Dead Man’s Gift cover image

Part 1: Yesterday

What the blurb says: “MP Tim Horton arrives home to find his seven year old son has been abducted by a ruthless gang of kidnappers. All they have left behind is the brutally murdered body of the Horton’s nanny. The gang’s demands are simple: Tim must sacrifice his own life in order to save his son’s. It’s the ultimate dead man’s gift.”

Part 2: Last Night

And for the second part, the blurb continues: “MP Tim Horton is waiting to hear from his son’s kidnappers. Knowing he’s being watched, and too scared to go to the police, he contacts the only man who may be able to help him, his brother-in-law: an ex-soldier called Scope who has a reputation for sorting things out and getting things done.”

Released as a three-part series, Dead Man’s Gift hooked me from the first page of part one and pulled me at break-neck speed through the first installment, and on to the second. It left me breathless, and repeatedly pressing the right side of my Kindle to go to the next page even though it told me I’d reached the end of part two! I was horrified to learn that I’d have to wait until 5^th June to download the final part.

As the story is still ‘live’ and in progress it doesn’t feel right to write a full review – you know I don’t do spoilers – and, after all, it’d be much more fun for you to download the first two parts and get caught up with the story for yourself.

But, what I will say, is that Simon Kernick has created a chillingly compelling scenario and a great cast of characters. MP Tim Horton has just hours to save his son, enlisting the help of the only person he knows who just might have the skills to do it. If they fail, Tim will be forced to do what his child’s abductors are demanding or his son will die. But the gang are smarter, and better connected, than Tim could ever have imagined. As the clock counts down, and the criminal’s demands are revealed in their horrifying entirety, it seems that Tim will have no choice but to make the ultimate sacrifice.

This is a pulse-pounding, high-action, gripping read, with the suspense made all the more heightened because of the wait until part three is released on 5th June.

If you like thrillers, this will be a real treat. Go download it. Now!

[I bought my Kindle copies of Dead Man’s Gift parts 1 and 2. I’m now waiting with anticipation for part 3 to be ready for download]