The Burning Time

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What to expect

Old-school reporter William Carver returns in this deeply topical and dramatic international thriller.

'Smart and topical' Financial Times (An FT Best New Thriller 2023)

'A compelling, fast-paced thriller' Sun

Australian inventor and geoengineer Clive Winner is the genius who brought the Great Barrier Reef back from the brink, yet his ambition goes well beyond that. He wants to save the planet.

For the all-powerful fossil-fuel industry, Winner is their 'get out of jail free card'. If he can engineer a solution to climate change, business can continue as usual.

When old-school journalist William Carver is tipped off by a trusted Whitehall source that climate scientists have begun to go missing in suspicious circumstances, his gut instinct tells him to follow the story. It rapidly becomes clear that scientists, green campaigners and well-intentioned politicians are in the firing line; William Carver and his colleagues must move fast to find out who is behind the disappearances. They know the journalist's job is to speak truth to power - but first you must uncover that truth and this time it's buried deeper than ever.

Racing between Sydney, New York, Seville and London, The Burning Time is an intelligent, timely and fast-paced thriller for the twenty-first century.

'Deftly plotted . . . a propulsive read' Straits Times

'This adrenaline-laced adventure packs a mighty punch' Irish Independent

'A brilliant thriller with a timely and essential reminder of what journalism is supposed to be' James O'Brien, LBC

(P)2023 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Critics Review

  • A smart and topical thriller

    Financial Times (Best New Thrillers 2023)
  • A compelling, fast-paced thriller blended with environmental issues. Hotly topical

    Sun
  • This adrenalin-laced adventure packs a mighty punch . . . Peter Hanington’s global thriller could not be more topical

    Irish Independent
  • Deftly plotted . . . a propulsive read

    Straits Times
  • Peter Hanington is a master of his craft and in William Carver he gives us the hero we didn’t know we needed in an age of fake news and egregious political liars . . . Hanington’s triumph is to blend a brilliant thriller with a timely and essential reminder of what journalism is supposed to be. He rides the zeitgeist like Frankie Dettori rides horses

    James O'Brien, LBC
  • The Burning Time is terrific. [It] will be a classic of the genre

    Peter Hennessy, author of A DUTY OF CARE

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