Freebourne By Salman Shaheen

 

Rating 4⭐s

You can buy Freebourne...here

You can find out about the author here

• The Blurb...

After learning of his wife's affair with his best friend and business partner, divorced and unemployed MindTech entrepreneur Dr Harry Coulson arrives in the idyllic English town of Freebourne, looking to start a new life. But any hopes of quietly picking up the pieces of his broken world are shattered when he steps off the train to discover the body of a young woman lying in the snow. It's almost as if she'd been left there for him to find. Harry does everything he can to help. But as a stranger arriving on the night Freebourne witnesses its first murder in over a century, he not only becomes a suspect in the woman's killing but finds himself caught in a deadly game between science, faith, and free will - in a secret far darker and more terrifying than anything he could have imagined.

• Our Review...

I found this to be a very interesting book in many ways. I try not to read the blurb or reviews of books that I review until after I have reviewed them. I like to come to the story without preconceived ideas.

So for me this tale started as a murder mystery. Initially I thought the writing too fast paced for my taste. e.g. (Slight spolier here...) in the story within  about a month there the had been several murders and our protagonist had set up and funded a company staffed by people he had only just met and found love. All this when our protagonist had only just arrived in his new environs! With the fast pace there comes a lack of opportunity to develop depth of characters. So far so OK but nothing to set my reading world alight. At this stage had it carried on it was probably going to a solid 3 star read for me. Ok but probably wouldn't remember any part of it in a few years time.

However as we progress and begin hitting the twists the reasons behind the fast forward love affair and the spree deaths not to mention the quickfire tech empire building become apparent. This book is a shape-shifter what starts as murder mystery evolves into a mash up of black mirror and House of Cards and Frankenstein. It is here that the narrative kicks on. I sat up in my chair my interest piqued and began reading more voraciously. 

I feel the author has two (at least) strengths. His plotting is very clever. Seasoned readers are experienced in spotting the tropes that lead to the twist, so much so that part of fun of reading is spotting the twist. If reading is like going on Safari then spotting the twist is akin to the thrill of shooting the Lion at the end! (NB we do not condone big game hunting obvs.) I did see one twist but not the subsequent emerging one so well played sir, well played.

The other element of his writing is political commentary. The author is politician so no doubt operates in a world of cunning, subterfuge and dare I say manipulation. He writes about these and his fears for the future in a heartfelt and striking way. As can be seen in selected quotes. Orwell is obviously an influence. He has a good turn of phrase. "Tourists in the misery of others" is a wonderful way of describing internet trolls and paparazzi.

In the end I enjoyed this book, it gradually morphed into a thought provoking cautionary tale that we as a society will do well to take on board.

• Selected Quotes...

in politics those who wield the knife, no matter how well they buried it and where, rarely get to wear the crown.

It would be all over the metaverse soon. Fear and outrage traded for clicks, views, shares, likes, influence, vanity. A young woman was dead and all these people cared about was collecting experiences. Tourists in the misery of others.

those of us who have the privilege of building the future also have the duty to preserve our past.

The whole system is geared towards producing compliance. Replicating a set of values held by a tiny elite because having a bigger stick is so passé. We know the state has a monopoly of violence, and it will deploy it against its own citizens if it needs to, but it rarely does. Why? Well, we’re recorded over 300 times a day simply going about our daily lives. The whole world is one giant panopticon now. That we know we are constantly watched unconsciously changes our behaviour. That’s another form of violence, against our minds, but it’s far from the most insidious. The mass media, almost exclusively owned by the same sliver of society who rule us, tell us what to think, what is acceptable, permissible, within established parameters;

Seventy years ago, most of the world’s countries were dictatorships. Today, hardly any survive. Because they don’t need to. That’s real hegemony. The biggest lie people are told in the free world is that they are really free.”

power relies on controlling and corrupting the institutions of society, not destroying them.

• If You Liked This Then You May Like...

Chrysalis by Harrison Murphy (Review...here)

The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

The Warehouse by Rob Hart