Mercy is a brilliant thriller

I suppose it's rather conceited saying that about my own book, but my latest thriller Mercy  due to be published by HarperCollins UK on 26 November - is really something special. And I can say for the first time after ten years in the doldrums that I am really optimistic.

It is about a lawyer's race against time to save his client from death by lethal injection. But that doesn't begin to give you any idea of the twists and turns in the story, culminating in a dazzling surprise at the end. And even then there are more surprises to come - right up to the last line. It's what O'Henry used to call "the sting in the tail."

The story begins with the governor of California (not Arnold Schwarzenegger) offering the lawyer clemency for his condemned client if the client reveals where he buried the body. This offer has been made at the instigation of the dying mother of the victim.

But there's just one problem: the condemned man still claims to be innocent. And even when offered a lifeline, he stands by his original position that the dead girl isn't really dead and that she framed him. But is he telling the truth?

Alex Sedaka has only 15 hours in which to find out.

And you have till the 26th of November before you can find out...