Published May 5th, 2026 by Juniper
Thriller, Suspense, Psychological Fiction, Mystery, Literary Fiction
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ABOUT THE BOOK:
Five passengers. Five minutes until the next train … five minutes until someone dies.
‘Will have you glued to the page … guaranteed to shock and entertain’The Times
‘Ridiculously good … darkly thrilling and unforgettable’ Chris Whitaker
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Someone will die here this morning, at this suburban train station. It will happen in the next five minutes when the 7:06 to London Victoria arrives.
Take note of their positions. The child, the mother, the businessman, the old woman and the gambler.
One of them will die despite your attachment to them. There is probably one you want to get rid of. You don’t have to admit who. But perhaps you should ask yourself why.
The train has stopped.
Someone is dead.
Was it who you chose?
It wasn’t your fault …
So why, dear reader, do you feel so guilty?
Five stories. Five minutes until a life ends. Unfolding in real time, FIVE doesn’t just tell a story; it provokes, unsettles, and lingers. By weaving together the stories of those complex, flawed lives, Bannister creates a tapestry of human struggle, resilience, and hope. FIVE offers no easy answers, but rather a nuanced exploration of the human condition in all its messy complexity.
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MY REVIEW:
Five passengers are waiting for a train. Five minutes until it arrives…five minutes until one of them dies.
Atmospheric, intense, propulsive and gripping, this heart-stopping debut asks you to become the detective and try to predict which passenger will die. Most books will give you time to get to know the characters and grow attached to them before ticking down the clock to one’s impending doom. But in this book Ilona Bannister does things differently and starts the countdown on the first page. It means the tension is sky high and the reader is kept on the edge of their seat from the first page. And as the clock ticks down, we get to know the five passengers: mother Emma and her son, Gideon, businessman Liam, old Mrs Worth and gambler Sonny. Interspersed with events at the station are the character’s stories that allow us to learn their histories and what brought them to the station today. Skillfully written, razor-sharp, deftly plotted and fizzing with tension I was in Ilona’s thrall from start to finish. And as the jaw-dropping revelations kept coming I still couldn’t predict who would live and who would die.
The five passengers are an eclectic cast of characters who are all broken in some way. Each of them have said and done horrible or even despicable things and their histories are filled with tragedies that make every character a candidate for death. None of them are particularly likeable, but some are more unlikeable than the others. – Liam, I’m looking at you. To be honest, I felt like they all deserved to die in some way and it was more a case of ranking whose death felt most justified than wishing any of them would survive. Yes, even the child. But while I didn’t particularly like them, I was still very invested in them and their stories; each of them kept me glued to the pages of their chapters. This is a testament to the excellence of Ilona’s writing which was acutely observed, achingly human and emotionally resonant.
A jaw-dropping, darkly funny and urgent ticking-clock of tension, this is a must for all thriller lovers.
Rating: ✮✮✮✮✰
Thank you Juniper for sending me a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Ilona Bannister was a dual qualified US attorney and UK immigration solicitor before she started writing fiction. Her first novel, When I Ran Away, was developed on Faber Academy’s Work in Progress course. Ilona’s experiences as a mother, lawyer, and an American transplant in Britain are reflected in her novels. Although she will always be a New Yorker at heart, Ilona’s home is in London with her husband and young sons.
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Thanks for reading, Bibliophiles xxxx
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