Relentless (novel)
Encyclopedia
Relentless is Simon Kernick
's fifth thriller and crime novel originally published in June 2006 . Its sales were helped by the book being one of Richard & Judy
's Summer Book Club recommendations in 2007. It was the 8th best-selling paperback, and the best-selling thriller in the UK in the same year. It has sold over 300,000 copies and was the 4th most borrowed book from UK libraries in 2008. The Guardian
summed up its review of the book with "pretty much unputdownable".
A review in The Times
called it "a fine performance" with "down-to-earth realism" but marred by a parallel with an English football match during a date and time when there would be no games in real life. A review in The Independent
wrote "this is probably Kernick's best novel yet".
Meanwhile Mike Bolt is working in to a suicide–murder case of the chief justice and he thinks it might have something to do with Jack Calley because he was his solicitor. He finds out that the last call Jack made was to Tom Meron's landline so he goes to Tom's house to question him. Though Tom has just been released on bail, Mike orders Tom's re-arrest in order to question him. Officers attempt to apprehend Tom after he exits the station, but Tom decides to make a break for it. He manages to get a good way away but a car pulls up beside him. Thinking it is the police, he turns around (admitting defeat) when he is violently subdued by a man in a baseball cap, and subsequently forced into the back of the car. Tom quickly learns that the two men who kidnapped him mean to question Tom.
Simon Kernick
Simon Kernick is a British thriller/crime writer now living in Oxfordshire with his wife and two daughters.Kernick attended Gillotts School, a comprehensive in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. Whilst he was a student his jobs included fruitpicker and Christmas-tree uprooter. He graduated from...
's fifth thriller and crime novel originally published in June 2006 . Its sales were helped by the book being one of Richard & Judy
Richard & Judy
Richard & Judy was a British magazine/chat show which was presented by married couple Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan. It originally aired on Channel 4 from 2001 to 2008 but later moved to digital channel Watch in October 2008. It featured the world's most famous stars, along with their Book Club...
's Summer Book Club recommendations in 2007. It was the 8th best-selling paperback, and the best-selling thriller in the UK in the same year. It has sold over 300,000 copies and was the 4th most borrowed book from UK libraries in 2008. The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
summed up its review of the book with "pretty much unputdownable".
A review in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
called it "a fine performance" with "down-to-earth realism" but marred by a parallel with an English football match during a date and time when there would be no games in real life. A review in The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
wrote "this is probably Kernick's best novel yet".
Plot
One Saturday afternoon, Tom Meron, a happily married middle class man, receives a phone call from his old friend Jack Calley, a high-flying city lawyer whom he hasn't seen or heard from in years. While on the phone, Tom hears Jack being murdered on the line; his last words being the first two lines of Tom's address. Tom, terrified and confused, grabs his children and flees the house. While leaving the neighborhood, he passes a suspicious vehicle heading towards his house. He leaves his children with his mother-in-law and goes to find his wife only to be attacked in her office by a balaclava-clad man wielding an already bloody knife. He is then quickly arrested by the police on suspicion of murder. Tom is questioned about the murder of Vanessa Blake (his wife's work partner), telling him that there was evidence that he was at the crime scene.Meanwhile Mike Bolt is working in to a suicide–murder case of the chief justice and he thinks it might have something to do with Jack Calley because he was his solicitor. He finds out that the last call Jack made was to Tom Meron's landline so he goes to Tom's house to question him. Though Tom has just been released on bail, Mike orders Tom's re-arrest in order to question him. Officers attempt to apprehend Tom after he exits the station, but Tom decides to make a break for it. He manages to get a good way away but a car pulls up beside him. Thinking it is the police, he turns around (admitting defeat) when he is violently subdued by a man in a baseball cap, and subsequently forced into the back of the car. Tom quickly learns that the two men who kidnapped him mean to question Tom.