The Last 10 Seconds

The question I have to ask myself is this: if this was the first Kernick book I read, would I be as impressed by it as I was by The Business of Dying five years ago? Impossible to say but, on the whole, I think not. Which is not to say that The Last 10 Seconds is a bad book; au contraire, this is one of those exciting, edge-of-your-seat reads that puts the 'thrill' into thriller. The pace is, to quote the title of one of Kernick's books, Relentless.

Undercover cop Sean Egan disobeys orders and follows a personal vendetta when, determined to avenge the callous murder of his brother 15 years previously, he infiltrates the gang killed shot him. Things get out of hand almost immediately when he is recognised and has to shoot his way out of show more trouble.

Meanwhile Detective Inspector Tina Boyd, nicknamed The Black Widow by the press and a familiar character to all Kernick's regular readers, has arrested The Night Creeper, a sadistic killer who raped and tortured five women - only to have him snatched away by Sean Egan, in his role as undercover criminal.

In their separate ways Tina and Sean are both forced to become mavericks and go it alone, defying order and proceedure, as they struggle first to see justice done but later simply to survive. Its obvious that there's a traitor in the police force feeding information to the gangs, and that corruption extends right into the top ranks of government and that Paul Wise, Tina's nemesis who has mysteriously evaded justice, is involved up his paedophilic neck.

Pacy and exciting with a high body count, The Last 10 Seconds is an excellent read, but falls short of being 'superb': for starters, what's with the title? The last 10 seconds of what? I thought all would be revealed right at the very end perhaps, in the last 10 seconds of the book, but if it was, I missed it.

And tighter subbing was certainly in order because the book contained several glaring continuity problems indicating sloppiness on the part of both writer and editor. Plus the end was full of rather obvious and contrived twists and convoluted turns in the final few pages making for an unsatisfactory resolution.

This is a grand book and great fun to read - but it is far from being his best. show less

It was gripping from the very first sentence. There are two crimes which are going on side by side. Whereas in one case a team is trying to solve the puzzle the other case is worked undercover. Both detectives which are responsible aren't aware that their cases are related to each other and therefore they get into big danger. When time goes by both become aware of having a mole amongst the police department. Even tough as a listener I could see how they had to struggle for solving the cases it let me guess until the very end about the outcome.

As usual with Simon Kernick a fast-paced plot which doesn't give you much time to consider any holes, with many twists and turns up to the final pages. DI Tina Boyd, a character from previous Kernick stories, is chasing the Night Creeper, a vicious serial killer of young women. In parallel, Sean Egan, another cop, has gone "off the books" under cover to try to infiltrate the gang who gunned down his brother in a London street. The story concerns how these two maverick cops' cases intertwine. Recommended for those who like fast-paced thrillers.

This is a fast paced Police thriller set in London.
The two main characters are Undercover Cop Sean Egan who has went a bit rogue and DI Tina Boyd who has her own demons.
Egan has infiltrated the gang that killed his Brother several years ago.
Tina Boyd has recently caught a serial killer called the Night Creeper.
One of the murders doesn't quite fit though.
Boyd's and Egan's world collides when with a bit of help the dodgy gang Egan is with manages to kidnap Andrew Kent the night creeper. A few Gangster's end up dead, a dodgy Politician is also involved. Egan is about to be killed but Boyd rescues him, then Egan rescues her from a high up bent copper. OK book.

Fast-paced crime thriller with too many familiar elements that echo of multi-twist ending movies to make it stand out as anything more than just an entertaining read.

Not as good as other Simon Kernick books, seems the same as others but with the cast moved around.