I was looking forward to reading this as I had heard good things and the blurb sounded really interesting and very relevant.
It started well and the build of tension was good, but I found the story a bit too stop-start and the amount of characters difficult to keep track of. The second part of the book definitely picked up, and I can see why lots of people have loved it, but overall this was just an ok read for me.

With thanks to Netgalley and Penguin for this ARC in exchange for an open and honest review.

I checked Google before writing this and there were 45 school shooting in the US in 2019. Luckily we have never experienced this in the UK, which is why Three Hours left me chilled to the bone.

Cliff Heights School was a mixed private school in Somerset. It's ethos was to promote tolerance and respect. The story began at 09.16 am when head master Matthew Marr was shot by an unknown gunman outside the school library. He was dragged into the library by seventeen year old pupils Hannah and David. Hannah immediately put Matthew Marr into the recovery position and David called 999.

Meanwhile drama teacher Daphne Ephelsteiner and her kids felt safe in the drama room. She persuaded them to continue rehearsing their latest production of Macbeth. However Daphne was worried because Jamie Alton one of her pupils had left the drama room before the shooting had begun. Worried his mum waiting for news he was safe along with the other parents.

Refugees seventeen year old Rafi and 8 year old Basi had been brought to the UK by Matthew Marr. The boys had been fostered and were pupils at Cliff Heights. Rafi had heard the first gunshot in the woods are informed Matthew of the gunman. Rafi saved Basi and his friends and was instrumental in helping them evacuate to safety. However Basi could not leave his older brother and went back into the school to find him, putting them both in danger.

Wow the plot was fast paced and at times I could feel my heart racing. Cliff Heights rather reminded me of my old school which was divided into two separate sites and surrounded by trees.

The story was very atmospheric and the snow just increased the desolation of the school. I was disappointed in the radicalisation storyline because i thought it was a little obvious. I would of liked to have read the POV of one of the gunmen.

I loved the staff and children who were exceptional in their own way. From.Camille Giraud who made clay slates in the pottery room to protect their windows from gun shots. To Sally-Anne standing guard at the drama studio.

I also liked pregnant DI Rose Poulstein whose job was to understand the motives of the gun men.

Although this book was a difficult read it was about bravery and love. I highly recommend this book.

Set in Somerset.

When the pupils of Cliff Heights school arrive that morning, they did not know that the next three hours would be the scariest and life changing hours of their lives. Their school is under siege. The headmaster, Andrew Marr has been injured. There is three gunmen. One is walking up and down the corridor, one is outside in the woods ut where is the third one? The snow has started to fall, hampering the rescue attempt.

This book is about a hate crime. Its emotionally fraught and fast paced. The story is well written and I was constantly on the edge of my seat. The backstory of Rafi and Basi was heartbreaking. The plotline is complex and the tension builds. There is quite a few characters but they all have key roles in the story. This is a story that will stay with you long after you have finished it. A fantastic read that I do recommend.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Penguin Books UK and the author Rosamund Lupton for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a powerful and compelling read. The action begins from line one and does not let up until the end - it was exhausting and harrowing and poignant and an absolute masterclass in the maintenance of tension and suspense throughout a narrative. It follows the three hours of a school shooting and hostage situation, which is a timely and difficult topic and for me, Rosamund Lupton has crafted an incredibly thoughtful examination of the subject matter without gratuitous violence or romanticising the perpetrators.

The Positives: The pacing in this book was perfection. At every point, the reader is given just enough information to be one step ahead of the investigators, which contributes to the tension because you are constantly waiting for the penny to drop. The characters are really well crafted and although there are quite a lot of them, each person was given enough unique traits to ensure a connection to the reader. I wanted these kids to be ok and was terrified throughout that they wouldn't be, which is a real testament to the skill of the author. This is not a long book, clocking in at just over 300 pages, but it packs so much in to this page count. There are interesting and nuanced conversations about the refugee crisis, extremism, liberalism and the conservative media, none of which overshadows the plot but all of which contributes to it effectively and to varying degrees. It is a beautifully crafted book and I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good thriller. Top notch!

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton

One winter’s day, in the middle of a snowstorm, the unthinkable happens. A school, surrounded by trees, on the rural edge of a village on the Somerset coast, is under siege. The headmaster, Matthew Marr, has been shot in his office. Brave sixth formers drag him into the library, which they barricade with books to prevent the gunman from entering. Now and again, they can hear him trying the door, biding his time, waiting for something. The other school children, some so young and tiny, are scattered around the school, with most in the theatre and many more, the youngest, in the pottery workshop deep in the woods. But not all of the children are accounted for. With no idea how many gunmen there are, with some children missing, with frantic parents desperate for news, DI Rose Polstein must deal with a situation that, as it develops live on the media, shocks the nation and beyond.

Three Hours is an extraordinarily powerful, harrowing novel. It does indeed take place over three hours and it’s that minute by minute coverage, as we move between perspectives, that makes this a tour de force read that is next to impossible to put down. This is immediate, tense writing, that still manages to fit in beautiful character portrayals, bring these people alive for us, whether they are school children, teachers, the headmaster, parents or the police. There is so much going on. There’s barely time to draw breath and so we hold it in as the drama plays out before us.

I don’t want to say much more about what happens over these three hours because this is a novel packed full of revelations and shocks. We are intensely involved with some of these characters, especially with two Syrian refugee brothers, but the stories of the children in the library and in the pottery workshop are for me the most powerful. Some moments are agonisingly tense and worrying. There is an additional fascinating edge to the drama literally played out in the theatre, as the children continue to rehearse their school production of Macbeth.

Some big themes are introduced in the novel, about the state of our world as well as about the stress of being a child in that world. Macbeth is used to bring out some of those themes, making it possible for some of the children to express themselves about what they are facing. This is so cleverly done.

Rosamund Lipton is an incredible writer. She makes us empathise with people so well, especially with children, as we saw in her last novel, The Quality of Silence, which was another excellent novel. Three Hours, though, is an absolute triumph. I cried more than once and there are moments that will be very hard to forget. Above all else, this is a novel about hate but also, more importantly, about how love can defeat that hate. It’s a fine message and this superb novel does it full justice.

Other review
The Quality of Silence

I have just finished my first book of 2020 and wow, what a start. Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton tells the real-time story of a rural school in England under siege from gunmen during a blizzard.

It is a bold and thrilling story which will have you gripped from the very first page.

There were a couple of twists towards the end which caused me to audibly gasp.

What could easily have become a story told purely for thrills is given real heart and substance through the backstory of Rafi and Basi, two brothers who came to the school as refugees from Syria.

I don’t want to say too much more for fear of offering any spoilers, only to say that Three Hours should make its way straight to the top of your reading list for 2020.

Thanks to @vikingbooksuk and @netgalley for the advanced copy. Three Hours is published in the UK on Jan 9. #ThreeHours #ThreeHoursNovel #RosamundLupton #penguinplatform

Going into this expected an intense and heartbreaking read a book that I have to take breaks from just because the topic is distressing. This is exactly what I got.

An early chapter/part of a chapter in the POV of a short got me wondering. What was the motive behind this? Why did he target a school? Where so many innocent children will be affected.

I don't want to say this was easy to get into since it's such a distressing story. But I found myself not wanting to put it down. I needed to know how many survived. I needed to know why this was happening.

I soon had some ideas of at least one of the shooters involved. Just something about how he was spoken about just wasn't right. The more we learnt the more it made sense for this character to be involved. I ended up being right.

Overall this book was intense. At times I felt like I needed a break. Just a moment to breathe again. But at the same time I wanted to carry on reading to know how it ends.

By the end I was holding back tears. I never cry at books but this got to me. At one point I felt like for a moment to stopped breathing. My heart hurt knowing this is a reality way too often.

A fantastic read, full of tension throughout. Lived the perspective from different characters as the drama unfolded.

Hannah and Rafi were holding hands as they hurried through the woods to their class – they didn’t want to be late. It was cold, and the light fall of snow worried Rafi – so much that he hurried away from Hannah without an explanation. He needed to get to his little brother, eight-year-old Basi, so his fears wouldn’t overcome him. The noise was unexpected; when Rafi saw it, it took him back to the bad times when his parents were murdered. He must get to Basi…

Students mingled between Old School and New School; their various classes drew them toward the classrooms. The rehearsal of Macbeth was that morning; the children in the pottery class with their teacher; the library would have other students working. But it was the call from Rafi to the headmaster that started the amber alert. Then the gunshot which meant red alert; police assembled with helicopters and tactical response teams – all controlled by two gunmen. Three hours of terror, uncertainty, courage and bravery.

Three Hours by the gifted Rosamund Lupton; a tense psychological thriller which had my heart racing while I flew through the pages. I’ve loved this author’s work – Sister, Afterwards, The Quality of Silence – this one hasn’t disappointed. Highly recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

This is genuinely one of the hardest reviews I have ever had to pen…not because it’s bad, but because this book was all kinds of awesome. but also shocking. Awesomely heart-breaking, awesomely nerve-shattering and awesomely guts tearing out. This is a story of the present being forged by the past. Are we all a product of our upbringing? Just what parts of our past deems what we will become in the future? How much to we cling onto the past? Is it subjective? Is it a case of mere psychology or individual personalities? I’d like to hope that no matter what our childhoods threw at us, we would know what was right and wrong. I would hope that our mere humanity would bring us out on the right side.

This book is not for the light- hearted. Three Hours is a book that is heavy in its content. Its heavy in the emotional stakes and if you are anything like me – it will break you down, rip you open and leaving you with one tiny needle to try and stitch yourself back up with. It is the kind of book that will inject cold hard fear into your spine.

I don’t live too far away from the Dunblane school that was the victim of the UK’s only shooting massacre, and I can remember vividly how much devastation that caused to the families and the community as a whole. It makes you question everything – your friends, your family, the thin line between reality and fantasy. There won’t be a dry eye in the house – I completely soaked my ARC copy. The author has an amazing talent for completely ruining her reader.

“Love is the most powerful thing there is.”

The headmaster in this tale is heroic. He puts himself in the direct firing line, having no regard for his own life, therefore, he treats his students like his extended family, he allows them to just be themselves. No uniform, no head boy/girl, no prefects and most importantly no religion. That being said, this shouldn’t be a school that is targeted in such a violent attack, right? He is the gentlest teacher I have come across. This isn’t the first time he has put his pupils needs first…He has a big heart and his predicament pulls at your heartstrings.

The pupils. The most important characters. The strength of them. The will of them. They have different personalities. They experience fear in different ways. And yet… and yet they are as one in a terrifying situation. They deserve the publicity; their names deserve to be said out loud over and over. The perpetrators deserve nothing. Some little details I didn’t see coming, some surprises. It was harrowing and breaking bit by little bit. I don’t want to give it away so just read the book.

Leave your assumptions at the door. They really don’t belong here. This author…just wow. The narrative blew me away. This is the type of story that we really hope we don’t have to read about again, especially in the newspapers. The author brought us the human impacts of such an act…the victims, the parents, the teachers and the perps. It is an examination of the human condition in which, it displays it’s ability for cruelty.

Rosamund Lupton ticked all of the boxes. She has weaved an intense web of mystery, an upsetting and haunting narrative that just won’t quit and the one thing that glues it altogether? Love. A storyline that is propelled by rocket fuel, hiding in plain sight. This book is setting the bar impossibly high for the start of 2020.

Three Hours is a book to remember. An original work of suspense. Hooked from the very first page. This is an amazing race-to-the-end thriller that you have been craving.

In rural Somerset in the middle of a blizzard, the unthinkable happens: a school is under siege. From the wounded headmaster in the library, unable to help his trapped pupils and staff, to teenage Hannah in love for the first time, to the parents gathering desperate for news, to the 16 year old Syrian refugee trying to rescue his little brother, to the police psychologist who must identify the gunmen, to the students taking refuge in the school theatre, all experience the most intense hours of their lives, where evil and terror are met by courage, love and redemption.

Oh my goodness, what an astonishing read this is, I really do not think I can do this justice. I have to start by saying everyone should read this.

School attacks are becoming an all too regular occurrence, Lupton masterfully creates the anguish and feeling of such an event. This read is intense, too intense at times, I literally could not put this down as I desperately needed to know what would happen. I was addicted.

The atmosphere is electrifying, I have not read anything like it. We have the balance of the beautiful, white, peaceful snow against unimaginable terror and dangers. With every page I did not know what I would face, my anxiety was heightened reading this as I too felt like I was living the event with the school kids, teachers, parents and police alike.

Lupton has written this sensationally well, it is beautifully crafted; I adored the use of Macbeth throughout and the minimal number of characters the reader focuses on. Yet everyone has their role to play, a story to tell and a life to live. Of course, this is a difficult book to read but an important, powerful one with a strong message to tell.

'Three Hours' is reading at its extraordinary best. This is compelling, horrifying and a must read for everyone. Is it too soon to call book of the year? I do not think so.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Books UK for an advance copy.

THREE HOURS TO SAVE THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE

Three hours is 180 minutes or 10,800 seconds.

It is a morning's lessons, a dress rehearsal of Macbeth, a snowy trek through the woods.

It is an eternity waiting for news. Or a countdown to something terrible.

It is 180 minutes to discover who you will die for and what men will kill for.

From the library in the Old School, to the classrooms in the New School, to the pottery class in the woods, to the safest building of all, the Theatre, where they are rehearsing Macbeth, everyone is going about their daily routine when the Headmaster gets shot, nobody is sure exactly why it's happened but it's soon declared that the school is under siege, the whole area is in lockdown and the children and staff are trapped, it's left up to the police and the psychologist to discover who the gunmen are and why they have chosen to attack this particular school, set in rural Somerset, during a snow blizzard. What they do know is that the next few hours are going to be the most intense of their lives so far.

This story covers a subject that is every parents worst nightmare, to send your child off to school, only to hear shortly after that their life is at risk and you can't do anything to help them. The author has covered this sensitive subject perfectly, telling it from the point of view of a few of the characters, it's a tense, atmospheric tale of courage and the bravery of all the children and staff was the pinnacle of a story that kept me hooked throughout, praying that everybody would come out the other side unharmed. In this unstable world we live in at present, we are all quite aware that this situation can, and has actually become a reality. This is the second book I've read by this author and I highly recommend it.

I'd like to thank Penguin Books UK and Netgalley for the approval to read this incredible book. I will post my review on Goodreads now and Amazon on publication day.

I requested a copy of this via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I have read other books by Rosamund Lupton and was keen to get my hands on a copy of this one.
I gave this a 4 /5 stars or 8/10 and found it a compelling at times claustrophobic read.

Told from the point of view of multiple characters this story will have you gripped from start to finish. Please ignore the length of time it says that it took to read as I started it, but had to put it to one side to read another book that had to be passed on.

Gunmen are on the loose at a school and it's not clear who if anyone they are after or what the motives are behind the siege. Narrated in real time as the events occur, we learn some of the past history of the characters and narrators as the present story is interspersed with the back story.

To find out why this siege has happened you need to grab a copy for yourself. I doubt you'll be disappointed, it just takes a little time getting inside the heads of all the characters and working out what's happening. Once you're there though and you've worked out how they all fit into the story, you'll be as gripped as I was with it.

Every parents worse nightmare, your son has gone to school as normal you receive a call to say the school is under attack which looks to be terrorist related.
This cant happen in a rural community of Somerset England.
Three Hours is an exceptional book based on the hours it takes for people to take over a school to the end,
It is a compelling read and follows children and adults as the story unfolds.

An enthralling, emotional novel, a terrifying school siege is seen from the viewpoint of several characters over the course of three hours. A pregnant detective, heroic teachers and students, a fast paced story with a chilling what might have been at the end

First book of 2020, and a different type for me...highly original story of a school siege. Well written book, with a gradual increase in tension throughout...lots of back stories of main characters helped contextually to bind the story together and further its credibility and readabulity...yes, this was a good start to the New Year!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

This book completely gripped me from the outset, although I would say that it's not for the faint of heart as it definitely gave me bad dreams! I read the whole thing in less than two days and every twist and turn was as compelling as the last. Considering the time constraints of the novel each character was well drawn and thoroughly engaging, and while it may seem a little contrived, personally I think the inclusion of the Macbeth allegory paid off. It's terrifying to think of this sort of thing happening in the UK when usually we see it as an American problem, but with the issues it discusses I think this book is very timely.

Three Hours is a heart stopping read. A shooting in a rural school in the UK is unheard of, and something all parents would be terrified to hear about. The book opens with action straight away which continues through the book. There are some scenes which are difficult to read due to the subject matter. This overall is worth a solid 4 stars.

This is a very emotional and heartbreaking story about a school under siege.  A seemingly normal school day in November turns in to everyone's worst nightmare when a Somerset school is locked down following a small explosion in woods on the premises.  Intense and nerve shredding.  A horrifying but brilliant read.

This book only happens over a period of hours (hence the title) and in one location - a challenge for the writer to maintain the level of suspense and interest but deftly achieved. The book really keeps you on the edge of the seat guessing as to how it will conclude and also leaves you asking reflecting on how easily something similar could happen (and does). I will now read more from this author.