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Book Summary and Reviews of The 13th Hour by Richard Doetsch

The 13th Hour by Richard Doetsch

The 13th Hour

A Thriller

by Richard Doetsch

  • Critics' Consensus (1):
  • Published:
  • Dec 2009, 352 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Nick Quinn is being held in jail, accused of the murder of his beloved wife, Julia. He knows she's dead; he saw her bloody corpse, shot in the head at point-blank range. The police tell him they found the murder weapon with his fingerprints on it in the trunk of his car. Nick is confused, grief-stricken - and completely innocent.

At 9 p.m. on July 28, a gray-haired gentleman visits Nick in the police interrogation room and asks him a simple question: "If you could get out of here, if you could save her, would you?" He hands Nick a golden talisman that allows Nick to go back in time, one hour at a time, for a total of twelve hours. With each hour that Nick travels back, he finds more clues to the identity of Julia's real killer, but he also discovers that his actions in the past may have unexpected repercussions in the future.

In his race against time to save the woman he loves most in the world, Nick will find that friends become enemies, old loyalties are tested, and Julia's murder is part of a larger scheme that has its roots in greed and vengeance. Nick has the ability to save Julia, the chance to put his own world in balance, but he is venturing down a precarious route. If he hasn't set things right by the thirteenth hour, his desperate attempts to save Julia's life may lead to a far greater catastrophe than he could have ever imagined.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. If there ever was a novel that deserves to be read in one sitting, this is it. With a totally original and compelling story line, The 13th Hour is one of the best thrillers of the year." - Booklist

"At times Doetsch ... oversells Nick's anguish with breathless prose, and no character emerges as more than a cardboard cutout, but readers will enjoy the clever razzle-dazzle of a story whose parts fit together like clockwork." - Publishers Weekly

"Starred Review. Suspending disbelief is worth every moment of Doetsch's ... thrill ride through time, which tantalizingly reveals the true nature of all the characters involved." - Library Journal

"Nick is a rather flat character, but the villain is satisfyingly frightening. Time travel puts a welcome spin on this stock thriller." - Kirkus Reviews

This information about The 13th Hour was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Author Information

Richard Doetsch Author Biography

http://richarddoetsch.com/

Richard Doetsch is the bestselling author of many thrillers. He is also a respected expert in the field of commercial and residential real estate, having served as the president, managing director, and owner of several large national real estate firms. He currently runs his own investment firm with offices in New York and Connecticut.

He is a triathlete, expert skier, scuba diver, an erratic golfer, and an extreme sport enthusiast who has jumped off bridges, cliffs, and 200-foot cranes with rubber bands around his ankles, parachutes on his back and sometimes just enjoying the hundred-foot freefall into water with nothing to slow his descent.

Richard combines the adrenaline rush of his life with his imagination to bring out the best in his characters.

Richard is an accomplished musician, ...

... Full Biography
Link to Richard Doetsch's Website

Name Pronunciation
Richard Doetsch: doytch

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