📖 Blog Tour ~ Manhattan Down by Michael Cordy

Bantam Books/ Transworld
8 May 2025

My thanks to Sophie Ransom PR for my copy of the book
and the invitation to the blog tour

A propulsive rollercoaster high concept international thriller which dares to take the world to the edge of oblivion.

THE CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS JUST SAID GOODNIGHT.

On the anniversary eve of the 9/11 terror attack, New York swelters under a heat dome of record temperatures. Even the global leaders assembled at the UN HQ are forced to admit that the climate crisis has reached boiling point and the world’s time is running out.

That same day, at precisely 5:25 p.m., everyone on Manhattan Island – every man, woman and child, including all the world leaders at the UN – falls unconscious. Everyone that is, except for Samantha Rossi, a single mother reeling from devastating personal news and Nick Lockwood, a wounded NYPD detective who wakes from a coma just as the City That Never Sleeps falls into one.

📖 My Review..

Literally, in the blink of an eye, at 5:25pm on the eve of the 9/11 anniversary the entire island of Manhattan goes to sleep. Four million people fall, and remain where they fell, be that on the pavement or at their desk in an office block or whilst walking in the street and as Manhattan goes eerily silent there are only a handful of eco-warriors who know precisely what is going on and they are about to put their ambitious plan into action.

The story hits the ground running and doesn’t let up pace until the whole of this clever plot is revealed. With  a real sense of time and place Manhattan, lost in time, becomes another fascinating character in this daring story and I followed with a real sense of trepidation watching as the plot unfolded and the perpetrators started to reveal their true personalities. There’s a real sense of disquiet, rather like the deserted streets of our towns and cities during the recent global pandemic, an otherworldliness starts to evolve, with streets and building littered with bodies, there’s a glimpse of a futuristic world which could, however frightening it seems, be just around the corner.

This is a really accomplished thriller, from its scarily realistic setting, to the well thought out characters particularly those of the terrorists and also Samantha Rossi and Nick Lockwood who become real champions and who under normal circumstances would never have met and interacted. I flew through the story in a couple of sittings, reluctant to leave the sleeping Manhattan to its own devices and fascinated to see what would happen next in this fast action thriller.

Beautifully written, with such incredible and believable detail, I can well imagine Manhattan Down being picked up and made into a movie, it really is that good.

About the Author

Michel Cordy is the best selling author of 6 high concept thrillers, including the Sunday Times international bestseller The Messiah Code, The Lucifer Code  and the Sunday Times best seller, The Miracle Strain.  Having taken time off from writing novels to work in film, Michael Cordy is back with Manhattan Down. His novels have been translated into several languages and four have been sold to Hollywood. Michael lives in London with his wife and daughter.

X @MichelCordy #ManhattanDown

X @TransworldBooks

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