The 13th Hour by Richard Doetsch

Synopsis

Nick Quinn is being held in jail, accused of the murder of his beloved wife, Julia. He knows she's dead; he saw her bloody corpse, shot in the head at point-blank range. The police tell him they found the murder weapon with his fingerprints on it in the trunk of his car. Nick is confused, grief-stricken -- and completely innocent.

At 9 p.m. on July 28, a gray-haired gentleman visits Nick in the police interrogation room and asks him a simple question: "If you could get out of here, if you could save her, would you?" He hands Nick a golden watch that allows Nick to go back in time, one hour at a time, for a total of twelve hours. With each hour that Nick travels back, he finds more clues to the identity of Julia's real killer, but he also discovers that his actions in the past may have unexpected repercussions in the future.

In his race against time to save the woman he loves most in the world, Nick will find that friends become enemies, old loyalties are tested, and Julia's murder is part of a larger scheme that has its roots in greed and vengeance. Nick has the ability to save Julia, the chance to put his own world in balance, but he is venturing down a precarious route. If he hasn't set things right by the thirteenth hour, his desperate attempts to save Julia's life may lead to a far greater catastrophe than he could have ever imagined.

Review

This was one of the best books I have read in a long time, the plot was detailed and thorough, with plenty of twists to keep you turning the pages.  Keeping in mind that the chapters run backwards to correspond to the time flow the suspense and excitement still grows in the same manner of any really good thriller.

Each chapter builds and contains enough action to satisfy any action junky but the plot is complex enough for this book to be an ‘intelligent’ read with enough detail to fill the gaps but not so much to interfere with the flow or suppress imagination.

In short, I found the 13th Hour hard to put down and will look at reading more of Richard Doetsch books

Rating

I give this book 9.5 out of 10, go and get it