Punishment by Scott J. Holliday
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
In Scott Holliday’s newest novel, “Punishment”, the world John Barnes lives in is very close to the world that we live in. Except of course, that there’s a machine that let’s people access their memories and transfer them to and from other people, into their heads. The only problem, is that a little bit of their consciousness is brought with it, and is left wherever the memory is transferred. It’s used for detective work, to see the last memories of the murder victims, celebrities sell their memories, and it’s also used as a torture device in the military for prisoners of war, and prisoner’s can get a lighter sentence by reliving their victim’s memories of what they’ve done. It’s use in this story specifically, is to track down a serial killer named Calavera.
The thing that stood out the most for me is the violence, i haven’t read a lot of violent books like this lately, and the machine, because there isn’t anything like it in real life, and if there was I’m sure it would be put to use immediately, for better and for worse. Calavera himself also stood out, because his reasoning was so different from the other serial killers I’ve heard about. Although he’s a crazy person, he did have a reason that he thought made it okay to kill people, and I really liked that the book had such rich backstory for him. I was so excited reading this book, it pulled me in immediately and I couldn’t put it down. Fans of the tv show Hannibal will love this book, because it shows the detective’s side of serial killers, as well as a much more personal level for Barnes himself.
The characters are full of life, and they’re easy to imagine as real people. If you’re looking for a refreshing new murder mystery novel, this is something you should look into, because I don’t think you won’t regret it. Reading this made me want to read the other novels by the author, although they don’t seem quite as violent as this one, they do seem interesting. I also really liked the cover, it’s bright colours and sugar skull theme really drew me into the book and it’s like it decided for me that I would read it. My favourite scene in the book is probably the beginning one, where Barnes is drunk standing on the train tracks while a train is coming in hot. It really set the tone for the entire book, and although I’ve read other people’s reviews that said they didn’t like it, I really thought it was an exciting and dramatic way to begin a book. I didn’t have any questions about this story that weren’t answered in the text, and that’s a rare thing for me. This book might be one of my new favourites, and again, you should definitely check it out if you think it’s something you’d like. The book is released today.
Here’s a link to the author’s Twitter, and another link to the book on Amazon.
https://twitter.com/HollidayAuthor?la…
Thanks for reading!
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