The Twenty
By: Sam Holland
ISBN: 9781639102563
Publisher: Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date: 05/02/2023
Format: Hardcover
My Rating: TBR
A tense novel from a fast-rising star, Sam Holland, The Twenty fuses a chilling race-against-time with blood-curdling crime fiction. For fans of Harlan Coben and Thomas Harris, Sam Holland offers readers a page-turning serial killer thriller with “echoes of Lisa Gardner” (AJ Finn, #1 NYT bestselling author, on The Echo Man).
When DCI Adam Bishop arrives at the crime scene in the dead of night, the sight of the body is bad enough—but what Adam notices next chills him to his core. More bodies surface. And the spray-painted numbers daubed above the corpses reveal the horrific truth: the killer is counting down. But to what end?
Adam has no idea—until Dr. Romilly Cole knocks on his door with damning evidence pointing to a series of murders fifteen years earlier—a case she knows intimately from her past. Now, it’s personal—and the next knock on his door could be fatal.
Sam Holland’s gripping debut novel, The Echo Man, riveted readers and critics alike with its raw and brutal depiction of the unthinkable depredations of a serial killer. With The Twenty, Holland kicks her depraved milieu into even higher gear with a page-turning, up-all-night read that left us breathless.
Praise for The Echo Man
“Echoes, yes: echoes of Lisa Gardner, of Jeffery Deaver, of Stuart MacBride – The Echo Man evokes that same classic, satisfying, red-blooded fear. But Sam Holland’s stellar debut is very much its own beast, wily and brawny and dangerous: a lethal new predator in an alluringly old-school skin.”
—AJ Finn, New York Times bestselling author of The Woman in the Window
“Nail-biting suspense matches credible emotional reactions to extreme events in this exceptional thriller.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Debut novelist Sam Holland has produced a harrowing plot."
—BookReporter
“A thrillingly paced novel that disturbs and surprises in equal measure—part police procedural and part nightmare.”
—Scott Phillips, bestselling author of The Ice Harvest
“Grisly and graphic, Sam Holland is on disturbingly good form in The Echo Man . . . will keep you gripped.”
—Jo Furniss, Amazon Charts bestselling author of The Last to Know
“All at once captivating and terrifying."
—Kate Myles, author of The Receptionist
“What a delightfully dark, wildly fun and highly original take on the serial killer thriller. Everyone should read it!”
—A. J. Park, author of The First Lie and Don’t Speak
“[An] absolute page-turner . . . shocking, clever, and utterly frightening. ”
—Elle Croft, author of The Guilty Wife
“Simultaneously macabre and deeply empathetic, it somehow manages to both chill your blood and warm your heart, often in the same scene. Unmissable.”
—Gabriel Bergmoser, author of The Hunted and The Inheritance
“From the first page this book will grip you by the throat, hold you suspended and let you down with bang. It’s a dark rollercoaster of a read.”
—Rachael Blok, author of The Scorched Earth and Under the Ice
“The Echo Man delivers everything you want with a psycho thriller . . . Absolutely first class!”
—James Delargy, author of 55 and Vanished
“The Echo Man takes serial killer thrillers to a new level."
—Robert Scragg, author of End of the Line and What Falls Between the Cracks
“Intelligent writing, brilliant relatable characters and a kick-arse twist in the tail.”
—Alison Belsham, author of The Tattoo Thief and The Embalmer
"Bold, bloody and brilliant . . . Reminiscent of Thomas Harris’ Red Dragon, The Echo Man is more than unsettling - it's terrifying."
—Heather Critchlow, contributor to Afraid of the Light and Afraid of the Christmas Lights -
About the Author
Having always been fascinated with the dark and macabre, Sam Holland studied psychology at university then spent the next few years working in HR, before quitting for a full-time career in writing. A self-confessed serial killer nerd, her debut novel, The Echo Man, shocked and enthralled readers and reviewers alike with its sinister depiction of a serial killer copying notorious real-life murderers of the past. The Twenty is her second novel.
Sam can be found on Twitter and Instagram at @samhollandbooks
