The 13th Hour by Richard Doetsch

So this is described (on the jacket) as "a mesmerising thriller - told in reverse!". Stete Berry - a New York Times bestselling author, no less - said "brilliantly conceived, perfectly executed. Fresh, Exciting, bristling with originality."

On goodreads the author mantions that it's been described as a cross between The Bourne Identity and The Time Traveller's Wife.

Oh dear. I really don't know how to say this. All those things up there promise something that will really grab me because I absolutely loved The Time Traveller's Wife, and while I haven't read (or seen the film of) The Bourne Identity I do like a good thriller. Ah... that will be it then.

In The Time Traveller's wife the writing is exquisitely beautiful. The execution is truly phenomenally good and the plot is thought out very carefully, including a lot of the aspects of time travel that could seem boring but are vital if you are going to pull it off. I'm not sure if the particular 2 things I'm thinking count as spoilers so I'm (annoyingly) not going to actually mention them specifically.

So, the plot. What is The 13th Hour all about. It's a murder thriller. Nick's wife is murdered, he's arrested for it and gets the opportunity, via an enigmatic stranger, to go back in time and stop it happening. So far so ordinary. Here's the really brilliant thing (and it's what the star in my review is for): he goes back one hour at a time, thrown in at the deep end and trying to work out what's going on. It's not a bad idea but for the two things I mentioned about time travel and three more things which, I'm sorry to say, actually ruined the book for me.

The first is that the writing isn't what I'd call good. It's sort of the bastard child of Dan Brown and Stieg Larsson in that the characters aren't believeable to me - not Nick or Julia who have so perfectly planned their perfect good looking, hot, sexy lives to the greatest degree. Not for them worrying about the mortgage, that the exhaust is falling off, that they haven't been to the gym 15 times that week... and Stieg Larsson (only to a lesser extent, thank goodness) in describing every flippin' detail.

The final really annoying thing is another spoiler. Sorry.

All in all, I really can't say I enjoyed this at all. But my other half did, and it's received good reviews so it's just me being picky and fussy.

As they say on the interweb: your mileage may vary.