The Last Crime — Ian Kennedy Martin

In a nightmare world of people controlled by an elite and their computers a desperate Harold Acteon seeking for justice has a violent but inevitable philosophy that freedom requires the freedom to murder. And from the outset the chase between the pursuer and his pursued can only resolve itself through slaughter and mayhem in this appalling rationale of destruction. What makes this novel so interesting is the extraordinary brilliance of its execution. Kennedy-Martin writes like someone as rapturously high on words and images as his characters on their 'jollies'. For most of the time one is stunned by his virtuosity. One has the impression of an immensely fecund, feverish intelligence to match the immensely fecund, feverish imagination... Francis King, Spectator The satisfying qualities of a well-planned thriller as well as the intellectual questing that is the essence of science fiction... Isobel Murray, Financial Times