I so very much wanted to like this one, especially as it's a debut; however I felt very quickly that an immediate benefit would be the use of third person narrative for the perspective of the lead character, Rose, the television journalist who is told, live on air, that her family has been kidnapped. The suspenseful prologue sets the scenario up, but I waited a long time for the suspense to return and unfortunately it felt, to me, somewhat diluted by the significant amount of media information included as a way of building up the story - fantastic if you're into what goes on behind the scenes in live broadcasting but debatable content in this quantity in a thriller, when I'm looking for an immediate reason to read on. I said a third person narrative would work here because I genuinely feel that would have added some distance between the author and Rose, as it's inevitable that comparisons will be made, and with this change and fewer, shorter jumps between time frames, I do feel this novel could work well. As it stands, I found the pace remains somewhat constant throughout and I'm looking for my reading appetite to be whetted the more pages I turn! At one point a character's sub-plot was wound up so quickly and she never reappeared at all - more could have been made of that as at one point it felt that this was going to be a major part of the story, as opposed to disappear in a couple of paragraphs.

While Deadline isn't for me, it will definitely appeal to readers looking to combine a straightforward mystery with a modern television setting.

Rose is a much loved TV reporter, who is used to asking difficult questions from those in power. However, on this, the biggest day in her career, she is told her loved ones have been kidnapped and unless she does what this mysterious voice in her ear tells her, well, you can imagine the rest. Now Rose is not in control of the broadcast, but what happens? Steph in her debut novel flashes between events leading up to the broadcast, mingled with the present day, for a novel that doesn’t feel like it’s a first one. Coming out of the gates fresh and cleverly, I’m looking forward to reading what Steph next publishes.