Pre-order
1
of
1
Contest
The iconic bestselling thriller
Brief Description
The New York Public Library. A brooding labyrinth of towering bookcases, narrow aisles and spiralling staircases. For Doctor Stephen Swain and his daughter, Holly, it is the site of a nightmare. For one night this historic building is to be the venue for a contest. A...
Read More
Format: Hardback
$4399
$5500
Elsewhere:
Unit price
/
Unavailable
Pre-order
Releases
11th
August 2026
(Approx. Date)
Pre-order "Contest" now to secure your copy from our first shipment
Found a better price? Request a price match
Contest
$4399
$5500
Elsewhere:
Unit price
/
Unavailable
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 New York Public Library. A brooding labyrinth of towering bookcases, narrow aisles and spiralling staircases. For Doctor Stephen Swain and his daughter, Holly, it is the site of a nightmare.
For one night this historic building is to be the venue for a contest. A contest in which Swain is to compete - whether he likes it or not.
With his daughter in his arms, Swain is plunged into this terrifying fight for survival. He can choose to run, to hide or to fight - but if he wants to live, he has to win.
For in this contest, unless you leave as the victor, you do not leave at all.
Contest is a raw, visceral edge-of-your-seat thriller - the iconic bestseller that launched Matthew Reilly's international writing career.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781761773112
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 28 July 2026
Country: Australia
Imprint: Macmillan Australia
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 43.0mm
Width: 163.0mm
Height: 244.0mm
Weight: 702g
Pages: 432
About the Author
Matthew Reilly is the internationally bestselling author of the Scarecrow series, the Jack West series and numerous standalone novels. His books are published in over 20 languages with worldwide sales of over 8 million copies. He directed the no.1 Netflix film Interceptor, which he co-wrote with Stuart Beattie.
Also by Matthew Reilly
View all-
The Detective
For 150 years, women have been going missing.And all of the investigators who went in search of them - from 1877 to the present day - have disappeared, too.Now Sam Speedman, a most unique private detective, is on the case.Brilliant, direct and disarming, Sam is ... different. He's not your average private detective. But then again, this isn't your average...Hardback$3499Elsewhere:$4999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Hover Car Racer: The Graphic Novel
Matthew Reilly's blockbuster novel Hover Car Racer explodes off the page as a thrilling new graphic novel, brilliantly illustrated by John Hanna. Never give up. Never say die. Meet Jason Chaser, hover car racer. He's won himself a place at the International Race School, where racers either make it on to the Pro Circuit - or they crash and burn....Paperback$2400Elsewhere:$2799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Contest
The New York State Library. A silent sanctuary of knowledge; a 100-year-old labyrinth of towering bookcases, narrow aisles and spiralling staircases. For Doctor Stephen Swain and his eight-year-old daughter, Holly, it is the site of a nightmare. For one night, the State Library is to be the venue for a contest. A contest in which Stephen Swain is to compete...Paperback$2200Elsewhere:$2499Unit price /UnavailableBackorderShips late August -
Mr Einstein's Secretary
Mr Einstein's Secretary by Matthew Reilly is a masterfully crafted historical thriller that takes readers on an exhilarating journey through some of the most volatile periods of the 20th century. At its heart is Hanna Fischer, a young woman whose life changes irrevocably in 1919. Aspiring to study physics under the legendary Albert Einstein, Hanna is propelled into a world...Paperback$2499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Mr Einstein's Secretary
Mr Einstein's Secretary A secretary like no other in an epic spanning 40 years. All Hanna Fischer ever wanted to do was to study physics under the great Albert Einstein. But when, as a teenager in 1919, her life is suddenly turned upside-down, she is catapulted into a new and extraordinary life—as a secretary, a scientist, a sister, and a...Hardback$4999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Area 7: A Scarecrow Novel 2
It is America's most secret base, hidden deep in the Utah desert, an Air Force installation known only as Area 7. And today it has a visitor: the President of the United States. He has come to inspect Area 7, to examine its secrets for himself. But he's going to get more than he bargained for on this trip. Because...Paperback$2300Elsewhere:$2499Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Hell Island
It is an island that doesn't appear on any maps. A secret place, where classified experiments have been carried out. Experiments that have gone terribly wrong. Four crack special forces units are dropped in. One of them is a team of Marines, led by Captain Shane Schofield, call-sign: SCARECROW. Nothing can prepare Schofield's team for what they find there. You...Paperback$699Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Secret Runners of New York
From Australia's favourite novelist and the author of both the Scarecrow and Jack West Jr series with new novel The One Impossible Labyrinth out now. 'Think Mean Girls vs Back to the Future with a little bit of apocalyptic sci-fi thrown in' THE AGE THE COMING END When Skye Rogers and her twin brother Red move to Manhattan, rumours of...Paperback$2499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Pre-orderKing’s Ransom
Five innocent hostages. Five private investigators. A fiendish ransom game. Has Detective Sam Speedman met his match? A fast and deadly Matthew Reilly thriller. A DARING ABDUCTION The richest man in the world has been kidnapped. Along with four of his children. THE DEADLY CHALLENGE The kidnapper's demand: the five best private detectives in America must come to the missing...Paperback$2999Elsewhere:$3499Unit price /UnavailableOut 29 Sep 2026Pre-order -
Pre-orderKing’s Ransom
Five innocent hostages. Five private investigators. A fiendish ransom game. Has Detective Sam Speedman met his match? A fast and deadly Matthew Reilly thriller. A DARING ABDUCTION The richest man in the world has been kidnapped. Along with four of his children. THE DEADLY CHALLENGE The kidnapper's demand: the five best private detectives in America must come to the missing...Hardback$4499Elsewhere:$4999Unit price /UnavailableOut 29 Sep 2026Pre-order -
The Detective
For 150 years, women have been going missing. And all of the investigators who went in search of them—from 1877 to the present day—have disappeared, too. Now Sam Speedman, a most unique private detective, is on the case. Brilliant, direct and disarming, Sam is... different. He's not your average private detective. But then again, this isn't your average case. For...PaperbackSold 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$3199Elsewhere:$3699Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseThe 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$3000Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseEvery 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$3299Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
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$2999Elsewhere:$3699Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
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$3000Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseIt 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$3000Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New Release26 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$3199Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips 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$3099Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New Release
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$3000Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
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$3099Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New Release
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$3200Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseA 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$3199Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips 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
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
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
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.
Crime & Thriller lists from the team
Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!
