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4 Hours
City Flu sweeps the globe. Swift, virulent, devastating. Beneath Whitehall, a few of the immune gather in a government bunker. Something worse than pandemic is taking place above their heads.
Two men are sent to investigate... Pearcey is a veteran. Cynical and smart. Fear is an old friend. Horror is nothing new. But this is fear and horror of a different order. It may well be an apocalyptic event. The Apocalypse. Right here, right now. In London, across the country, across the globe. Ageing and tired, his biggest weakness may be the creeping compassion that threatens to undermine his cynicism.
Sonny Gallagher has another agenda. Concern for his daughter. Is Annie okay? In the end, nothing else will really matter for Sonny-Jim Gallagher. The science of survival has gone out of the window. They're in a darkening world of fiction made real.
They're against the clock and the unknown. The clock won't stop and the unknown knows no bounds.
4 Hours is a novella drawn from the Post-Apocalyptic story started in Collapse.
Two men are sent to investigate... Pearcey is a veteran. Cynical and smart. Fear is an old friend. Horror is nothing new. But this is fear and horror of a different order. It may well be an apocalyptic event. The Apocalypse. Right here, right now. In London, across the country, across the globe. Ageing and tired, his biggest weakness may be the creeping compassion that threatens to undermine his cynicism.
Sonny Gallagher has another agenda. Concern for his daughter. Is Annie okay? In the end, nothing else will really matter for Sonny-Jim Gallagher. The science of survival has gone out of the window. They're in a darkening world of fiction made real.
They're against the clock and the unknown. The clock won't stop and the unknown knows no bounds.
4 Hours is a novella drawn from the Post-Apocalyptic story started in Collapse.
182 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 17, 2016
5 people are currently reading
27 people want to read
About the author
John F. Leonard
13 books119 followersJohn was born in England and grew up in the midlands where he learned to love the sound of scrapyard dogs and the rattle and clank of passing trains. He studied English, Art and History and has, at different times, been a sculptor, odd-job man and office worker. He enjoys horror and comedy (not necessarily together). Married with two astonishing children, he now lives a few miles from the old Victorian house in which he was born. Scribbling scary stories seems to keep him vaguely sane (accurate at time of writing).
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 3, 2019
First I must say, and I’m being honest I haven’t finished Collapse yet.. I know? That will be corrected very soon, I was about half way through. This story is a stand alone story of one of the characters in the book as he decides to leave a safe haven to find his daughter. The infection is complete and these aren’t your usual zombies, intelligent, fast and almost impossible to kill. Our search and rescue team finds out how wrong the world has become. Sad in parts, truly terrifying and faith in humanity not restored, a bleak story. The few survivors are on the edge of madness. This story makes you want to know, what is this? Where did this infection come from? I’ll be picking up Collapse again so I can follow through on this epic post apocalyptic adventure. If Mr. Leonard is not on your TBR? Change this immediately. I can not recommend his stories more. You will not be disappointed!
June 12, 2019
A pandemic has swept through the city of London and most of the population has been changed, altered: turned into monsters. A handful of immune have holed up inside an underground government bunker, but someone needs to investigate just how bad things above ground really are—enter Carlton Pearcey and Sonny-Jim Gallagher. What starts as a brief excursion to the surface changes when Sonny-Jim needs to find his daughter; and so the two men head out across a city crumbling under the weight of an apocalyptic disease.
4 Hours, by John F Leonard, is a turbo-charged sprint through a forever changed and unforgiving world filled with danger at every turn by a torrent of blood and mangled bodies. The main characters are a pair of likeable dudes, and the tension of their trip is increased with the knowledge of what’s at stake and the constant reminder that the sun is sinking—being stuck out in the city at night with hideous monsters can only end one way: badly. The monsters that London’s population have turned into are horrific, and their threat is as real and identifiable as the two main characters are likeable. There’s no shortage of tense moments and bashed in brains, and John F Leonard does a great job of describing this gore-fest in an artistic way.
The book’s prose is short sharp sentences: one-liners stacked on top of each other like the floors of a flimsy block of flats in London’s east end. While this does serve to pull the reader along at a fast pace, I found it very jarring; just not something I’m used to. There are four characters we meet during this high-octane jaunt—three of them are pretty cool, interesting, and make the story come to life … the other one I seriously wondered what was the point of them being there in such a small amount of pages.
In the end though, 4 Hours was see-sawing between a strong three star rating or a weak four star rating. I ultimately settled on four stars simply because I love post-apocalyptic fiction and stories with drama. And, besides, this is 149 pages of violence and gore, man versus monsters … and you can’t go wrong with that.
4 Hours, by John F Leonard, is a turbo-charged sprint through a forever changed and unforgiving world filled with danger at every turn by a torrent of blood and mangled bodies. The main characters are a pair of likeable dudes, and the tension of their trip is increased with the knowledge of what’s at stake and the constant reminder that the sun is sinking—being stuck out in the city at night with hideous monsters can only end one way: badly. The monsters that London’s population have turned into are horrific, and their threat is as real and identifiable as the two main characters are likeable. There’s no shortage of tense moments and bashed in brains, and John F Leonard does a great job of describing this gore-fest in an artistic way.
The book’s prose is short sharp sentences: one-liners stacked on top of each other like the floors of a flimsy block of flats in London’s east end. While this does serve to pull the reader along at a fast pace, I found it very jarring; just not something I’m used to. There are four characters we meet during this high-octane jaunt—three of them are pretty cool, interesting, and make the story come to life … the other one I seriously wondered what was the point of them being there in such a small amount of pages.
In the end though, 4 Hours was see-sawing between a strong three star rating or a weak four star rating. I ultimately settled on four stars simply because I love post-apocalyptic fiction and stories with drama. And, besides, this is 149 pages of violence and gore, man versus monsters … and you can’t go wrong with that.
May 27, 2019
A post-apocalyptic horror story, novelette length, in which Carlton Pearcey braves the world outside the Westminster bunker with one colleague, running into the now non-human victims of the 'City Flu' - and two survivors.
The story is well-written, with short, often almost staccato-style sentences that match the genre and the sense of menace so well. The building of suspense makes it a page-turner, the characterisation is good, and the story fits perfectly into the short format.
My only criticism is that I think it needs another go-through to tighten the prose in places and take care of some missed punctuation (mostly vocative commas), but it's a good read, I enjoyed it, and would definitely recommend to lovers of the horror end of the post-apocalyptic genre.
The story is well-written, with short, often almost staccato-style sentences that match the genre and the sense of menace so well. The building of suspense makes it a page-turner, the characterisation is good, and the story fits perfectly into the short format.
My only criticism is that I think it needs another go-through to tighten the prose in places and take care of some missed punctuation (mostly vocative commas), but it's a good read, I enjoyed it, and would definitely recommend to lovers of the horror end of the post-apocalyptic genre.
November 1, 2020
A brutal plunge through the ravaged streets of London in the wake of a mysterious event that has turned most people into nightmarish creatures. Leonard’s staccato sentences chop through the plot with savage efficiency, never letting up on the action, and refusing the reader any respite as the seconds tick inexorably away. I have not read ‘Collapse’ - the wider story inside which this novella is set - but that did not matter at all. It is, however, an oversight on my part I shall certainly rectify in the near future.
March 25, 2018
4 Hours is grim, desolate, unnerving, and gross. So tick, tick, tick, and tick!
I believe that this story follows on from John F Leonard’s previous novel, Collapse, although this one can be read without reading the former. Well this was how I approached it. And I’d agree with the previous point, I never felt like I was lacking any information that would have heightened my enjoyment.
In fact, I think going into this story with no idea what the hell was going on only aided me in sharing the stunned and desperate reactions of the characters.
Humanity has been almost wiped out as an infection takes hold of London. It seems that a few are immune to the transformation into these hideous creatures that are sort-of-human/sort-of-beast monsters with only one thing on their disease-addled minds; the flesh of the living. You see, even though your immune to the infection, you ain’t immune to being munched on!
But what is this infection I speak of? I don’t know, and that made this book even more frightening. We all know about books and movies describing/showing news reports, as whatever the latest outbreak is, sweeps across the country. The characters are then prepped about what they’re facing and how to go about defending themselves. But not here, it’s just one big mystery. Although, I’m saying all that, maybe it is explained in Collapse.
As with most apocalyptic horror stories, there’s not a great scope for any great plot twists or things you haven’t really seen before; it’s all about the characters and the mood. Well here, they are done well and certainly don’t disappoint.
This novella isn’t re-inventing the wheel, more like presenting you with a wheel made of human bones with clotted gore dripping from the decrepit spokes that are actually razor sharp teeth ready to rip your puny body to shreds. The monsters here are grotesque and described in stunning detail. Being infected seemingly isn’t good for your looks.
The two main characters, Pearcey and Gallagher, are sent above ground from their secret Government bunker to find out just what the Jesus is going on up there. Their exploits turn in to a mission to find Gallagher’s daughter and, if she’s safe, rescue her from these atrocities. But of course, along the way they have to deal with a substantial number of these infected monster-bastards who just want to feed.
There’s not a massive ensemble of characters on display here, and while that’s a good thing in this fast-paced tale of survival, it did take away a few possible death scenes. What I mean is that if there were, say a couple more, then we could be treated to specifics as the beasts devoured them before the eyes of the main dudes. But I’m nit picking, and to be honest, the descriptions of the victims lying casually around the streets were terrifying enough, so being walked through what actually happened to them may have been the author’s intention to keep my dinner safely in my stomach.
So on the whole, bloody great. Collapse is now on my TBR pile so I’m excited for that. Reading books in order is just so last year!
I believe that this story follows on from John F Leonard’s previous novel, Collapse, although this one can be read without reading the former. Well this was how I approached it. And I’d agree with the previous point, I never felt like I was lacking any information that would have heightened my enjoyment.
In fact, I think going into this story with no idea what the hell was going on only aided me in sharing the stunned and desperate reactions of the characters.
Humanity has been almost wiped out as an infection takes hold of London. It seems that a few are immune to the transformation into these hideous creatures that are sort-of-human/sort-of-beast monsters with only one thing on their disease-addled minds; the flesh of the living. You see, even though your immune to the infection, you ain’t immune to being munched on!
But what is this infection I speak of? I don’t know, and that made this book even more frightening. We all know about books and movies describing/showing news reports, as whatever the latest outbreak is, sweeps across the country. The characters are then prepped about what they’re facing and how to go about defending themselves. But not here, it’s just one big mystery. Although, I’m saying all that, maybe it is explained in Collapse.
As with most apocalyptic horror stories, there’s not a great scope for any great plot twists or things you haven’t really seen before; it’s all about the characters and the mood. Well here, they are done well and certainly don’t disappoint.
This novella isn’t re-inventing the wheel, more like presenting you with a wheel made of human bones with clotted gore dripping from the decrepit spokes that are actually razor sharp teeth ready to rip your puny body to shreds. The monsters here are grotesque and described in stunning detail. Being infected seemingly isn’t good for your looks.
The two main characters, Pearcey and Gallagher, are sent above ground from their secret Government bunker to find out just what the Jesus is going on up there. Their exploits turn in to a mission to find Gallagher’s daughter and, if she’s safe, rescue her from these atrocities. But of course, along the way they have to deal with a substantial number of these infected monster-bastards who just want to feed.
There’s not a massive ensemble of characters on display here, and while that’s a good thing in this fast-paced tale of survival, it did take away a few possible death scenes. What I mean is that if there were, say a couple more, then we could be treated to specifics as the beasts devoured them before the eyes of the main dudes. But I’m nit picking, and to be honest, the descriptions of the victims lying casually around the streets were terrifying enough, so being walked through what actually happened to them may have been the author’s intention to keep my dinner safely in my stomach.
So on the whole, bloody great. Collapse is now on my TBR pile so I’m excited for that. Reading books in order is just so last year!
June 24, 2017
I loved it! Absolutely brutal! Dare I say I enjoyed it more than John's main book, Collapse... not to say that Collapse is bad, but just that I really, really liked 4 Hours.
I'm gonna be keeping my eye on Mr. Leonard... I'm really diggin' his work!
I'm gonna be keeping my eye on Mr. Leonard... I'm really diggin' his work!
September 27, 2016
Interesting take
On what's rapidly becoming a tired idea. The story moves at a fair clip, characters are well drawn and all in all worth the 90 minutes it took to read. Guess I'll be looking forward to more from Leonard.
On what's rapidly becoming a tired idea. The story moves at a fair clip, characters are well drawn and all in all worth the 90 minutes it took to read. Guess I'll be looking forward to more from Leonard.
September 27, 2016
Enjoyable follow up to the authour's first book. Not a sequel but set in the same world. Nicely written dark fiction.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews