About the Author
Born in Addis Ababa in 1960, David Beckler spent his first eight years living on an agricultural college in rural Ethiopia where his love of reading developed. After dropping out of university he became a firefighter and served nineteen years before leaving to start his own business. David began writing in 2010 and uses his work experiences to add realism to his fiction.
The first in his Antonia Conti series, A Long Shadow, was inspired by David’s concerns about the growing role corruption and privatisation play in public life, and was published in October 2022. David lives in Manchester, his adopted home since 1984. Follow @DavidBeckler1 on Twitter, Visit davidbeckler.com
About the book
London, the near future. GRM, a shadowy company running private prisons, has introduced a programme to alter prisoners’ memories, removing those that led to their criminal behaviour. When journalist Antonia Conti hears rumours that the technology has deadly side effects, she decides to investigate.
Antonia has looked into GRM’s corrupt dealings with the government before – and she knows they are merciless. It’s not long before she finds herself narrowly escaping a horrific car accident that leaves a whistle blower dead.
She enlists her old friend DI Russell Chapman to check out the supposed ‘accident,’ and discovers that he’s already investigating three other deaths that appear suspiciously linked to her own investigations.
But the deeper Antonia probes, the more her friends and colleagues are at risk. Whatever sinister experiments GRM are conducting, they are determined to keep them secret – by any means necessary. Can Antonia and Chapman thwart them before anyone else loses their mind – or their life?
Review
Looking for solutions when it comes to criminal behaviour, seems like such an obvious thing to back and support. The current methods or justice system doesn't appear to be working - time for new solutions, right. The idea sounds very dystopian and a way to address quite a few deviant and violent behaviours. Erase the memories, reduce triggers that cause the behaviours - it all seems so simple.
Yeh, aside from the fact nothing is ever that easy I'm sure it would be a very profitable venture for any company. The real problem is that if you can manipulate people that easily, and their behaviour, then someone is going to use the technology for nefarious purposes. Enter this premise stage left.
This is the sequel to A Long Shadow, and I think it is fair to say both Conti and the author are just getting started. Corruption, greed and power is a very deep and endless source of material. The question is how Antonia is going to keep herself from being swallowed up by the pit.
The author gives us the kind of premise that can become a bit of a moral dilemma, in the sense that a lot of people could be persuaded to ignore the clear negative aspects of this idea and the collateral damage, because of the profit margin and many ways this can used to control, but also because the conscience of the do-gooders in society will be easily swayed by an easy-fix. A little bit like when everyone thought a lobotomy was an insta-fix for every and any illness.
This main character is getting a bit of a reputation for being fearless and relentless. Can't wait to see where this series goes next.
Buy A Stolen Memory at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Publisher Thomas & Mercer, pub date 19th January 2023 | £8.99 | Paperback Original. Buy at Amazon com.
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