it’s only just beginning.’



‘Simon Kernick writes with his foot pressed hard on the pedal. Hang on tight!’
Harlan Coben

‘Great plots, great characters, great action. Simon Kernick might just be the best of Britain’s new-wave crime writers.’ Lee Child

About the Author
The research for Simon Kernick's novels is what makes them so authentic. His extensive list of contacts in the police force has been built up over more than a decade. It includes long serving officers in Special Branch, the National Crime Squad (now SOCA), and the Anti-Terrorist Branch, all of whom have plenty of tales to tell. He is in his thirties, lives near London and has two young children.

Customer Reviews

I enjoyed it...........although I'm not sure I should of
Well so much for saying I wasnt going to read any more of Kernicks books!

After reading Relentless (by the same author) and not really thinking it was up to much I was short of something to read, my wife had read this and I thought I would give it a go. And you know what? Despite myself, I enjoyed it.......

It's a big, dumb, stupid, nonsensical, poorly written 'schlock' thriller and all the better for it, it doesnt have any delusions of literature and doesnt pretend to be anything its not - as long as you read it with your brain firmly in neutral and dont expect to much of it you'll have an enjoyable enough couple of days.

There are problems however, firstly the story is ridiculous (as in Relentless), the characters are not easy to sympathise with (as in Relentless), the choices made by the main character are nonsensical (yep....as they were in Relentless), the story is predictable (Relentless...yawn) and the ending is rushed and unsatisfactory (as is the end of............you know the rest) - I see a theme developing with Mr Kernicks books.............but you know what? I enjoyed it.

As I said earlier, if you want a really easy read that wont tax your brain and is enjoyable in a stupid, guilty way - this should fit the bill nicely.

Will I be reading any more by Kernick?

Well, probably not, but wheras before I said I definitely wouldnt - now I probably wont - but if the wife has one lying around? you never know

Severed - Contains a possible spoiler!
Great if you're in the mood for an easy-to-read, fast-paced novel for a flight or train journey. But don't expect a flawless plot and in-depth characters.

SPOILER - Is it me, or was the protagonist only a BMW dealer so he could have easy access to a car at the end of the novel? I swear there was no other reason.

Spectacularly Predictable
At the start of this book, Tyler, the central character, wakes up in a house he doesn't recognise. He's clearly been drugged, and when he rolls over to get his bearings, he finds the badly mutilated remains of his girlfriend next to him.

Soon after, he gets a phone call that tells him that if he doesn't do certain things, the police will be called and evidence will be presented to them that suggests that he was involved in the mutilation.

He follows the instructions, but because he clearly can't trust who put him in this position, he goes after those who he believes were really involved in the death for the remainder of the book.

You might think that all this might sound rather enjoyable, if a little disgusting (and the way I've described it, it might sound a bit like a "boys own adventure" for adults). Trust me when I say that it's too predictable to be enjoyable.

After I'd read Chapter 1, I pretty much guessed what was going to happen. The pre-cognition I had wasn't helped by the fact that Kernick seems to have borrowed plot themes from his own books to help bloster his own story. Almost as soon as I read certain things, I just knew how they might be related to what he wrote in Relentless, the other Kernick book I'd read.

Now you might think I have a knack for guessing the endings of books. I don't. Anyone with half a brain will guess what's going to happen in this book. Anyone who has read anything that's remotely similar to this book would guess what's going on in this book too. Everything he writes in this book is that well telegraphed. Trust me on that.

In short, don't read this book. Have a good look for a book with a similar plot and read that book instead. It's almost bound to be better written.