Access Instantly Stay Alive (Scope #2) Assembled By Simon Kernick Shared As Paperbound

charging through my last exciting book The Hit By David Baldacci, I thought I would go with one of my favourite authors and read Simon Kernick's new book Stay Alive.


Wow, a second book in a row I just could not put down and read this book in four days.


This author knows how to keep his story fast paced, action packed, great strong characters, and just keeps you guessing to the last pages.


Great to have one of his returning characters from The Siege,

This is just pace, pace , pace,

All the way through the book I was guessing what was happening, what's going on

Only thing is my next decision is tough !!

What do I read next, so many recommendations.


Still waiting for my ordered Tap On The Window, Linwood Barclay,

But after a tough decision going for new author and highly recommended The Never List by Koethi Zan Ive read every one of Simon Kernicks books and the one thing that you can always guarantee is that it will be a fast paced, tension filled experience Stay Alive is no exception.
It starts with a vicious double murder and, as you would expect with an SK book, the body count increases throughout the story.


It's quite difficult to review this one if I give too much detail about the plot then it will be necessary to include spoilers and really it's a story best left for the reader to discover.
The story centres around Amanda Rowan, she has interrupted a murder scene and has unwittingly put her own life in danger.
For her own safety, she moves away to a remote Scottish village however the killer is determined to track her down and thus the story unfolds.


The short chapters make this an easy read, and if you are anything like me you will continue reading, thinking just one more chapterand before you know it, it is the early hours! I sat up very late to finish it as I couldnt put it down without knowing how it ended.
This was such a fast paced story my heart was racing for much of it, There is no time for any in depth characterisation you learn as you go along and only know as much as you need to.
As is often the case with this authors books, some characters make a return appearance every now and again and it was good to see the return of detectives Mike Bolt and Mo Khan, who have featured in many previous stories.
They are on the tail of a serial killer, known as The Disciple and its a race against the clock to catch him before he finds his next victim.


Simon Kernick is a master of twisty suspense just when you think you know where the story is heading he will throw a curve ball and tease the reader with twists and turns.
This book is definitely amongst his best so far and I can thoroughly recommend it,

Just one word of warning, if you intend to read “Wrong Time, Wrong Place” one of theQuick Reads series then I suggest that you read it before reading Stay Alive as this book contains a whopping big spoiler.

That was a bit of an adrenalin ride! A deranged killer is targeting couples and killing them horribly, A survivor of the latest attack has escaped to a remote part of Scotland to get away from the drama.
Suddenly she is on the run, pursued by forces unknown, She drags an unwitting family, who are enjoying an afternoon of canoeing, into the nightmare by jumping into one of their canoes to avoid capture.
So the chase is on,

Meanwhile, in London, Mike Bolt has been pursuing the killer dubbed The Disciple, It all comes to a horrible head in the Scottish wilderness at night, Great suspense and a nasty twisted plot, Simon Kernick is one of the masters of this genre, The book was like a mine cart rapidly going down a track full of missing sections, the pace was so fast that most of the gaps were flown over, but in the end it did crash and burn a little.

One of the main issues is the cheap conclusion, I managed to predict one of the suspects, though their involvement was smartly and subtly foreshadowed, but the other suspect and the overall method of the opening crime was impossible to realistically suspect with the evidence given.
Another problem lies with the astounding number of unfortunate coincidences, it became quite silly after a while, making the story a little too unbelievable.
I shouldn't be almost laughing with disbelief when characters are in danger!

The book was enjoyable but very flawed.
Good for reading on holiday or when you don't want something too heavy, but not to be taken too seriously.
I was sent this book to read and review,

I have read Simon Kernick's novels before so I know that they are always fast paced and full of character and "Stay Alive" is no exception it starts off at breakneck speed and never slows down.
This makes it easy and quick to read and because you are immediately interested, it makes it easy to keep reading.
This book introduces some characters I would really like to see again Bolt the policeman and Scope the bystander who gets involved have their flaws but are brilliantly drawn and interesting all the time, I would like to read about them again.
Amanda is a thoroughly irritating character and it is no surprise that people are after her, and although it is pretty easy to guess why, that doesn't detract from the story.
The reason I have not given itis the same drawback I have seen in his other books, I don't like the graphic descriptions of the crimes.
I realise this is a personal view, but for me they are too graphic for a thriller and more suited to a horror genre.
Other people may not agree with that, but it does detract from the overall feel of the book for me.


Otherwise another great story which I would definitely recommend,

Time taken to readweek

Pages

Publisher Arrow Books

Blurb from Goodread

ONE WITNESS

Youre on a trip with your family, miles from anywhere.
A shot rings out and your whole life changes in an instant,

ONE SECRET

A woman is racing towards you, chased by three gunmen, Although you dont know it, she harbours a deadly secret, Shes in terrible danger. And now you are too,

NO ESCAPE

Youre running, terrified, desperate to find safety,

You know that the men hunting you have killed before,

And if they catch you, youll be next


My

The tale opens "days ago" we are introduced to Amanda Rowan, she stumbles upon her husbands murder and the killer is still in the house.
What ensues is a game of cat and mouse, Amanda is running for her life, her killer will stop at nothing and innocent people will die!

Amanda is

one of our main characters, the whole story is focused around her and the maniac who is after her.
Along the road she meets other people who will be dragged into the chase and fight to survive,

The tale skips between thedays ago, flipping to present day and then back and fourth between the two time lines.
It is easy enough to follow the time line and the characters involved, The crime and chase starts from the very first chapter and your drawn into a scary and dark world through Amanda and the people she meets as she tries to stay alive.
I found it really hard to put down at first, however, as the story goes on a few things didn't sit right with me.
By the end of the story you understand everything however I just felt a few aspects were a bit out there and hard to believe.
It is still a really good story though and I will read this author again,/for me this time,
You can always rely on Simon Kernick when it comes to really good books and this really is a very,very good book.
From the very first page it grabs your attention and the action and twists dont stop until the very end.
I have always liked Mike Bolt and it was great that he was in this book,i also liked Scope and look forward to him hopefully being in more of Mr Kernick's books.
I highly recommend this to anyone who likes a fast paced thriller with loads of action and plot twists, I read this book in one afternoon so it was good in that I didn't put it down, The story itself was a tad far fetched and I figured it out much quicker than the police officer did!

I can see that this is the second book in a series about Scope which surprises me a little as he was a minor character in this story.
However, I did get from his backstory that there were probably other books about him,

In this book, Amanda returns home unexpectedly to find her husband and his mistress murdered and the killer chases her.
Amanda manages to get away and hides out in Scotland but armed men come after her and on the initial run she barges into a family on a canoeing trip and they get dragged into the story as well.


I felt very sorry for Jess and Casey as they had just lost their parents and then what happens to their aunt and uncle and then even when they come across random characters, they turn out to be bad people.


I did feel that the police were quite slack not interviewing Amanda a bit more thoroughly even though she admitted knowing about her husband's affair and refused a safe house.
Definite red flags there!.