Editorial Review: Every Dying Hour by Justin Rishel

Zentransa changed the world, but not everyone is happy about living in a world where those who can afford the pill are able to thrive without the need for sleep – and they are ready to get violent to make their point.

The development of a drug that allows the user to function without sleep was sold to the people as a revolution – the ability to be free from sleep, to work 24 hours a day, to get 30% more from life. However, not everyone can get the Z pill and not everyone wants it to exist at all. With the pill only available to the wealthy and those with excellent benefits. One Front for the People is a terrorist organization that seems to have recently graduated from petty vandalism to bombings – and poisoning children.

Thrown into this explosive situation - or more literally having this situation explode on to him - Martin Aubrey lives his life in regret after leaving the police force. Despite losing his job Aubrey is still in possession of a sharp mind and good investigative insight. After figuring out a hot lead, Aubrey works alongside his old co-workers to try and figure it all out before more people die. In the course of investigating the bombings and the sick children, Aubrey and his team will go to unknown limits to solve the puzzle – even into the high-security prison shrouded in fear, and face to face with the executioners that control it. These executioners wield extraordinary power within the Keep, as members of the Order of the Coppice they decide the fate of every prisoner sent to them and can choose to execute them at any time - unannounced, unexplained, and unquestioned.

Martin Aubrey is the kind of character that readers love from the outset, he’s a man who knows his flaws and wants to do the right thing – even if the right thing is sometimes hard to determine. On every level of this plot, there are complexities and twists - but Rishel has managed the pace and exposition well enough to weave it all together into a great book. Every Dying Hour hits every mark – the plot is interesting and complex, the characters are fantastically created, and the writing itself is fun and easy to read.

This fast-paced action thriller sucks the reader in and won’t let them go until the last page, boasting a complex plot and deep characters, Every Dying Hour is a great read.