LoveReading Says
A brilliant opening chapter and the pace is fast and furious throughout. Tyler wakes up in a room with a dead body and no recollection of how he got there and certainly no recollection of the events he then sees played out in the DVD left for him to watch – him killing the girl he has woken up next to.
Gripping and compelling you are completely caught up in the anxious race around the streets of London as Tyler tries to find out who has set him up and why. Kernick makes you hold your breath with anticipation of what plot twist will come next. Brilliant.
LoveReading
About Severed
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.
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Severed 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...
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9780552164344 |
| Publication date: |
14th January 2008 |
| Author: |
Simon Kernick |
| Publisher: |
Transworld Publishers Ltd |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
474 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Thriller and Suspense
|
| Other Genres: |
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| Recommendations: |
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Simon Kernick Press 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 Simon Kernick
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.
Below is a Q&A with this author.
1. Does your writing ever scare you?
Maybe not my writing, but my vivid imagination does.
2. Are you a disciplined writer?
Yes, I think so. I tend to write five days a week and roughly between the hours of 9 and 5 (and longer if I’m behind). I don’t think you can wait for inspiration to take hold otherwise you could be waiting a hell of a long time! In the end, you have to treat it like a job, albeit one that’s great fun.
3. Who is your most recognised character? What/who was the inspiration behind that character?
I have two central characters in my books. One is Dennis Milne, my renegade cop from The Business of Dying and its two sequels, and the other is Tina Boyd. Dennis was an amalgamation of a few cops I knew at the time (although none of them were killers as far as I know!), and Tina was a minor character from the early books who just became more and more central to my plots. I’m not quite sure how that happened. It just did.
4. Where do you write?
Usually in a bedroom upstairs in my house facing out on the road and the trees beyond. It’s a relaxing view.
5. Which crime fiction related book, TV programme or film have had the most impact on you or your writing?
Get Carter (originally Jack’s Return Home) by Ted Lewis has always been a huge inspiration. It’s one of the best thrillers I’ve ever read. A real noir classic.
6. What is your favourite scene or line from any crime fiction book?
‘The right apartment was hard to find so they murdered the old lady.’ It’s the first line of ‘Don’t Say a Word’ by Andrew Klavan, a fantastic thriller that I’ve re-read twice, and that line’s been imprinted on my memory ever since I first picked up the book in a second hand bookshop in Tenerife in 1993.
7. Which non-fictional killer frightens you the most?
They all do, to a certain extent. It takes a certain darkness in the soul to be able to kill another human being.
8. What tip would you give any budding writers?
Be patient, don’t spend too much time worrying about editing until you reach the end of your story (the most important thing is always to get words down on a page), and develop a thick skin. You will face many rejections in your struggle to get published, but if you’re determined enough, and your work is good enough, you’ll get there in the end.
9. E-book or paper?
Still paper. I’m a bit of Luddite.
10. If you were a fictional character, how would you write your own death?
In a blaze of glory, gunning down the bad guys in a ferocious firefight before being caught from behind by a lucky shot!
11. …and what would your final meal be?
If I had time between all the shooting, I’d dine on a dozen oysters followed by a rib eye steak, lobster and French fries, ending with my Mum’s trifle. I think that lot would probably finish me off anyway…
Author photo © Johnny Ring
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