Publisher's Synopsis
A car crash, an old suitcase and a dark secret leads to a story of arson and murder.
Simon Reece's journey through this dystopian crime thriller, searching to find his identity, draws him into a world of lies, danger and murder. This is a world controlled by evil policemen, corrupt politicians and all seeing computers, a world where fiction and science come together, of suspense and action where vulnerable citizens are mere pawns in a terrible experiment. As Simon Reece fights to expose the truth he faces mortal challenges, deadly enemies who will stop at nothing and a state which will do everything in its power to destroy him. Reece's quest is a story of Orwellian madness writ large in the 21st Century.Paul White's review says all;
Revelations in the aftermath of a tragedy, lead Simon Reece, cyber-security entrepreneur, to embark on a quest to discover his true identity. This personal catastrophe intersects with national calamity - a fractured country, paralysed by rioting, plagued by terrorist violence, struggling to find its own new identify; a nation highly susceptible to the arguments of a populist movement that offers an apparently surefooted pathway amidst the sinkholes of a collapsing society and body politic.
The book's author, Watkins, masterfully taps into the zeitgeist of potentially post-Brexit Britain, immersing the reader in a maelstrom from which the lead character and the country are co-joined in a struggle in which so-called "special relationships" are exposed as ephemeral window-dressings concealing shady goings-on where vested interests are ruthlessly pursued. Watkins takes us on a journey at which every twist and turn leads to revelations that shatter the very foundations of what might be considered normal, both for the individual and for society at large.
At the heart of the book lies a fundamental question: in highly volatile times, how much "collateral damage" to our freedom and civil liberties are we prepared to accept in return for state protection from myriad threats and dangers?
In a book that combines Buchanesque plot lines with Orwellian dystopia, every reader will surely find themselves reflecting on how Watkins' vision could all too easily become a devastating reality.
