"The Last 10 Seconds', by Simon Kernick

I have been a fan of mysteries and of exciting thrillers for ever and I am always looking for an author that can top all that I have read in the past. Mr. Kernick has definitely caught my attention and his novels will command a prominent position on my TBR list. “The Last 10 Seconds”, is just what the title suggests, a fast paced action- packed thriller filled with lots of graphic crime scenes and murders, a captivating story that leaves plenty for the imagination and little time to speculate, it is like a kayaker’s white water ride of a life time, you hang on and go with the flow. 

It didn't take me long to get drawn in by the writer’s style, the story grabbed my attention from the beginning and never wavered one minute. The plotting has all the right ingredients needed: plenty of twist and turns, a well-paced momentum and a drama that unfolds smoothly. The hand to hand fighting is particularly well done, very descriptive and easy to visualize. The story is narrated in the first person by the two well- developed protagonists, Sean and Tina, their point of views alternate in punchy chapters that are just the right length.

In this thriller there are two threads that eventually converge. We start with Sean Egan an undercover cop who poses as a gang member looking for a new challenge. He is snapped up by another far more dangerous criminal gang and his test of allegiance is to free the “The Night Creeper” from the hands of the authorities so the gang can deal with him in their own sadistic manner, he has become a loose cannon to all gangs and gang members, he has to be silence. Sean is faced with difficult decisions that break all protocol and his actions can jeopardise his career and even his life.

On the other hand, D.I. Tina Boyd, has worked hard to track down and apprehend the sadistic killer Andrew Kent known as “The Night Creeper”, he is suspected of torturing five women to death but claims he has an alibi for one of the murders and important information that would incriminate an important gang member. He is a hot target for the underworld so when Kent is snatched right from under Boyd’s nose,  her career is on the line, it quickly becomes a chaotic chase, a race against time to find him and extract the invaluable information the police force now needs in order to save face. 

The two threads run parallel and eventually collide in an explosion of violence and it becomes touch and go whether our two protagonists will survive the clash between good and evil.