The world is just emerging from Covid so a new pandemic is all the country needs. It starts out innocently enough- a ticking noise that others can hear followed by headaches, deafness... Teacher Kit Chaplin is tiptoeing through the minefield of bringing up a teenage daughter after the death of his wife. He is involved with bacteriologist Lilly Slater although he is moving slowly- not sure how Rose is going to react. He becomes aware of this new infection when pupils at his school are suffering from it, including Rose's best friend. What is this thing? It seems to be linked to meningitis, but can antibiotics do the trick or is this something else? And where did it come from? The story jumps about quite a bit, starting in the middle, going back then carrying on from where you started. I didn't find it too confusion. I liked the way sections started with a very short sentence about the character. It is an interesting style point & one I liked. Simon Mayo's first book was a really good read, but I think this one is even better. It was a real page turner that I couldn't put down. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book- I can't wait to see what he'll come up with next.

Tick Tock by Simon Mayo Having read Mad Blood Rising and Knife Edge by Simon Mayo I could not wait to get started on Tick Tock and I definitely was not disappointed. This is a gripping thriller about an unknown illness which begins with a clicking noise being emitted by a person’s ear. There are all the usual posts on various social media sites of video clips of people clicking it seems harmless, it seems fun. Then the symptoms begin to develop and suddenly it is not funny anymore. We follow the story of what is happening through the lives of Rose; who lives with her English teacher father, Kit Chaplin and his girlfriend, and renowned vaccinologist, Lilly Slater. Although this story references Covid it is definitely not a story about something like Covid. The situation develops through time and I like the references throughout about what is happening to each person at various times of the day. The tension is elevated as the book progresses and it is an engrossing thriller which was hard to put down. The characters too are well rounded and believable; I would say that Simon Mayo has pulled it off again. I will be recommending this book to all my book groups and to friends.

I really enjoyed this thriller. Fast paced, intriguing and thought provoking, there’s actually a hell of a lot about it that is entirely plausible, even if some of it tends towards a speculative future. With characters who I connected with really quickly, there is a lot to be celebrated in this latest thriller from Simon Mayo and, far from being a turn off – a post pandemic novel about an entirely new kind of pandemic – I found I read through it in double quick time. One of the key things that drew me into the story were the characters, namely Kit, his daughter Rose and his partner, vaccinologist Lilly. I found that I became invested in them really quickly. Kit as the single father struggling to connect to an increasingly distant daughter whilst navigating a new relationship was someone I had full sympathy for. His determination to get to the bottom of what is going on with the students who are starting to present with new, unexplained symptoms, is echoed by his daughter’s insistence that something needs to be done, and Rose’s fierce independence and rallying makes her immediately likeable, especially given the opening to the novel. The book does have echoes of the covid pandemic, especially in the early days where people are dismissive of the symptoms and reluctant to declare any kind of emergency, even when the spread of the disease escalates. Having lived through the pandemic, it’s almost possible to predict the course of vents, how the reactions to the endemic situation will escalate and, the way in which the prejudices of those who are ‘clean’ burst forth when faced with an infected person are very reminiscent of the cross border antagonism that existed as the course of the pandemic was plotted across the country and fears escalated about the disease with no known cure. There were times I felt my emotions heightened, not just because of what might happen to the protagonists, but what was happening to those around them. The memory of that indiscriminate loss is still very fresh and enough to trigger those underlying emotions. There are many puzzling threads in this book, secrets to be uncovered and surprising links between past and present which hold the key to containing this new pandemic. The science in the book is well explained and not overwhelming, but also not glossed over to make it feel like a secondary concern to the main action. The pacing slowly increases as the threat to our main characters grows, and the escalation in pace matches the growth in anger and instability of the population. The ultimate cause of this pandemic? Very plausible if a little problematic. I won’t say too much about it, but given diplomatic tensions of the past few years and escalating tensions across the globe, it’s not impossible that this kind of catastrophic event could result, especially now. In fact some might argue its a very brave time to be release in this kind of book, with some of the plot drawn from such recent history that it still feels extremely fresh and raw. A really intriguing premise and good plotting, backed by great characters that I felt a real kind of protectiveness towards made this a great summer read. Definitely recommended.

Many thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for a free ARC of this ebook. After reading this in little over a day, it's finished and so am I! Breathless and tachycardia after this helter-skelter of a story. I absolutely loved it and highly recommend it. This is the story of a raging, out of control infection. It references Covid, the Salisbury poisonings, Porton Down issues and much more. The writing is at times frenetic and it needs to be given what is going on. In places there are brief details about what is happening elsewhere in the story and the sparsity of language used in these instances give such dimension to the unfolding horrors of the epidemic. This book is a clever premise, a story of our age, and it is incredibly well told. A well deserved 5*

It starts quickly enough. A tick tock ticking you can hear in your ear. Tinnitus, you think. It will pass. But it doesn't, It gets worse - and then you pass it on. Before you know it, it spreads. Elsewhere across the globe, it emerges, small outbreaks at first, contained groups of people, young and old, and suddenly it's a plague - and ten days later it's killing people. The hospitals are overflowing and there is no cure. There is paranoid panoc which sets friend against friend, neighbour against neighbour. where does the world go from here? Simon Mayo is a radio DJ who has turned his hand to writing novels. This is the second book that I've read by the author. Set in post-Covid, it features a new epidemic. The story is told from multiple perspectives. Panic sets in all over the world as this new epidemic takes hold. The pace was fast at the beginning, then it takes a bit of a dip in the middle, (I took half a star off for this), then it picks up the pace again. There's twists along the way. The plotline is cleverly crafted. This is a decent thriller with strong well developed characters. But no one is safe. Another fantastic read by the author. I would like to thank #Netgalley #RandonHouseUK #TransworldPublishers and the author #SimonMayo for my ARC of #TickTock in exchange for an honest review.