The 37th Hour begins with an attempted suicide, ….
Ellie jumped.
And I did too.
This is a gripping heart wrenching debut novel set in Minneapolis featuring Sheriff’s Detective Sarah Pribek who specialises in missing persons. Her husband is a Detective with the Minneapolis Police Department who is just about to start a four month training course with the FBI. However, he disappears into thin air and Sarah soon finds herself investigating his disappearance. With nothing to go on she must look into her husband’s past (something she knows very little of) if she has any hope of getting to the bottom of what has happened and finding her husband. Compounding this is the fact that her best friend has lost her daughter who was murdered and raped and the perpetrator has managed to get off on a technicality.
The main proposition of this novel is the fact that the first 36 hours of a missing persons case is always the most important.
Everyone knows how difficult a debut novel is to write but with 37th Hour Compton
has done it seamlessly. This is no mediocre novel, and if you also think that
this is one of those novels whereby the energetic lead protagonist is assisted
by smart-alecky friends who just also happens to have man problems, then this
is not the novel for you. If on the other hand you enjoy suspenseful novels
which are nail biting and characters that demand your attention whether or not
you like them, then this is a novel you should be reading! This is a remarkable
suspense novel from the first chapter to the disturbing conclusion. Compton’s
world is not only one that is full of violence, but it is shadowy, complicated
and at times down right scary. With a strong willed character that appears to
be going places; it will be interesting to see what happens to Sarah Pribek
in the future.
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Ayo Onatade