Contest by Matthew Reilly

Contest was Matthew Reilly's first novel, the book he self-published in 1996 before going on to sell millions with Scarecrow and the Jack West Jr thrillers. This new edition marks thirty years since it first appeared.

The New York Public Library, closed for the night: towering bookcases, narrow aisles, spiralling stairs. Doctor Stephen Swain and his young daughter Holly are dropped into it without warning and told the building is the arena for a contest. Seven contestants enter, some of them not human, and only one walks out.

Swain did not ask to be here and cannot leave. He can run, hide or fight, but to live he has to win, and he has Holly with him the whole way.

A fast, brutal, standalone action thriller, and the book that launched Reilly's career. This edition is a hardback.