A fast paced thriller. A story that starts with a punch from page one. Lots of characters with a huge personality in the main character Famie a jaded journalist who seems to be a target. A very topical subject. Very gripping.

I know that Simon Mayo has had a number of successful books which are aimed at younger readers so I was keen to see how the transition to the adult market would be recieved. If Knife Edge is reflection on the excitement and tension he brought to his earlier books then I can see why his previous titles are held in such high regard. This was a highly enjoyable thriller.

Focus is on Famie Madden, she works for one of the top media outlets in the country and on the day we join her story she is in the hot-seat for co-ordinating all the stories which are going to air. However, Famie is soon to find the news is coming far too close to home – a series of murders in London all take place during the start of the morning rush hour. The attacks are clearly linked and must have been conducted by different people as they are spread around the city. As more information starts to come through to Famie and her team they realise that all the victims are their colleagues.

It is a shocking opening to the story and Famie is impacted more than most as she had been in a secret relationship with one of the victims. Naturally Famie wants answers so she begins to look into what story her colleagues may have been working on that brought about their terrible fate.

Knife Edge has all the thrills you need from a high stakes thriller. After a dynamic start the pace does slow a touch but it’s a steady build up back to a corking finale. While there haven’t been many opportunities to post recommendations for a summer beach read – Knife Edge falls into that category. The paperback is out in March 2021 so keep this one in mind when the good weather returns and you are planning some relaxing downtime. If you can’t wait that long then hardback, digital and audio copies are all available now!

Not my sort of book at all unfortunately. I struggled to understand what was happening some of the time, where some characters came in and parts of the plot.

A contemporary suspenseful thriller centred on a domestic terrorism plot. Starting with the shocking coordinated slaying of seven journalists in different parts of London. They all work at the same news agency as Famie Madden. Can she find out who is responsible before becoming their next victim. The pace does begin to flag midway but does recover.

Quite a change from his DJ image! This is a story of a seemingly coordinated attack on 7 different people. It feels very topical after the Charlie Hebdo situation and may have been an inspiration if that’s the right word. Very tense and very readable.

Loved this from the first page. A real page turner and I found it hard to put down. Fast paced. A real thriller. Highly recommended

Thanks netgalley and Simon Mayo for this very well written and exciting story about journalists who,were being killed off by a terrorist group.
The terrrorists wanted to murder as many people as possible, and they started with journalists.

Famie Madden was a journalist and she was first involved in the murders when one of her veteran journalists and head of their investigation bureau was stabbed to death. It followed on with more deaths until Farnie realised she could be next as could her daughter, and realised they were in danger.
Then followed a very exciting drama to catch the terrorists before they succeeded in their attack and caused lots of deaths.

I never realised that Simon Mayo, one of my favourite radio presenters, I was capable of writing such an accomplished novel. It is extremely well written, fast paced, realistic and credible. It is a real page turner, thoroughly recommended.

I wanted to read this book because I have always been a fan of Simon Mayo on the radio (still miss him on Radio 2!) Regardless of who had written it I couldn't put it down.

One May morning people are commuting to work. Seven people are all stabbed in various parts of London. Famie Madden at IPS (International Press Service) sees what is unfolding & realises that the victims are all colleagues at the IPS. One is a close friend, one is an ex-lover. They were all investigators- was this something connected to an investigation. Why have these people been targeted? & who is likely to be next? Famie starts to get strange messages. She is not sure if they are clues or warnings. Who are the ones behind this & what is their end game?

This was a fast paced thriller that kept me up late! It was well plotted with engaging characters & the plot was not such that the reader became confused, nor was it too simplistic. All in all it was a terrific read. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book.

I have been a fan of Simon Mayo for all my adult life and a considerable portion of my childhood too. He has a real talent for radio and interviews but appreciating an individual’s talent in a certain area doesn’t mean that you will appreciate all of their work in every area.
However, I needn’t have been concerned; Mr Mayo’s talents certainly do extend to being a quality thriller writer.

This may not be a ground-breaking novel in terms of style or content but it feels quite fresh and modern in its setting of a thriller within the world of current journalism. The central character of the piece is a strong, single and single-minded woman, who to this male reader’s eyes was very believable as a character – Mayo has got inside of and portrays all of the main characters very well, particularly the women in terms of thoughts and speech and certainly does not come across with the same voice to which we know his radio work. His descriptions of locations both real and imagined are very easily visualised and this also adds to the story. And the climax of the book is genuinely taught and devastating yet is surprisingly sensitive and moving.

Based on my previous knowledge of the author, this book is surprisingly graphic in its descriptions of the violence contained (although without ever being gratuitous). It is also surprisingly sweary in the characters’ dialogue. This may all have come as a bit of a shock initially but adds to the believability of the characters. But, you can see mayo’s interests, philosophies and attitudes exhibited throughout the book and even a few ‘in-jokes’ if you know where to look.

However, this novel is not without flaws – it is essentially a very good nuts and bolts thriller - a ‘Tab A into Slot B’ novel hitting all the tropes you would expect from such a book, but after a cracking start and an interesting and in depth study of the lives and occupations of the protagonists, the pace does flag a little for a period before stepping up a few gears in the final third of the book.
There are also a couple of twists and reveals that I was waiting for and a few too many fortuitous coincidences relied upon to progress the story than I would have liked, but maybe I have read too many thrillers and am able to spot these coming. But to be fair, they do help neatly tie the plot together and make for a narratively satisfying read. Indeed, none of this stops it being a great read in the mould of Lee Child or Jeffrey Deaver.
This will not be Simon Mayo’s last thriller and I will be pleased to read the next one, and I’m not even joking.

Not being a fan of celebrity books I was rather dubious about reading it. I need not have worried as I really enjoyed this book. The tempo slows a little in the middle after the initial stabbings but soon picks up to the crescendo at the end. Is there to be a sequel with the few survivors?

KNIFE EDGE is a thriller about terrorism with a breathless opening which rivals anything I have read in the genre as, in 29 minutes one morning in May, a series of attacks leaves 7 London commuters dead. In the Canary Wharf offices of the IPS news agency, Famie Madden and her fellow journalists, begin to realise that the killings have been coordinated and the victims are colleagues in the agency's Investigation team.

Simon Mayo, a radio and TV presenter, who presents my favourite film review show on BBC Radio 5, is a fine writer. The early chapters detailing the killings and their immediate aftermath are tense and claustrophobic, and Mayo's descriptions of an early morning London into which panic and fear erupt, are intensely vivid and convincing. The scenes following this are less riveting as the story alternates between Famie's attempt to protect herself and her family, while also attempting to identify those responsible for her colleagues' deaths, and scenes set in the terrorist cell. Here the story slows and the constant references to the terrorists as 'The Leader', 'The Woman' and "The Student' are a little clumsy. The book does lift again with a climactic confrontation with the terrorists which, while not reaching the heights of the initial chapters and being, perhaps, a little formulaic, does bring the novel to a satisfying conclusion.

Press journalists on a secret investigation are murdered simultaneously in what appears to be a terrorist attack. The remaining team at the press agency try to assess what has happened but will have to get used to the fact that someone they thought they knew was not all he seemed. Pacy and entertaining thriller that pulls you through to a satisfying conclusion.

It’s another day at work for Famie Madden, coming in to work as Slot (basically the on-call breaker of headlines) for IPS, her major news agency. Seven stabbings in quick succession around London is a big story… but it gets suddenly, shockingly personal as one of the victims is identified as another IPS journalist. When the dust settles, the entire IPS Investigations team is dead… and nobody can find out what they were working on.

Famie was turned down when she applied to join the Investigations team, but she was still close to them - especially to one of them, Seth, with whom she’d previously had a personal relationship. When a strange typewritten message turns up on her car’s windscreen after the funeral of the Investigation team’s leader, Famie is drawn inexorably into following in the team’s footsteps, figuring out what they were looking into… hopefully without sharing their fate.

Told from the perspectives of Famie and Hari, a young student with a terrorist cell who appears to be having a crisis of conscience, the tension builds quickly but does seem to get lost a bit in the middle, and I didn’t quite get why Hari didn’t grab some apparent opportunities to get word out… if he could walk to the shop and look at the newspapers, if he could type and post a cryptic message, he could do more to alert the authorities.

Simon Mayo is a well-known radio personality in the UK, and he’s at his strongest as a writer when writing about journalism and the inner workings of the news agency and the journalistic process, but he could do with explaining a little more about it - the position of Slot is something that has to be deduced from context rather than being properly defined, for example. Famie’s an excellent character though, a strong and capable woman who knows her own worth. I’m not sure if Mayo plans this to be part of a series, but Famie could definitely be a series lead.

There are a few too many incidences of showing rather than telling and the story definitely has a bit of a saggy middle, but the end is tautly suspenseful and most loose threads are tied off (though I still want to know what Famie decided to do afterwards… hence the possibility to start a series). Overall a very good read which just needed a bit more editing to really tighten it up. Four stars.

I was really looking forward to reading this having been a fan of Simon Mayo for many years in his other guise as a radio DJ so was quite disappointed that it didn't really do it for me.

The start was brilliant and had me hooked but it just went a bit "bleh" for me in the middle and although the ending was as good as the start, it just didn't make up for the middle because by that time I had lost a lot of interest and just carried on reading because I hate not finishing books. The characters were interesting but not particularly memorable enough to connect with me so I didn't really care what happened to them either way. The themes and plot of this book are up to date and you can certainly see them playing out in the real world unfortunately but it felt a little over complicated at times.

As usual, I am likely to be in the minority on this one as there have been many 4 and 5 star reviews given; maybe I was having a bad week! so I suggest you give a go for yourself. I have to say that this won't put me off reading Simon's books in the future purely based on the start and end of this particular book.

Thank you to Random House UK, Transworld Publishers via NetGalley for my copy in return for an unbiased review.

7 journalists the entire IPS investigation team gone murdered simultaneously why? Was everyone else safe?
Famie, Sam and Tommi good friends and fellow journalists decide to go home en masse very tramp they pass or person simply standing still they treat as a murderer
They then decide to try and solve the puzzle but have no idea what any of the others had been investigating they do know they have 7 funerals to attend and at Mary Lawton’s Famie has an envelope left under her windshield wipers it quotes a Bob Dylan lyric which Famie gets but has know idea why she is sent it
But soon it will become apparent that Famie is also a target but still keeps receiving weird messages
Who is safe? Who isn’t ? Fantastic read even to last page which left me with more questions?

I read Knife Edge by Simon Mayo in staves with other Pigeonholers as part of a group.

When journalist Famie Madden arrives for work one warm, humid May morning, she cannot begin to imagine the horrors that await her. Across London, seven men and women have been targeted in a series of coordinated attacks and all were part of the investigations team at the International Press Service. As Famie starts receiving messages, she and other colleagues set forth on an investigation to get to the truth of the grisly, brutal murders.

Knife Edge incorporates a range of themes and, in a crisp narrative, the reader is treated to a wonderfully oppressive, fast paced thriller. Famie made an enthusiastic and fiery protagonist in a well written story surrounding the world of journalism, politics, religious beliefs, and predominantly, terrorism. Hooked from the opening chapter, Knife Edge was a provocative and conflicting tale with its fair share of twists. With an original and extremely tense plot, some of Simon Mayo's gory descriptions were difficult to stomach, but as I ploughed on, each new development built on or challenged my previous opinions. Eventually arriving at the terrific, explosive, creditworthy finale, this was a fulfilling, highly recommended, début thriller.

A special thank you to Random House UK, Transworld Publishers, Simon Mayo, NetGalley and Pigeonhole for a complimentary copy of this novel at my request. This review is my unbiased opinion.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Transworld for the ARC of this book.

The start of this book is absolutely thrilling, it follows a journalist called Famie as she reports of seven stabbings in London and begins to realise that all of the people who were stabbed were her colleagues. I found it utterly gripping and moving and actually found myself crying. I don’t think I have ever cried so early in a book.

Unfortunately, the book is unable to sustain this pace and engagement. Once the funerals are over, it loses its momentum as it follows Famie and several of her journalist friends having lots of puzzled conversations with each other but not really doing all that much clever investigating. They look at a couple of devices, receive a couple of cryptic notes and then end up embroiled in a terrorist plot which takes place in Coventry for, as far as I can tell, the sole reason that Simon Mayo went to university there and enjoys including tidbits of his own life in his novels.

It is one of those thriller novels where everyone is connected to everyone else and when it got to the end and the big villain was revealed, you end up feeling like ‘hang on a minute why would they do that, and how did they know about it?‘. It’s kind of neat and messy at the same time. I had no idea really what the terrorists were aiming to achieve, but then it is fairly impossible to empathise with most terrorists.

It’s a shame because there is the kernel of a brilliant idea in there, but after the opening, it just isn’t that well executed or interesting. The characters were fairly bland and interchangeable and didn’t really develop over the course of the book. I also had an issue with the lead character’s name, Famie, which is unusual and not pronounced phonetically so every time I read it my brain jarred slightly and it reminded me I was reading a book and took me out of the story.

Simon Mayo’s young adult books, the Itch series, are really engaging and fun to read, but I don’t think he has quite mastered the art of writing adult thriller fiction yet.

May 22nd a date that sees a series of brutal attacks across London. It soon becomes clear they are all journalists and linked to one place. Famie a colleague wants to know the truth of what happened and soon finds her own life in danger. Can she and her friends figure this terror scenario out before more die.

This was quite the read. It starts fast paced but slows in the middle only to pick back up towards the end. The pacing fits well with the story. This was a dark and at times pretty gory story. The plot is interesting and well executed. The ending was well done and finished the story off just right. This is scary because it deals with things that are happening now across the world. The characters are interesting and you instantly become invested in them especially Hari. A great thriller.

This books grips you from the opening chapter with the stabbing of 7 journalists and continues taking you on a roller coaster journey. The writing is brilliant and the ending was perfect. A must read