'This thriller is so authentic that it completely takes your breath away, and then some.'

'The pace is unrelenting, the twists fun...and the characters are instantly engaging.'

A race-against-time thriller to save a kidnap victim, from Transworld's newest superstar.

'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 ...

Since writing Relentless, Simon Kernick has established himself as the master of the race-against-time thriller. Focusing on an ordinary person in an everyday context, he shows how something as insignificant as a phone-call or a date with one's girlfriend can pitch one over the edge into a hostile world when one's life is at stake.

Deadline is no exception: a woman comes home from work and finds her daughter has been kidnapped. What happens next? In Kernick's world, we have under a week of non-stop action which stretches all the protagonists to breaking point, and in which Detective Bolt finds to his cost that he can trust absolutely no one.

I love this book because I think it's Kernick's best yet, and also because he introduces the voice of the kidnap victim, a teenage girl, as she waits for her abductor to return. This gives the narrative a personal touch that I find really effective. I hope you do too!

?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 ?

?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 is turned upside down.

Your fourteen-year-old daughter has been taken, and her kidnappers want half a million pounds in cash. They give you 48 hours to raise the money. If you call the police, she will die.

Trying desperately to remain calm, you realize that your husband ? the man you married two years ago ? is also missing.

But he can?t be involved in your daughter?s abduction. Or can he?

As the nightmare unravels, 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 ?

?Simon Kernick writes with his foot pressed hard on the pedal. Hang on tight!? Harlan Coben
?Great plots, great characters, great action? Lee Child

Simon Kernick lives near London and has two young children. His previous novel, Relentless, was selected as a Richard & Judy Summer Read.

The research for Simon Kernick?s novels is what makes them so authentic. His extensive list of contacts in the police force has been built up over more than a decade. It includes long serving officers in Special Branch, the National Crime Squad (now SOCA), and the Anti-Terrorist Branch, all of whom have plenty of tales to tell.

2008-08-29 Unrelenting

Having only read one other Kernick novel (Relentess) I was hoping for more of the same. Whilst this followed the same fast paced action, it was ten times better! The pages raced by as I started chapter after chapter, not wanting to put it down. I kept making guesses as to who was involved, thinking I'd sussed it out only to find my theories were completely blown out of the water.

Unlike `Relentless' this feels more realistic. There are still a few aspects of the plot that I don't feel were tied up very well but as with most crime thrillers it's easy to establish the crime rather than draw it to a close at times. Having said that, I felt completely satisfied when I closed the covers. Almost every character has a secret, but is it a secret connected to the disappearance of fourteen year-old Emma?

With only 48 hours to raise the money her mother, Andrea Devern, pulls out all the stops. She contacts the only person she feels she can turn to but at what cost? As revealed on the blurb, Andrea's husband Pat is also missing; at exactly the same time as her daughter. Therefore we have another clever point to consider - could Pat be involved in her daughter's abduction? It really is a nightmare world to be in and Andrea is constantly at the centre of this hell as it unfolds over the course of a few days.

I can't wait to go on and read Kernick's other novels. I already own `Severed' but I'll certainly be acquiring his other novels. His writing is consistent with him being able to maintain the pace he establishes at the outset; for me this is crucial in a novel that takes place over a short space of time. There was no point where I wanted to put this book down.