Synopsis

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...

Reviews

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

Simon Kernick is a rising star of British crime fiction.
Mark Lawson on BBC Radio 4's Front Row

Kernick is no longer a writer to watch; he's an author to be reckoned with.
Mark Billingham

Great plots, great characters, great action and some spectacular violence. Simon Kernick might just be the best of Britain's new-wave crime writers.
Lee Child

About the Author

Simon Kernick was our Guest Editor in February 2010 - click here - to see the books that inspired his writing.   Simon Kernick is one of Britain's most exciting new thriller writers. He arrived on the scene with his highly acclaimed debut novel The Business of Dying, and his big breakthrough came with his novel Relentless which became the bestselling thriller of 2007. Simon's research is what makes his thrillers so authentic. He talks both on and off the record to members of Special Branch, the Anti-Terrorist Branch and the Serious and Organised Crime Agency, so he gets to hear first hand what actually happens in the dark and murky underbelly of UK crime.   Author photo © Johnny Ring More books by this author Author 'Like for Like' recommendation