Severed - Simon Kernick

I read one of Simon Kernick's books last year called Relentless and really enjoyed it and I got a Smiths voucher for my birthday and saw he had this one out in paperback and so bought it straight away. The book is about a man called Tyler who wakes up in a room which he doesn't recognise in a bed covered in blood. When he looks under the covers he finds his girlfriends body with its head cut off lying next to him. He cannot remember the past 24 hours. In shock he looks around the room and propped next to the DVD player is a note saying Tyler, Play me. When he plays the DVD it shows him killing his girlfriend. While his mind is whirling from this he ...  Read the complete review

I first came across Simon Kernick like many by reading 'Relentless.' It was a fast moving thriller and something I really enjoyed reading, at the end was a teaser for his next book, 'Severed' and after reading the teaser I was highly anticipating it! However Kernick does not deliver the way he did with Relentless. The book starts off great, the opening chapter launches you into it as the main character wakes up next to a headless body with no re-collection of how he got there. This opening chapter could have set the scene for another excellent read, however the way the book unfolds is highly disappointing. Alot of the book becomes too ...  Read the complete review

I can tell you the one thing that I would not do if I woke up next to the decapitated body of my girlfriend and that is go on a chase around London. Imagine the absolute shock you would be in. No manner of persuasion or threats would stop me from being a jibbering wreck on the floor. Why is this? Probably because I love my partner and would not know what to do without her and the fact that I am not a former solider. You see Tyler, the hero of 'Severed', is a former soldier this means that according to author Simon Kernick he is able to compartmentalise grief and get on with the job at hand. If we are creating autobots who brush aside the death of a loved one then ...  Read the complete review

Its not every morning that you wake up in a strange bed next to the decapitated corpse of your girlfriend. After a start like that you know its not going to be a good day for Tyler the man with the misfortune to have a headless girlfriend in a strange place with no recollection of getting there or more importantly of beheading her which is apparently what happened if the evidence is to be believed. Every turn of the page brings with it yet another unexpected twist in an action packed plot line in a novel that leaves you wanting more and delivers in bucket loads, keeping on delivering right up until the very last page of the final chapter. OK so its not ...  Read the complete review

This is the first Simon Kernick novel I read, lying by the pool (for far too long, in the scorching sun) on a recent holiday. The opening of the book leaves you begging for the conclusion. Its very tempting to jump to the last pages to find out what is going on. A chap called Tyler wakes up in an unknown location next to his girlfriend of three weeks, brutally multilated and headless. He has a complete memory block of the previous day, doesn't remember meeting up with her etc and wonders how this has all happened. He finds a DVD in the room with a note saying 'Tyler, Play me'. When he plays the DVD it shows him killing his girlfriend. He doesn't remember ...  Read the complete review