100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock 🇳🇿

Fast Overnight NZ-wide Delivery 🚀

The Rule of Three

The 'utterly paranoia-inducing and brilliant' (Sarah Pinborough) chilling suspense thriller
3.33 goodreads logo

Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.

Check link for latest rating.
( 1,868 ratings, 488 reviews)
Brief Description
The Rule of Three is a completely original, nuanced, one-sitting read that blew me away. Whip-smart dialogue, characters that haunt your dreams and a plot you might just die for. I loved it. CHRIS WHITAKER The Rule of Three absolutely blew me away. An incredibly intense... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$2700
Elsewhere:
$2899
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

The Whisper Man meets The Chalk Man via The Blair Witch Project in this dark and chilling suspense thriller. 

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

The Rule of Three is a completely original, nuanced, one-sitting read that blew me away. Whip-smart dialogue, characters that haunt your dreams and a plot you might just die for. I loved it. CHRIS WHITAKER

The Rule of Three absolutely blew me away. An incredibly intense and original creepy page-turner that made me keep turning the pages in a desperate need to finish it and find out the answers! Utterly paranoia-inducing and brilliant. I loved it. It came for me and now it will come for you! SARAH PINBOROUGH

Ingenious, creepy and compelling. Sam Ripley is an exciting new voice in the field of chilling thrillers. ALEX NORTH

The Whisper Man meets The Chalk Man with the paranoia of The Blair Witch Project in this chilling suspense thriller.

That’s the one.

That’s the girl who’s going to die.

I didn’t believe in the Rule of Three. Not at first.

It was just one of those urban myths you hear about all the time.

A story my boyfriend told me about a girl cursed by the number three.

A girl whose parents had killed themselves after her sibling had died in an accident.

Which meant that she was doomed to die too because that’s the Rule of Three.

Bad things always happen in threes, they say, and they are right.

Because it’s happening again.

But this time the curse is coming for me.

And worst of all?

It’s coming for you, too.

How rare it is to devour a new thriller with a truly new premise told in a truly new way. In The Rule of Three, Sam Ripley has achieved the near impossible, blending innovative storytelling with fresh, surprising characters fighting for their lives against the very narrative we are racing to read and keep up with. This twisty, dark delight plumbs our all-too-human paranoias and proclivities, upending our expectations of what a thriller can be. GREGG HURWITZ

The Rule of Three is an excellent, twisty thriller that keeps you glued to the page right the way through. Definitely my kind of book! SIMON KERNICK

With The Rule of Three, Sam Ripley has delivered a perfectly crafted nightmare. Taut, deliciously sinister, witty and original. I couldn’t get enough of all the creepy twists and turns. CAZ FREAR

The Rule of Three is a sinister tale that deftly blends paranoia, conspiracy and a rash of mysterious deaths to create a dizzying and gripping thriller. The story sucked me in from page one and I was caught up in this just-one-more-chapter read until I raced to the conclusion – making sure to read in a well-lit room at all times! ROD REYNOLDS

Ingenious and compelling in equal measure. KEVIN WIGNALL

A thrilling concept told in a gripping, unique voice. CLAIRE MCGOWAN

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781398515000

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 10 October 2024

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Simon & Schuster Ltd

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 25.0mm

Width: 130.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 432

About the Author

Sam Ripley is a pseudonym for a bestselling thriller author from the United Kingdom who has sold over a million copies internationally.

Also by Sam Ripley

View all
  • The Rule of Three
    The Rule of Three is a completely original, nuanced, one-sitting read that blew me away. Whip-smart dialogue, characters that haunt your dreams and a plot you might just die for. I loved it. CHRIS WHITAKER The Rule of Three absolutely blew me away. An incredibly intense and original creepy page-turner that made me keep turning the pages in a desperate...
    Paperback
    Sold Out

More from Crime & Thriller

View all
  • New Release
    Dying Days
    Award-winning writer delivers a pulse-pounding espionage thriller. Missing soldiers, MI6 secrets and European partisans collide in a deadly game where the lines between lies and reality are fast disintegrating. In the dying days of the Second World War, a new conflict is about to ignite. May, 1945: After fighting to liberate Europe from the Nazis, Tito's Yugoslav Army and Allied...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Country Road Murders
    Buy to Win
    New Release
    The Country Road Murders
    From the Sunday Times bestselling author comes a pulse-pounding thriller about justice, vengeance and the roads that lead us home. No one gets this big without amazing natural storytelling talent - which is what Jim has, in spades — LEE CHILD Cross Rivers is the kind of small town where everyone knows your name – and your secrets. Silas Tucker...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Every Lake
    Scary stories are fun... until your life becomes one. When Alice was fifteen, her father killed Mia Heywood in their lakefront cottage before vanishing into the trees. At least that's what the locals think happened. Over a decade later, Alice has lost her job as a journalist, she's going through an expensive divorce and she desperately needs to sell the...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Nautilus
    New Release
    Nautilus
    The follow-up to the bestselling novel The Turing Protocol. Nautilus is a machine with the astonishing power to send messages eight weeks back in time. Its users must follow a set of protocols established by its inventor, Alan Turing, including that it can only be used by a descendant of his family, and only to avert global disasters. But what...
    Paperback
    $2999
    Elsewhere:
    $3699
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Cold River
    New Release
    Cold River
    The sensational new novel from the author of the bestselling thriller, The Creeper, winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Fiction 2025. Deep in the mountains, secrets grow deadly... Detective Constable Sally White knows how easily hikers can go missing in Victoria's high country. But there's something about the disappearance of Louis Taylor, a young man lost up...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Buy to Win
    New Release
    It Could Have Been Her
    PREPARE TO BE HOOKED: The no. 1 Sunday Times and MULTI-million-copy bestselling author is back with a brand-new spine tingling thriller. It was the night she almost died. Jane Trevally, newly divorced and feeling a little lost, agrees to accompany a man she doesn't know to his house in the darkest corner of Hampstead Heath. She's offered a drink, goes in, and...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Buy to Win
    26 Beauties
    The twenty-sixth thrilling novel in the globally bestselling Women's Murder Club series. Beautiful young women are disappearing by the dozen. A celebration is cut short when a concerned father crashes Detective Inspector Lindsay Boxer's party. His daughter is missing - and she's not the only one. DI Lindsay Boxer has been tracking a chilling pattern: a Jane Doe washed ashore,...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    The Secrets We Hide
    The stunning new North Falls thriller by the bestselling author of We Are All Guilty Here 'Quite simply, Karin Slaughter is the best of us' Dervla McTiernan Welcome back to North Falls -- a small town with big secrets. The house at 1601 Iris Drive looks like any other in the quiet, residential street. But rumours are rife about the Vickery...
    Paperback
    $3099
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Buy to Win
    The Parkwood Murders
    They came for an escape, but can they escape a killer? Detective Nicola Bridge returns in another gripping and immersive mystery For its loyal guests, Parkwood Holiday Village in west Dorset is a haven- woodland walks, a tranquil lake, service around the clock. Until, just after midsummer, a body is found floating in the swimming pool. Detective Nicola Bridge, exhausted...
    Paperback
    $3000
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    Backorder
    Ships mid September
  • On Sale
    13% off
    Hope Rises
    'BALDACCI IS STILL PEERLESS' - THE SUNDAY TIMES REVENGE IS A DISH BEST SERVED COLD . . . Walter Nash, working under the alias of Dillon Hope, is on the road to revenge after becoming an informant for the FBI against a global criminal operation headed up by Victoria Steers. Steers has ripped everything Nash held dear away from him....
    Paperback
    $2700
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    (2)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Slash
    A year after a brutal shootout left her lover dead, ex-police sergeant Honey Chalmers is a hot mess, drinking too much and eating too little, working casual gigs for a shady firm of private investigators — while holding conversations with a ghost. A desperate father asks her to investigate his missing son — a double-murder suspect last seen during the...
    Paperback
    $3200
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • A River Red With Blood
    The players call it the Game, and its aim is simple: to abduct and kill a stranger without getting caught. They're very good at it. They've been playing it for a long time. And they can keep playing as long as everyone sticks to the rules: No Killing Close to Home and No Killing Outside the Game. But those rules...
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.