Knife Edge by Simon Mayo.

Welcome to current day London on the start of another working day. WHAM! This novel gets off to a frightening start when 7 fatal stabbings take place within 29 minutes on busy London streets.

Knife Edge is the tale of terror that is suddenly unleashed on the capital. What is going on and why? All the hallmarks are there and the reader is forced to remember the tragedy of 7/7.

The central character of this novel is Famie Madden, a journalist working for IPS - International Press Service - as she will get to the very bottom of the 7 fatal stabbings that shocked both London and her workmates.

I found Knife Edge an entertaining and thought provoking read. Knife Edge got off to a dramatic start that asked many, many questions. As Famie progressed in her investigations, slowly details emerged that made the plot unravel. The initial excitement from the start of this novel started to fade as Famie got closer to the bad guys. Knife Edge could not sustain the initial shock to the reader as it became a regular investigative journalist seeks the truth.

I liked how Simon did his research into rebel groups as far back as the late 1960’s. This historical perspective added so much realism to Knife Edge. All these past terrorist groups that have fizzled out, haunted the reader as they read through this story. I remembered these groups just as much as hit music records of the time.

I also liked how Simon repeated phrases that became slogans for the reader to embrace. These phrases remained in my head long after I had finished reading this novel. Remember how people used to scorn car manufacturer abbreviations? BMW became Black Man’s Wheels and GTI became Great Turd Inside, well Simon made up BPW which female readers will find amusing. To any of my workmates reading this review, BPW did NOT refer to Bristol Parkway railway station. Simon’s most memorable phrase undoubtedly was “embrace the butcher” and has nothing to do with vegans!

I enjoyed how suspicion was made of the characters and their motives. I liked how the psychology of terror was explored and the explanation of Collins and Hari’s 16 minutes of fun in a Coventry car park.

We are so used to modern crime/mystery/thrillers involving characters using smartphones and the internet. It was refreshing that Knife Edge involved old school, off the grid information sharing like newspapers, typewriters and writing paper. (Remember those!)

Simon Mayo is well known as a successful English radio presenter and I found Knife Edge a GOOD read that gets 4 stars from me. Knife Edge got off to a terrific start but faded into a steady trawl through clues to the conclusion. I found Knife Edge an entertaining read that was above average but there are better books out there.

Knife Edge was written in 2020 and is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher Random House UK for giving me a copy of this book on the understanding that I provide an honest review.