Customer Reviews

The Last 10 Seconds

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a rapid page turner which reads like many of Simon Kernick's other thrillers: dual storylines featuring familiar characters, unfolding at a breakneck pace. He's a master at ending chapters that make you want to read just one more.

When the book starts, Tina Boyd is arresting Andrew Kent, a serial killer who goes by the nickname of the "Night Creeper". The evidence against him seems clearcut, but she starts to harbor doubts that she's got the right man. At the same time, policeman Sean Egan is going undercover to infiltrate a criminal gang who are planning something highly lucrative. His motivations are personal as well as professional. These two storylines are connected, although it takes a while for the connection to emerge.

The first two thirds of the book are excellent and tear along nicely. However as the story starts to come together it becomes increasingly silly and riddled with unlikely coincidences. The hero also has the ability to keep going despite being beaten and/or shot numerous times.

A good holiday read, very enjoyable but also totally forgettable.

The tale is based around undercover cop Sean Egan and DI Tina Boyd and set in London.

The two separate story lines are skillfully joined and brought successfully together as the narrative unfolds.

As always with Simon's books, this engrossing tale gripped from the start.

The author has honed his exceptional writing skills with each new novel and manages to captivate his readers from the very start providing convincing thrillers each time.

Excellent characters and a gripping story ensure a thoroughly entertaining roller coaster of a read.

I highly recommend this book and once you've been enthralled by this try The Payback - it's brilliant as well!

I'm not a big fan of crime thrillers but when I first read one of Simon Kernick's books I was blown away. There are very few books that I just can't put down, but Simon's books all make me just want to keep reading until the end. The THE LAST 10 SECONDS is one his his best and is a truly gripping read. It is action packed from beginning to end. What makes the book so enjoyable for me is that it is based on real life and the plot is very believable. This is really what goes on in some of our big cities. I highly recommend this book.

This is the first of Simon Kernick's books I have read and I was impressed. There is certainly no let up in the action and the book moves at such a frenetic pace that the reader hardly has time to draw breath. One of the characters summed it up when he complained that people had tried to kill him four times in the last 24 hours!

The plot is set in London and involves a police woman, DI Tina Boyd, who has been involved in apprehending the serial killer known as the Night Creeper. At the same time, and apparently unrelated to this, Sean Egan, a policeman whose job it is to infiltrate criminal gangs, is on a personal mission to apprehend the gangster who killed his brother some years earlier. Predictably these scenarios collide violently later in the book.

This is certainly a classic page turner, and it is quite easy to imagine readers getting hooked and going through it in one sitting. Both Egan and Boyd are interesting characters and enjoyable to get to know. For those of you familiar with the series, this reminded me a little of Lee Child's Reacher books, but without the breaks between the action!

I've read 3 other Simon Kernick books and apart from The Crime Trade (just 'ok') they've been great reads and page-turners. The Last 10 Seconds is the best yet. One reviewer called it forgettable, it is anything but. There's always been something a little 'wooden' about Kernick's style. This book starts off in that manner but it doesn't last long. The story picks up so much pace and flows so well that 'wooden' is the last word you'd use to describe his writing. It is exciting and brutal in places and if you're a fan of the thriller genre I recommend that you give it a go. On this page I see that he's been described as a British Harlan Coben. I'm afraid, as good as this book is, he is not in the same league as Coben who writes with such warmth and humour and still never lets the pace slack even with all the twists and turns of his story (try Gone For Good, Tell No One or any of the Myron Bolitar series)! Still Kernick is a very good writer and I really like the London references he throws in especially as some are very close to where I live. If he carries on writing books like The Last 10 Seconds then I'll look forward to them very much.

One of the most fast paced enjoyable books I've read in a while. Kernick apparently researches extensively the ins and outs of the police force who deal with serious crime and those aspects of this book and his others read like he knows what he's talking about. However in this one we have the bad guys confessing the plot when they think they are about to kill the person after them and b grade movie circumstances like this. It just seems like Kernick couldn't be bothered putting the time into thinking up and revealing through more creative writing, the reasons why the crimes are happening in the first place, in a better way than a cheesy 60s Batman TV episode or James Bond type films does.

Kernick's also not afraid to kill of main characters, and has done so frequently in other novels, which means unlike other authors work, when the main character your along for the ride through the eyes style, is in a tricky life or death encounter you know there's a chance they might actually be unsuccessful and die. However the fact that we know from the first chapter that the two main characters will meet up at that location, sort of wrecks that fear we have for them, knowing full well they will survive their current predicaments, up to at least then. Although the story is just as enjoyable as other books this missing usual Kernick factor is a big thing that lessens the normal Kernick tension.

It's a good book though and brings back many characters from previous novels, although you don't need to have read them first to understand anything if this is your first Kernick book. However with Tina Boyd important parts of Target's plot are given away, likewise cameo appearances in this one by Mike Bolt, give away parts of the plot of Target and Deadline. For the full enjoyment of those novels, you may wish to read them first.

Basic plot of The Last Ten Seconds - Tina Boyd arrests a man she believes without doubt to be a particular nasty serial killer who torments and rapes his female victims including smashing their faces in with a hammer while they are still alive, known by the papers as The Night Creeper. However he claims he's innocent and has been set up, and either is, or is the best actor she's ever seen. Meanwhile Sean Egan is deep undercover in a violent criminal gang, hoping to get enough evidence to put away the gang leader, who happens to be the man who called his deformed brother a freak during an armed robbery then executed him. The only thing is, Sean knows he would never get permission to do this mission, so is doing it off the books while supposedly on sick leave. This means he must have all the evidence before letting his superiors know and get the backup he should have. When time comes that he should let his superiors know he just doesn't have time as the violence has already begun.

A great entertaining book where the action barely stops for a few pages at a time. Does have the how can this person with all these injuries keep going factor and the you should check that body to make sure its dead predictable scenes but The Last 10 Seconds is such an enjoyable way to pass the time, that you'll forgive those.

Since becoming a Kindle owner recently, I've been broadening my interests and have begun reading new genres, among them crime thrillers. The Last Ten Seconds was on special offer at Amazon.co.uk for £1, and with so many five star reviews I was expecting something similar to the Lee Childs novels which I particularly enjoy.

I found the plot moderately interesting with plenty of action, although in places predictable and in others improbable. Entertaining enough. But my main problem with it is the author's writing style which seemed lazy and amateurish. It read as if he'd just written the story as it came to him and hadn't bothered to refine it. Whether that is his normal style I'll only find out by reading some of his other books when they're on offer at £1.

BE PREPARED TO SIT UP A BIT LONGER THAN EXPECTED ONCE YOU START THIS SUSPENSEFUL, ACTION FILLED BOOK. BUY IT + ENJOY IT