59 Minutes, Holly Seddon
59 Minutes, Holly Seddon
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

59 Minutes

Author: Holly Seddon

Narrator: Olivia Darnley

Unabridged: 8 hr 53 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/18/2025


Synopsis

You have fifty-nine minutes until everything and everyone you love will be lost forever, what will you do with that time? The internationally bestselling author of the “brilliant, gripping must-read” (Glamour) Try Not to Breathe brings suspenseful thrills in this unputdownable novel following three women as they face an incoming nuclear attack.

Carrie is on her way home from work on an ordinary evening, looking forward to seeing her family, when her phone blares:

SEVERE ALERT. NUCLEAR MISSILE THREAT TO SOUTH ENGLAND. 59 MINUTES UNTIL IMPACT. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A TEST.

Chaos erupts around her. Her spouse and child, who are normally just a commute of a few minutes away, might as well be on Mars for all the chances she has of seeing them again.

When Frankie and her fiancé get the terrifying alert, they are on their way to a country retreat. Frankie is blissfully and newly pregnant, but her joy is shattered by the realization that there may be no world to bring her baby into.

Mrs. Dabb is already spiraling because her thirteen-year-old daughter is missing. Panicked, she is on a mission to track her down. Then she hears sirens wailing across the moor. The TV confirms that her evening is about to get a whole lot worse.

Three women, three families, one last chance to be together before the end. All they have is fifty-nine minutes.

About Holly Seddon

Holly Seddon is the author of several thrillers, including the international bestseller Try Not to Breathe, The Hit List, and 59 Minutes. After growing up in the English countryside obsessed with music and books, Holly worked in London as a journalist and editor. After several years in Amsterdam, she now lives in Kent with her family and writes full time. Find out more at HollySeddon.com and follow her on Instagram and Facebook @HollySeddonAuthor, on TikTok @TheRealHollySeddonAuthor, and on BlueSky @Holly.bsky.social.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Brady on November 20, 2025

kind of at a loss for how to rate this? i loved the premise of it - everyone in south London gets an emergency text message that a nuclear strike is set to happen in 59 minutes and in turn, chaos ensues. we then follow 3 different storylines of people trying to make it home. the last 50-ish pages we......more

Goodreads review by Jayme on November 18, 2025

Outlier Review! 🚨 Part One-Alert! A solid, adrenaline fueled start!! So what went wrong? If a Nuclear bomb were to strike central London, a fireball would vaporize more than a kilometer of the city killing millions of people in seconds- and they would be the LUCKY ones. Cell phone alert 🚨 ‼️ “Nuclear Miss......more

Goodreads review by Mandy on September 26, 2025

Holly Seddon 👏👏 One of my all time favourite thrillers is Try Not to Breathe by this author, if you haven’t read it then you need to change that. So it was a no brainer that I would read this, I am just sorry that it sat on my NetGalley shelf for so long. This book is incredible and deserves so much......more

Goodreads review by Linzie (suspenseisthrillingme) on November 26, 2025

WHOA. Wholly original and yet also terrifyingly real, 59 Minutes brought to life both the good and the bad sides to our society and the fear, egotism, and love that ultimately drives us all. Not only that, but it was done with a raw sense of adrenaline-fueled chaos and true-to-life impending doom th......more

Goodreads review by Kevin on January 23, 2025

This was a truly brilliant premise and was incredibly well executed. Many of us in the UK will remember receiving an emergency alert on our phones in April 2023 - a test to ensure that a message could be delivered to everyone in the event of a serious emergency or attack. Well this what Holly Seddon r......more


Quotes

"Narrator Olivia Darnley’s talent for building suspense is center stage in this thriller set in modern-day London. Three women, each performing mundane tasks, suddenly rush to return to their loved ones when a nuclear missile strike is predicted to hit in 59 minutes. The story is told in alternating chapters, and Darnley seamlessly flows among these women as their incredulity and raw fear are replaced with panic and then determination. These desperate women must fight their way through looting hordes, distrustful strangers, and abhorrent men taking advantage of the chaos and confusion. Will they reunite with their families before the end of the world arrives? Darnley embodies each character and story with emotional authenticity that will keep listeners gripped in tantalizing suspense."