Bookseller Reviews
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Jaw Dropping, Action Packed, Suspenseful and all in just Five Minutes!
This is a thriller on a knife edge!
Beautifully conceived with excellant writing, a imaginative and pulse racing plot and with so many twists I simply coul... READ MORE
Full of life, surprisingly so for a book with death as the central theme.
It's an ordinary morning in a suburban train station. In 5 minutes, the train to London Victoria will depart. On the platform, 5 people are waiting for the... READ MORE
Synopsis
Five passengers. Five minutes until the next train … five minutes until someone dies.
It’s 7:01. 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.
On a train platform, five strangers unknowingly face a chilling countdown: one of them will die in five minutes.
In this gripping tale narrated with a sharp tongue, the five main characters – a child, a mother, a businessman, an old woman, and a gambler – will draw you in with their stories as the clock ticks down. As the train gets closer and closer, we fall in love with the beautiful Sonny who is on the verge of gambling his life away. We pity the furious old Mrs Worth who grew up in a macabre household and so failed at being a mother. We look away from the demonic child Gideon. We judge his mother Emma who must surely be to blame? And we are curiously compelled by the successful and damaged businessman Liam.
Five stories. Five minutes until a life ends. In this tense, intriguing drama that explores fate, sacrifice, and the real meaning of life, you will frantically turn the page to see who will survive, and who will be lost.
Publisher information
- Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
- ISBN: 9780008770563
- Number of pages: 304
- Dimensions: 222 x 141 x 22 mm
- Weight: 410g
- Languages: English
Customer Reviews
View allWell written and original
The first book I have read by the talented author Ilona Bannister. Well written, original and deeply researched but not an enjoyable read for me mainly du... READ MORE
Simply Brilliant
Five by Ilona Bannister is simply brilliant. Dark humour, tragedy, suspense, drama and a cast of characters that you will despise intensely all wrapped up ... READ MORE
Amazing book!
Five passengers are waiting for a train, but you are told early in the book that one dies shortly. It could be Mrs Worth, an old lady who feels she failed ... READ MORE
Great Read!
Thank you to the publisher for this early review copy, this is in fact the first 2026 book I have read and reviewed so far.
Pleased to report it is great.... READ MORE
Five stars
Bloody Brillant! Five stars of bloody brilliance!
I loved every single page of this book and faced through it, such an original and clever concept, this... READ MORE
Dramatic & Full of Suspense
Review of ‘Five’ by Ilona Bannister, due to be published on 5 May 2026 by HQ, Juniper.
A highly original, exciting concept for a novel - five passengers... READ MORE
Tense and gripping
What an extremely interesting read. From the beginning you are aware that one of the main characters is going to die...but which one? Through the use of ba... READ MORE
Five minutes can feel like a lifetime
What if the next five minutes were your last? Thank you @netgalley, @ilona.bannister, and @readingjuniper for the ARC.From the get go, we are told by the ... READ MORE
couldn't put it down read it in one day
What a fantastic style of writing. Unique in it's telling that had me gripped from the start. The back story of each of the five people involved and how th... READ MORE
Excellent read!
A brilliant and thought provoking book. Very well written-grips you from the very first page and keeps you guessing right to the end. Interesting array of ... READ MORE
Less ‘thriller’, more ‘filler’.
‘Five’ by Ilona Bannister is pitched as a fast-paced thriller, using descriptors such as ‘tense’, ‘gripping’, and ‘intriguing’, and the promise that one of... READ MORE
A powerful and engrossing character-driven story
A busy train platform, a train due in five minutes, the usual mixture of people stand waiting. But when the train comes, one person will die. We are told i... READ MORE
Brilliant!
One of the best books I’ve read in a long, long, time and well deserving of 5 stars. I was gripped from the beginning right to the end. None of us is how... READ MORE
Compelling dark literary thriller
A number of people are waiting at an unmanned train station. The time is 7:01 and the next train to London Victoria is due in five minutes at 7:06. Five ... READ MORE
Five
I am not usually one for comparing authors but as soon as I started reading this book I instantly started comparing it to offering from Will Carver. In a g... READ MORE
Who Would You Choose?
In Ilona Bannister’s razor sharp thriller, five strangers stand on a London platform, but only four will survive the 7:06 arrival.
This novel offers a tr... READ MORE
Keeps you guessing
Reading this book, I kept thinking I knew this narrative voice. And then it dawned on me. Ilona Bannister’s style is reminiscent of Will Carver’s Hinton Ho... READ MORE
A phenomenal read; prepare for sympathy & loathing in equal measure
Five people wait for an early morning train; within the next five minutes, one of them will be dead. Who will it be, and why?
From the tag lines on the ... READ MORE
Brilliantly different!
Five people waiting on a local station platform. The time is 7:01 and in five minutes one of them will die, as the 7:06 train to London Victoria arrives at... READ MORE
Very tense with good characters and backstories
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this book.
I could hardly put this book down although at one point, the tension got too muc... READ MORE
Uniquely engaging thriller
Five is a solid hit, for me, as readers follow the lives of five people awaiting for a train. We know one will die, but which? There is a child, his mother... READ MORE
Compulsive and Original Story
I nearly gave up on this book at the start because the writing style felt quite unusual and took some getting used to — but I’m really glad I stuck with it... READ MORE
Sharp writing
Second-person narrative and I are clearly never going to be friends. I spent the first chunk of this book feeling like the author was pointing at me and te... READ MORE
An amazing debut
Wow, this book was so good, so unique, extremely tense and just fantastic.
Five strangers stand on a railway platform awaiting the 7:06 am train to London... READ MORE
Dark and compelling….
A quirky, dark book like nothing you’ve ever read before. Impossible to put down and very compelling.
Told from humorous viewpoints, we follow a terrible... READ MORE
okay read
Five people are waiting on a platform waiting for the 7.06 train to arrive at Victoria station. When it does one of them will die.
The following story is ... READ MORE
A great read!
There are five strangers waiting on a train platform and one of them will die in the next five minutes. There are both men and women amongst the five, and ... READ MORE
What if the next five minutes were your last?
What if the next five minutes were your last?
Thank you @netgalley, @ilona.bannister, and @readingjuniper for the ARC.
From the get go, we are to... READ MORE
Spectacular, original, electrifying thriller
My first read from Ilona Bannister, Five is a spectacular, original, electrifying thriller. This was unlike any other book I’ve read and the opening line m... READ MORE
Five minutes until the train arrives
The train is due in five minutes, there are only a handful of people waiting. Emma and her son Gideon, who is acting up; Sonny, Mrs Worth, Liam, a medical ... READ MORE
Propulsive, tense, but also sensitive
I received my copy this weekend and gobbled it up in a couple of days. It’s brilliantly propulsive but doesn’t sacrifice depth of character to keep you tur... READ MORE
Verified Purchase
Five
I went into this one blind, and I’m so glad I did.
From the outset you expect a thriller, but for me this was more a quiet devastation of emotions—love, ... READ MORE
An urgent ticking-clock of tension
Five passengers are waiting for a train. Five minutes until it arrives…five minutes until one of them dies.Atmospheric, intense, propulsive and gripping, t... READ MORE