'If you read only one thriller this year; make it this one' Daily Mail 'Gob-smackingly, heart-stoppingly, breath-holdingly brilliant' Ruth Jones ------------ THREE HOURS TO SAVE THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE In rural Somerset in the middle of a blizzard, the unthinkable happens: a school is under siege. Pupils and teachers barricade themselves into classrooms, the library, the theatre. The headmaster lies wounded in the library, unable to help his trapped students and staff. Outside, a police psychiatrist must identify the gunmen, while parents gather desperate for news. In three intense hours, all must find the courage to stand up to evil and save the people they love. A TOP 10 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER THE TIMES THRILLER OF THE YEAR A BEST BOOK OF 2020 IN THE SUNDAY TIMES, TIMES, GUARDIAN, MAIL, MIRROR, LITERARY REVIEW, STYLIST, RED AND GOOD HOUSEKEEPING A TIMES & SUNDAY TIMES THRILLER OF THE MONTH ------------ 'Brilliant' Lee Child, Better off Dead 'A brave, timely and intricately crafted work' Emma Stonex, The Lamplighters 'Superb' Kate Mosse, The City of Tears 'It's beautifully, elegantly written, SO gripping, intelligent, timely, affecting and moving' Marian Keyes, Again, Rachel 'A brilliant literary thriller... moving, masterly' Sunday Times 'Kept us on the edge of our seats from start to finish' Independent 'A novel that you live rather than merely read' Daily Telegraph 'Amazing' Davina McCall, Menopausing 'An electrifying, pulse-racing novel' Red 'Wow! This is a stunner of a book, staggeringly good' Jane Fallon, Just Got Real 'An emotionally devastating and beautifully observed literary thriller' Observer 'Astonishing, powerful, terrifying, heartbreaking' Emma Flint, Little Deaths 'Intersperses scenes of breath-sucking tension with stirring meditations on human nature' Guardian

In June of 1940, when Paris fell to the Nazis, Hitler spent a total of three hours in the City of Light—abruptly leaving, never to return. To this day, no one knows why. Kate Rees, a young American markswoman, has been recruited by British intelligence to drop into Paris with a dangerous assignment: assassinate the Führer. Wrecked by grief after a Luftwaffe bombing killed her husband and infant daughter, she is armed with a rifle, a vendetta, and a fierce resolve. But other than rushed and rudimentary instruction, she has no formal spy training. Thrust into the red-hot center of the war, a country girl from rural Oregon finds herself holding the fate of the world in her hands. When Kate misses her mark and the plan unravels, Kate is on the run for her life—all the time wrestling with the suspicion that the whole operation was a set-up. New York Times bestselling author Cara Black is at her best as she brings Occupation-era France to vivid life in this masterful, pulse-pounding story about one young woman with the temerity—and drive—to take on Hitler himself. *Features an illustrated map of 1940s Paris as full color endpapers.

The gripping, moving story of a mother and daughter's quest to uncover a dark secret in the Alaskan wilderness, from the New York Times bestselling author of Sister and Afterwards. Thrillingly suspenseful and atmospheric, The Quality of Silence is the story of Yasmin, a beautiful astrophysicist, and her precocious deaf daughter, Ruby, who arrive in a remote part of Alaska to be told that Ruby's father, Matt, has been the victim of a catastrophic accident. Unable to accept his death as truth, Yasmin and Ruby set out into the hostile winter of the Alaskan tundra in search of answers. But as a storm closes in, Yasmin realizes that a very human danger may be keeping pace with them. And with no one else on the road to help, they must keep moving, alone and terrified, through an endless Alaskan night.

A gripping novel about the terrible secrets of a marriage, the love that can turn to desperation, the refuge and heartbreak of being a parent, and the fragile threads that cradle a family Once, so very long ago, she had watched him like this when he came to pick her up for a date. . . Her stomach fluttered and burned with infatuation and desire. She would watch him walk up the path and think, "This must be love." But that was so very long ago. Now Liz is wary and afraid. She has made a terrible mistake and it cannot be undone. Alex believes that today will be the day she comes back to him. Today will be the day his wife and young son finally come home. Today they will be a family again. But Liz knows that some things can never be mended. Some marriages are too broken. Some people are too damaged. Now the most important thing in her life is her son, Luke, and she will do anything in her power to protect him. So when Alex is a few minutes late bringing Luke back Liz begins to worry, and when he is an hour late her concern grows, and when he is later still she can feel her whole life changing, because what if Alex is not just late?

This “superbly written true-crime story” (Michael Lewis, The New York Times Book Review) masterfully brings together the tales of a serial killer in 1970s Alabama and of Harper Lee, the beloved author of To Kill a Mockingbird, who tried to write his story. Reverend Willie Maxwell was a rural preacher accused of murdering five of his family members, but with the help of a savvy lawyer, he escaped justice for years until a relative assassinated him at the funeral of his last victim. Despite hundreds of witnesses, Maxwell’s murderer was acquitted—thanks to the same attorney who had previously defended the reverend himself. Sitting in the audience during the vigilante’s trial was Harper Lee, who spent a year in town reporting on the Maxwell case and many more trying to finish the book she called The Reverend. Cep brings this remarkable story to life, from the horrifying murders to the courtroom drama to the racial politics of the Deep South, while offering a deeply moving portrait of one of our most revered writers.

Join author Jonathan Rizzo on his countdown to eternity. In Three Hours to Live, we are confronted with death and life. From the first page of the first chapter, "Gasping", we are pulled into the harrowing situation of a healthy twenty-four-year-old man who is stricken with the reality that his life is being taken from him with only hours' notice. Move from terror to acceptance, then to an unexpected spiritual journey through Heaven and Hell. Nothing but the reality of losing life itself can truly demonstrate its value. Rizzo has made it his life's purpose to share what he experienced in the hours and weeks following the news of his would-be untimely death as a young man. He will suck the reader into a whirlwind and release you back into reality encouraged and refreshed.