Three Hours: The Top Ten Sunday Times Bestseller

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It's beautifully, elegantly written, SO gripping, intelligent, timely, affecting and moving' Marian Keyes, Again, Rachel Three Hours is both a gripping thriller and a beautiful meditation on the nature of family, friendship, courage and unintended - lethal - consequences. Superb. 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 is one of the most exhilarating reading experiences I've ever had. Rosamund Lupton takes a dark, painful subject and turns it into a novel full of hope and compassion. An amazing achievement. Emma Healey, bestselling author of 'Elizabeth is Missing' and 'Whistle in the Dark'

Propulsively plotted and full of vivid characters who earn our concern, Three Hours held me in its eloquent grip -- Emma Donoghue, bestselling author of 'Room'Yes the story is ripped straight from a headline you hope never to see again. This has been done before you may say. No. Not like this. Not with this immersive level of quality in the prose, in the characters, in the overall impact of it. I cried for our society when I was done, I also believed in it. It's a brave and touchy topic to write about, especially considering the stories parallels to many events that have truly happened. The Columbine High School shootings come to mind, which adds an urgency to the narrative. Yes, it's fiction, but you keep reminding yourself that this could be happening for real. Because it has happened before. A Good Read’ – BBC Radio 4 -Pippa Haywood, Felicity Montagu and host Harriett Gilbert discuss ‘Three Hours’ (go to 9.35 on the timer) https://tinyurl.com/ycx5xb8s The book give us different POVs from student and teachers in separate locations throughout the school, giving us insight to what they are experiencing. We see the harrowing levels the teachers go to in protecting the children and the students the love, courage and compassion they show under horrific circumstances. There were so many characters and so many different points of view that there wasn’t really time for character development. It was also slightly unrealistic in places and I could really have done without the tenuous links to Macbeth.

It’s very hard for a book topic such as this to not have an emotional impact. As a mother of school-age children, I did find myself holding my breath in several parts. It was tense, at times almost unbearably so. I feared for the safety of so many of the characters. In Three Hours, a mother who is desperate to know whether her son is safe remembers feeling jealous of his potential girlfriends the day before: “She’d had no idea then of the love she had for Jamie, had assumed it was possessive, grasping, but the make-up of her love is not like that at all.” Three Hours by Rosamund Lupton, published by Viking Oh dear, did I read a different novel to everyone else? I don't want to imply that this isn't a good book, as multiply people before me have felt touched and moved by it, but I personally experienced it as a struggle to make it through. I read Three Hours in two days, in awe. It's breathtaking. A modern rumination on the issues that divide 21st century life, a celebration of refugees, of mental health, of love and hope and bravery. I loved it more than I can say' -- Gillian McAllisterIts very difficult to say what is good, what is bad, which parts were thrilling and which parts were not so without giving any of the plot away and thus ruining the element(s) of surprise throughout the book! ( a cop out anno but there you go!) however what I will say is that the book is ( as maybe you would expect via the subject ) political and at times this becomes a bit overpowering! It is early days, but this could be one of the thrillers of the decade. If you read only one thriller this year; make it this one: it is that good’ Daily Mail

It's emotional and raw in places leaving your heart breaking, but inspiring and courageous in others allowing our hearts to soar with hope and love. I read this book in one sitting I could not put it down. So beautifully written, the courage, love, compassion, vulnerability and sense of community in this book. It will be one of my favorite reads of this year. So says one character in Rosamund Lupton’s Three Hours, an incredibly powerful, heart breaking and undeniably brilliant novel, the thing is you know, I believe that’s true. If you read this you’ll believe it too. It's taken me a couple of days since I finished Three Hours to think about this extraordinary story and what I can write in my review. The school is a campus of multiple buildings located in woodlands on the Somerset coast and includes a junior school, a senior school, pottery building and a theatre. It has continued to grow from the 1920s adding new to old and now provides education to 14 years of student needs. Several teachers and students occupy each of the buildings and their stories are told with compelling fascination when threat and fear hang over their every move. The novel explores how different people react, some stepping forward in moments of courage and those that don’t.This novel's greatest strength is its moving depiction of the anguishes of parenthood and the wild possibilities of first love * The Times * 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.

Three Hours is narrated in 10-minute increments throughout this terrifying snowy morning (anyone with a schoolchild might find it unbearable, and a manipulative, sentimental quality does lurk within) starting at 9.16am when the headmaster is shot in the head. The ends are tied up a little too hastily and neatly, with some frustratingly unanswered questions, and the mystery of a third terrorist serves to muddy the waters. Three Hours is based on every parent's worst nightmare - a school siege, young pupils held hostage, teachers being shot and gunmen surrounding the school seemingly uninterested in negotiating. What makes this particular story stand out from others in this genre is that the school in question is based in Somerset, UK and in the midst of a fierce and unrelenting snow blizzard. Keep those tissues at the ready, because you are going to need them – Three Hours was a tear-jerker, but Rosamund Lupton handled a delicate topic with sensitivity and integrity. There were some upsetting scenes, but they were non-graphic and not just for the sake of gratuitous violence. The plot was character-driven, a psychological study unfolding through the eyes of a wide range of characters affected by the events – students, teachers, parents, and police. Beautifully written, emotionally note-perfect and nail-bitingly tense. It's BRILLIANT -- Tammy Cohen

Thank you for visiting this bio. My books are not easy to slot into a particular genre, and you can usually be found under 'contemporary fiction', 'literary fiction', 'political thriller' and 'psychological thriller.' If you try one I hope you enjoy it. as she tries to come to terms with what she is experiencing, I really felt for her and what she was living through