Book 3

Deadline

by Simon Kernick

Published 14 July 2008
'We've got your daughter.' It's evening, you're back late from work - and the house is in darkness. You step inside, and the phone rings. You answer it - and your world turns upside down. Your fourteen-year-old daughter's been taken, and her kidnappers demand half a million pounds in cash. They give you 48 hours to raise the money, and warn you that if you call the police, she'll die. Trying desperately to remain calm, you realise that your husband - the man you married only two years previously - is also missing. But he can't be involved in your daughter's abduction. Or can he? As your nightmare begins, you can be certain of only two things: that you will do anything to get your daughter back alive - and that time is running out ...

Relentless

by Simon Kernick

Published 23 May 2006
John Meron, a happily married father of two who's never been in trouble, receives a phone call that will change his life for ever: his friend Jack Calley, a high-flying City lawyer, is screaming down the phone for help. As Meron listens, Calley is murdered. His last words, spoken to his killer, are the first two lines of Meron's address. Confused and terrified, Meron scoops up his children and hurries out of the house. Just in time. Within minutes, a car pulls up outside, and three men get out. It's clear that they're coming for him. He's being hunted and has no idea why. And with his wife missing, an unidentified corpse in her office, and the police after him for murder, his life's about to get one hell of a lot worse.

Target

by Simon Kernick

Published 19 June 2009
Did someone try to kill me or am I going mad? When writer Rob Fallon gets drunk one night and ends up joining his best-friend's girlfriend, Jenny, in her apartment in London's West End, he's feeling guilty before anything's even happened. But guilt quickly turns to shock when two men break into the apartment, abduct Jenny, and try to kill Rob. But when Rob reports the abduction to the police no one believes him. Jenny's father claims she's on holiday abroad, her apartment appears untouched, and the doorman didn't see or hear anything. Rob can't let things lie - not with Jenny's life in danger. But when he starts asking questions, he finds himself the target of killers . But what is it they're so desperate to hide? And what does it have to do with an ordinary girl like Jenny? Either Rob finds out, or he's dead. It's that simple.

The Crime Trade

by Simon Kernick

Published 1 June 2004
When Operation Surgical Strike, a police sting designed to catch Colombian drug traffickers in the act of selling a large consignment of cocaine to undercover police officers in a Heathrow hotel, goes horribly wrong, suspicion quickly falls on one of the officers involved: 'Stegs' Jenner. But Stegs is no ordinary undercover cop. Something of a maverick, with a chequered disciplinary record, he's always lived life on the edge. With his close friend dead in the shoot-out, he now determines to go it alone. Enter DI John Gallan and his partner DS Tina Boyd, part of the Serious Crime Squad investigating the murder of ex-gangster turned informer Slim Robbie O'Brien. Slim Robbie had helped Gallan and Boyd set up the operation and is now dead too, shot with his mother in his council flat in Islington while events at Heathrow were taking place. Meanwhile Stegs Jenner is working to his own agenda, developing a plan he's been thinking about for a long, long time. Revenge, he decides, is a dish best taken very, very cold. But is he the man the police are after?
As Gallan, Boyd and DI Asif Malik inch ever nearer to the man responsible for the Heathrow shooting, they uncover a murderous conspiracy that will take them to the heart of one of London's most notorious criminal gangs. What they cannot know is that they've also embarked on a collision path that will lead one of them straight into the rifle sights of the enemy.

The Last 10 Seconds

by Simon Kernick

Published 21 January 2010
The Undercover Cop - Having worked undercover the last ten years, Sean Egan is used to life on the edge. He's recently infiltrated one of London's most dangerous criminal gangs, and they've just informed him that they want him for a very special job: the daring abduction from police custody of a serial killer known as The Night Creeper. The Killer - Brutally violent yet highly intelligent, The Night Creeper has earned his reputation by torturing five young women to death. Arrested the previous night, he claims that he has a cast-iron alibi for one of the murders, and some highly important information that can prove his innocence - and implicates someone else. The Policewoman Di - Tina Boyd has an instinct for trouble, and a past that continues to haunt her. She was the policewoman who charged The Night Creeper. Now he's been kidnapped, and it's Tina's task to find him. And find him fast, because it's clear that some very dangerous people want to silence him permanently. A man, a woman and a sadistic killer. As they race towards a terrifying confrontation only one thing is certain: they're all going to have to fight very hard just to stay alive.

Ultimatum

by Simon Kernick

Published 31 January 2013

THE THREAT

8am: an explosion blasts through a cafe in Central London.

THE ULTIMATUM

Minutes later, a call from an unknown terror group warns that a far greater attack will be launched in
12 hours' time.

THE PRISONER

William Garrett, AKA Fox, is awaiting trial for mass murder. He claims he can name the bombers. But only at a price.

THE CLOCK IS TICKING

It's a terrifying race against time for DI Mike Bolt and DC Tina Boyd as they chase their targets across the city in a desperate bid to stop a major atrocity - before it's too late ...