Race-against-time-thrillers

Reading lists

12 of the best race-against-time thrillers

The post-apocalyptic thriller that will keep you up all night

The Last

'We defy you to pick up The Last and put it back down' Stylist 
 'Extraordinary' Emily St John Mandel, Station Eleven 
 
TWENTY SURVIVORS. ONE HOTEL. ONE KILLER. 
------ 
 
 The world as we know it has ended. 
 
 You and nineteen other survivors hole up in an isolated Swiss hotel. 
 
 You wait, you survive. 
 
 Then you find the body. 
 
 One of your number has blood on their hands. 
 
 The race is on to find the killer. 
Before the killer finds you.... 
 
 Finished Station Eleven and Contagion and looking for your next pulse-pounding, speculative read? Look no further than The Last. This Waterstones Thriller of the month will sweep you into a world of fascinating characters and compulsive mystery. 
------ 
 
 'One of those books you can't stop reading, but don't want to end' TM Logan, The Holiday 
'Dark, compelling, original' CJ Tudor, The Burning Girls 
'A scarily plausible white-knuckle read' Erin Kelly, We Know You Know 
'Stephen King meets Agatha Christie' Luca Veste, You Never Said Goodbye 
'Frighteningly believable' Jennie Melamed, Gather the Daughters 
'Compulsively readable' Daily Telegraph 
'A post-apocalyptic And Then There Were None' Irish Times

The Last is a brilliantly executed novel, and the questions Jameson poses-who will be with you at the end of the world, and what kind of person will you be?-are as haunting as the plot itself. This is a chilling and extraordinary book

Emily St John Mandel, author of 'Station Eleven'

It is Jameson's portrayal both imaginative and plausible, of how her characters adapt to their new life that makes her novel such compulsive reading

A clever, original, scarily plausible white-knuckle read

Erin Kelly, bestselling author of 'He Said, She Said'

A brilliantly imagined tale of suspicion, betrayal and survival in a world on the brink of extinction. One of those books that you can't stop reading - but don't want to end

Stephen King meets Agatha Christie, in this fantastic and highly original novel that I'll be recommending to readers for a long time to come. I loved every second of it! This is *the* book of 2019

Chillingly nightmarish - a gripping read

Sophia Tobin, author of 'The Silversmith's Wife'

Gripping, and thoroughly and frighteningly believable. I could not put this book down

Jennie Melamed, author of 'Gather the Daughters'

Jameson does an excellent job of exploring what nuclear war would mean for us . . . exploring what it would mean to live in a place where consequences no longer existed.

We defy you to pick up The Last and put it back down

Hanna Jameson wrote her first book at the age of seventeen, which was later nominated for the John Creasey Dagger Award. She's a bestselling author (Something You Are, Girl Seven, Those Crazy Freeways, The Last) and is currently working on screen projects.

BREAKING: Nuclear weapon detonates over Washington 
 
Historian Jon Keller is on a trip to Switzerland when the world ends. As the lights go out on civilisation, he wishes he had a way of knowing whether his wife, Nadia, and their two daughters are still alive. More than anything, Jon wishes he hadn't ignored Nadia's last message. 
 
Twenty people remain in Jon's hotel. Far from the nearest city and walled in by towering trees, they wait, they survive. 
 
Then one day, the body of a young girl is found. It's clear she has been murdered. Which means that someone in the hotel is a killer. 
 
As paranoia descends, Jon decides to investigate. But how far is he willing to go in pursuit of justice? And what kind of justice can he hope for, when society as he knows it no longer exists?

Hanna Jameson

Intense, twisty and beautifully written . . . unique

At a New York City Wedding, on a sweltering summer night, four people are trying to get their lives started. 
 
Yun has everything he's ever wanted, but somehow it's never enough. 
Emory is finally making her mark, but feels the shame more than the success. 
Andrew just wants to be honest, but had lied to himself his whole life. 
Fin can't resist falling in love, but can't help wrecking it all either. 
 
Then the four of them watch as one of the guests sits down and never gets back up. Soon it's happening everywhere. Is it an illness or a choice? 
 
Because how can anyone be happy in a world where the only choice is to feel everything - or nothing at all?

Hanna Jameson

Books by Hanna Jameson

Articles featuring Hanna Jameson

12 of the best race-against-time thrillers

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter