I love this authors books and have read every one…….this was a great intriguing start but for some reason I could not get i to the book,like any of the characters or fully understand all the financial side of it so was a DNF at 30%,,I will continuing reading this author of course and presume this was just a one off for me

✨4.5 stars✨

OMG wow what an amazing thriller that had me hooked from the first page!

This was the first book that I had read by this author but I really enjoyed his writing as I found myself unable to put it down, hence the reason I read it in one day.

The premise of all the characters waking up in a locked secluded house after being drugged, being contacted by a mysterious voice, and then somehow relating to the Black Lake murders that happened four years prior was really interesting and had me engaged throughout as I absolutely flew through this book.

And then the final twists at the end when I thought the story was over… wow just wow!

I will definitely be on the lookout for other work by this author and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a fast-paced thriller that leaves you guessing till the very end!

I received an ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

A fantastic thrilling murder mystery with a brilliant locked room setting. As time counts down and the suspects are under pressure to confess to murder each of them tackles the situation in a different way. It's a fast paced book, with twists and turns every few pages. The final twist is genius!

With many thanks to Netgalley for this free arc and I am leaving this unbiased review voluntarily.

The master of the thriller rollercoaster is back in this ‘locked room’ style story, but with an ingenious twist. The characters are sublime - a corrupt detective, a Russian gangster, an informant, a dodgy business partner, a crazy ex girlfriend and the beneficiaries of the dead man - and are all connected to events four years ago. The pace is on point and will keep you guessing to the very end with the author throwing in twist after twist. Well written, expertly plotted and will leave you breathless. A good ending ties everything up perfectly. Loved it!

Stunning! Just… wow!

Seven people wake up in a house after being drugged. They are all connected in some way to “The Black Lake Massacre”, a mass killing that happened four years earlier. There are cameras everywhere and then a voice comes through and tells them that they have all been poisoned and will die in 12 hours, unless the killer confesses.

Now tell me you don’t want to know what happens?!

This is a fast paced and totally gripping read, narrated by DCI Hemming, one of the investigating officers on the original case, and Colton Lightfoot, an employee of company run by two of the murder victims. All of the seven people have secrets and they all want to live, but in order to get the antidote, one of of them must confess.

5 ⭐️ Thanks to Netgalley, Simon Kernick and Headline for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant! I was hooked from the first page. Simon Kernick always writes such gripping stories and this one did not disappoint. The chapters switch between the time 4 years ago of the horrific slaughter of 4 people and the present. The case remains unsolved and those involved have now been brought together by an unknown person and given a deadly poison to encourage the killer to confess when an antidote will be given to the others! From there follows twists and turns galore as the reader is invited to solve the crime along with the participants. None of the characters are very nice people so I didn't particularly have a favourite I was rooting for however I was extremely surprised when the culprit was finally revealed in the closing pages. An excellent read I have no qualms about recommending to anyone who enjoys a good who dun it mystery thriller.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy. All opinions are my own.

Really intriguing who dunnit. Modern day problems, violence, murder and evil but with an Agatha Christie style novel. Everyone a suspect, everyone together in one setting. Once you reach the end and know the full story it makes you want to read it all over again to see what you'd missed the first time around. Thank you for a great book.

Firstly, thank you to Headline for gifting me a proof copy of You All Die Tonight. I also received an ARC with thanks to NetGalley.

It’s 10:24 a.m. and Colton has just woken up with what he believes to be the hangover from hell… only to soon realise his surroundings are unfamiliar. To make matters worse, he's in a remote mansion – and he’s not the only one there.

There are seven people in total, and they quickly realise they all have a connection to the grim Black Lake killings that took place four years prior. An omniscient voice informs them that they have all been poisoned and will die in just 12 hours unless someone confesses their guilt.

What ensues is a desperate search for the antidote and the truth. The timeline switches between the present day at the mansion and an investigation that took place four years earlier. We get multiple characters' viewpoints, each with their own arc – and the more you learn about them, the more unlikeable they become. But that’s exactly why they’ve found themselves in this situation. This thriller will keep you on your toes, guessing, and takes you on a high-octane journey.

I found this a really hard book to get into, but I didn't give up. The premis that there has been a murder and that someone knows who did it, but it is one of several people and the murderer needs to admit to the crime - or they all die, seems OK. But in reality, no one wants to own up and if they own up and are lying - there will be consequences. Well I went along with it, but the more I read the more pointless it seemed. They almost all die! But someone is just pretending to be dead and the ending would have made me slam the book closed and throw it across the room (if I hadn't been reading on a kindle). I felt like I had wasted my time, the ending was so rushed and so totally unbelievable. Not a book I could recommend

I decided to go into this without knowing much of the synopsis. Having enjoyed Kernick work in the past.
Part of me is glad I did this. I found it added a layer of questions. I really didn't know what to expect.
Throughout the book I kept changing my theories on what happened and why.

The writing of this made it easy to get lost in the story. Without getting lost or confused. The book actually felt longer than it is. But not in a bad way. Just that things were constantly happening.

This is my first read by Simon Kernick, and I have to admit that I’m hooked.
This is a clever whodunnit with lots of twists and turns, which will give you whiplash.

Seven people wake up in a remote mansion, all drugged and with no idea how they got there. They are all involved in a multiple murder four years ago, known as The Black Lake Massacre, in which there was only one survivor. They soon find out from a disembodied voice through a camera, that they have all been given a poison, and have just 12 hours to confess to the murder, or they will all die.

This story switches between two timelines…‘four years ago’, and ‘present day’, and is told by two people…former DCI Clive Hemming, and former employee of one of the murdered victims, Colton Lightfoot.

The story was very detailed, and nicely paced, which had me gripped from the start. All the characters were POS, and each had their own secrets, making them all suspects, but not once did I guess ‘whodunnit’.

Thanks to the author, Headline, and NetGalley for providing me with this free ARC, with which I leave a voluntary review.

3-3.5 stars

This is my first Simon Kernick book and I was interested to look at his other ones. I think thrillers are my most read genre and so it was great to discover a new author.

It is quite difficult to review this without spoiling it, so it will probably be a relatively short review.

There are a number of characters who all seem to have something in common but it's not immediately clear how. They're all suspects but they could all be victims. Are main characters are:

Colton Lightfoot (our main narrator, as it were), Adam and Sanna, DCI Hemming, Gary Querell, Kat Warner, and Yuri Karnov. They're our key names.

I can't say I liked the characters much. Not that they're badly written, no, they're well written and I think that's why I had such bad opinions on them. There is almost a caricature-ness about them, but in a good way. They're everything to the extreme: they're rough, lying, desperate, hating, loving, suspicious, brutish- it's all dialled up. But I didn't really have much compassion for any of them and so there wasn't any one that I felt particularly worried for, or anyone I particularly wanted to be found guilty.

It is interesting because for the most part, it's set in just the one location. This can be hard to do well, it can often cause the story to be quite dull and repetitive if you don't have that change in scenery. But it adds heaps of tension to an already tense story, with the added claustrophobia that you may be sharing a room with a murderer.

There are flashbacks to the night of the murders and the immediate aftermath and we get to know how the characters fit together. I think I preferred these scenes. The present scenes are good but limited, whereas the flashback scenes have more scope and there's more to get your teeth into.

You do have to suspend belief a little bit as to how feasible the plot is. But I didn't mind it so much because I think for all thrillers and murder mystery type books, they all need a bit of acceptance that it makes sense in the context of the entire book.

It was an interesting idea: what are you willing to do to save yourself? Can you trust anyone? Can you trust yourself? Who do you suspect? Are you a suspect?

I will say for me that it felt a little too long. Annoyingly, I can't say what would need cutting frrom it in order to shorten it, but I did get the general feeling that it dragged slightly, so maybe it just needs a little tidying up.

It's not the best thriller I've ever read, but it is pretty good and I am interested in his other books. It's needs tidying up slightly for me, but overall it is engaging, intriguing, and surprising. And the conclusion really did surprise me, which is the sign of a good thriller. I had my suspicions abut nothing concrete, and it was more detailed and layered than I initially thought.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me an ARC of You All Die Tonight.

I absolutely LOVED this novel!!! I’ve never read a book with this premise before, people being drugged and poisoned with only 12 hours to live. The only way to get the antidote? To find who committed a set of murders 4 years before and for them to confess.

It twisted and turned and I kept changing my mind as to who I thought was guilty, to be bashed over the head with another massive twist in the last few pages.

A big, fat, shiny 5 stars from me! Brilliant!

Starting in a locked house, seven people who vaguely know each other wake up and are told by a electric tonic voice that they have been poisoned and unless they admit to something they will die in 24 hours.

This was such a great opener. We find all of these people are connected in some way to the Black Lake killings. All the voice wants is a confession. Was it the mafia boss? The detective that worked the case? You’ll find out at the end!

This book creates suspense, holds you in its grasp and doesn’t put you down until the very last word.

I particularly liked how it kept me guessing but the narratives were so rich and well crafted that I didn’t once want it to speed up, despite wanting my answers.

This is an incredible book, it’s not too stuck in a trope and it’s really good at being unpredictable and unputdownable.

I want to read more of this author!

I received this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review which this is.

Seven people find themselves locked in a house and monitored by cameras. A disembodied voice tells them that unless one of them confesses to murder they will all die within twelve hours.

Author Simon Kernick writes pacey thrillers that hook you from the very start and are full of twists. I still remember picking up my first novel by the author, Relentless, and being unable to put it down. You Will All Die Tonight continues in the same vein.

From the very beginning, I felt as if I was in something from the Saw franchise as Colton Lightfoot wakes from a drugged state to find himself locked inside a large house and no knowledge of how he got there. He quickly learns he's not alone as six more people surface, all waking from being drugged. Colton quickly realises that the people around him are not strangers, they are all people who were linked to the Black Lake massacre, an unsolved murder that happened four years earlier.

Black Lake House was the home of George Barratt and his family. Barratt looked after the investments of wealthy clients. Four years previously intruders had broken into the house murdering Barratt, along with his wife and son. Barratt's business partner, Gary Querell, along with his wife Claire, were also staying over. Claire was also murdered and Querell was left for dead.

Alongside Colton and Querell, others trapped in the house are Querell's girlfriend, Barratt's brother and sister-in-law, a Russian gangster that Barratt was laundering money for and the detective who was investigating the murders.

The animosity between the various characters is obvious from the beginning, with each accusing the others of being responsible for their current predicament. The situation quickly takes a turn for the worse when a disembodied voice explains that they've all been injected with an unidentifiable poison that will kill them within twelve hours unless the person responsible for the murders confesses. This causes the tension to rise rapidly, with open hostility visible as they accuse each other. Each of them continues to deny they had anything to do with the murders.

As the storyline switches between the present and the police investigation four years ago we learn that virtually everyone had a motive and the alibi's offered were spurious. Simon Kernick delivers one shocking twist after another as lies and secrets are uncovered. It is impossible to guess who is guilty and as the deadline approaches it looks as if the murderer is prepared for everyone to die in order to keep their crime hidden.

A brilliant psychological thriller! A real page turner!
I highly recommend.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my ARC

Four years ago, two killers broke into Black Lake House, murdered four people and left another for dead. Seven people are now condemned to die for this crime – unless the guilty pair confess! The murder victims are one of the partners in a financial services company, his wife and son, and the wife of the other partner, the badly injured victim.
This morning, the seven ‘condemned’ people woke up in a mansion in the wilds of Essex, with no memory of why or how they got there. They quickly discover the answers to those two questions, courtesy of a disguised voice echoing from a speaker. All of them were connected to the murder victims, lured here and drugged (or vice versa) and injected with a slow acting poison. This will kill them within twelve hours, but its increasingly painful symptoms means they will die in agony. There is an antidote, but it will only be made available to the innocent if the actual killers confess (they will not get the antidote but will be killed painlessly). Who has devised and executed this scenario? What is their motive? Does the scheme have a cat in hell’s chance of working?
The best way to tell a tale whose plot is quite unlikely, basically unworkable and unbelievable, is to tell it at breakneck speed, so that the reader doesn’t have time to question the events. The author is a master of this art. The story is told over two time frames; The present, largely through the eyes of Colton (formerly junior accountant in the company), and the past, largely through the eyes of ex DCI Hemming (SIO on the botched murder investigation). We also get contributions from the others, from which it is clear that they all had motive and all are deeply unlikable. The latter is so prominent that I didn’t invest in the story, and just tried to solve the whodunit, which I did more or less – there is one twist that no one will get because it is unclued, and the main twist is one of which I disapprove. If you like fast paced writing for the thrill of being swept along, this is a 4. If you like a puzzle, even one that cheats a bit, this is a 3. Average therefore 3.5. Normally I’d round that up but I really didn’t like the ending!
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

This is another brilliant psychological thriller by Simon Kernick
It grips you from the first page and doesn't let up. Seven people wake up locked in a mansion and they will all die unless someone confesses to a previous murder, This tense gripping tale twists and turns all the way through and will keep you in suspense all the way to the end
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it

You are always guaranteed a fast paced thriller from Simon Kernick novels and “You All Die Tonight” is no different. The action starts from the first page and the ride begins. This is a psychological thriller combining the tension of a locked room mystery with psychological suspense and moral dilemmas.

Seven strangers wake up in a remote mansion, confused and terrified. They quickly realise they have been trapped in this isolated house, with no idea who has imprisoned them or why. They are aware that they are all connected by a brutal crime committed four years ago. The tension rises when a voice announces that they have been poisoned and only have twelve hours to live. There is an anecdote but first one of them to confess to being a killer.

Each of them claims to be innocent but one of them is lying and with the clock ticking it is a race against time to uncover the killer. The tension mounts and each of the seven characters tries to unravel the killer and alliances change, secrets are revealed, and suspicion are roused. All seven have their own reasons for hiding the truth, and it is almost impossible to know who to trust. The clock is ticking and the tension is mounting.

The plot is well thought out and the pacing is spot on, the short chapters add to the suspense making it difficult to put the book down. Just when you think you are figuring things out a plot twist completely throws you off line. This is a thriller about choices, guilt, retribution and the lengths people will go to protect themselves.

A fast paced page turner that is almost impossible to put down.

I would like to thank both Netgalley and Headlines for supplying a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Brilliant as usual from Simon Kernick. Fast paced, thrilling and riveting read. I've never been disappointed with a book by this author and this book is no exception. A standalone whodunnit with several suspects. A clever plot which had me guessing throughout. I did not see that ending coming.