Five: A Novel

Five lives. Five stories. Five minutes until the London-bound train pulls into the station—and one of them dies. Who would you choose? Welcome to Five.

"Someone will die here this morning, at this suburban train station. It will happen in the next five minutes when the 7:06 to Victoria arrives."

On a train platform, five strangers unknowingly face a chilling countdown. As the clock ticks down, we fall in love with the beautiful Jack 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. Each of the five main characters—a child, a mother, a businessman, an old woman, and a gambler—will draw you in with their stories and leave you pondering: who would I pick to die?

None of them know that this morning they are the candidates for today’s death at this station. Only you know. And only you, our complicit reader, can judge who deserves to walk away, and who deserves just five more minutes to live. 

Every minute we spend watching the train get closer and closer, we delve into the story of each character and learn what confluence of circumstances brought them right here, to this moment, at this station, to the brink of possible death. Readers will frantically turn the page to see who will survive, and who will die.

Story Locale:train platform outside London, England