Icy atmosphere under siege in snowy Somerset

FICTION Three Hours

Rosamund Lupton Viking

€20.99

FROM the bestselling author of Sister, Afterwards and The

Quality of Silence comes this remarkable novel of tense yet feasible fear.

In a rural town in Somerset, snowfall has cast a silence across the school campus. The children settle down for their lessons. The junior class cross the fields to the pottery cabin, the seniors rehearse for their upcoming production of

Macbeth, while students in the library are missing access to their mobile devices.

But this so-far ordinary day turns into every parent’s worst nightmare. The headmaster is shot; the school is under siege. Terrified staff and pupils lock themselves into various rooms and desperately attempt to make contact with the outside world.

“His pupils’ faces look ghostly in the dim light, eyes gleaming, dark clothes invisible. They turned off all the lights when the code red was called. The Victorian wooden shutters have been pulled shut over the windows; traces of weak winter daylight seep inside through the cracks.”

Hannah is trying to staunch the bleeding from her headmaster’s wounds while trying not to lose control of her emotions.

“No more shots. Not yet. Fear thinning her skin, exposing her smallness…The gunman’s footsteps sound along the bookcase as he walks along the corridor.”

Meanwhile, the drama students continue with Macbeth, in the hope of blocking out the darkness beyond their locked room.

Three hours of intense, heart-stopping drama are stripped back and relayed from different perspectives in this thrilling novel.

The icy atmosphere remains throughout and echoes the pathetic fallacy and monstrosity of Macbeth. For parents of “pretty chickens” everywhere, prepare for a fictional tale which is unfortunately not unfeasible.

This is a truly exceptional read.