The Dying Light - Hardcover

Henry Porter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0752874845 ISBN 13: 9780752874845

Publisher: Orion, 2009

Synopsis

The most shocking political thriller of the year. Former intelligence officer Kate Lockhart joins the congregation of corporate leaders, ministers and spies to mourn David Eyam, her ex-lover and one of the best minds of her generation. Then she learns of her soulmate's last will and testament - a dangerous legacy that certain member of the congregation will do absolutely anything to suppress. As she struggles to find meaning in his bequest to her, with her life at risk and only the fragments of Eyam's shattered existence to help her, she's about to find out whether the state is a match for the genius of the dead...

About this title

About the Author:

Henry Porter has written five novels for Orion and one children's novel. In 2005, his novel Brandenburg, which is set in East Germany at the time of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, won the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger. His thriller Empire State, the first about extraordinary rendition, was also nominated for the award. His books have been widely acclaimed and translated into over a dozen languages. For five years he campaigned against the attack on civil liberties by the government in the Observer newspaper where he writes a column. During that time he debated with Tony Blair in a public exchange of emails about his government's record on surveillance, databases and the rights of the individual. He has been the London editor of Vanity Fair since 1993.

Review:

A gripping and thought provoking thriller * CHOICE * A wonderful novel. I read it addictively and was sorry the minute it was over. It's way too good to be called a thriller -- Richard Ford Set in a mdoern Britain where surveillance reigns like the one remaining eye of God, this is a tense and claustrophobic conspiracy thriller. * CATHOLIC HERALD * Beautifully written, sophisticated thriller * BIG ISSUE IN THE NORTH * Porter has all the talents of a good thriller writer, particularly strong, crisp characterisation and the ability seamlessly to blend action and expertise. What really stands out in this novel, though, is the grimly plausible glimpse he gives us of a future that is already creeping up on us: a United Kingdom where elements of government and corporate interests are combining to monitor and ultimately control the lives of the country's citizens * SPECTATOR * The book is a salutary warning of what happens when big business and politics end up in bed together. I'm sure some with think Porter to be paranoid. The rest of us will feel it's terrifyingly plausible * REVIEWING THE EVIDENCE.COM * A compelling thriller which at the same time is a persuasive polemic about the threat to civil liberties in the United Kingdom * LITERARY REVIEW * For those who like political thrillers, this is one of the season's best: scary, informative and, alas, eminently believable * ECONOMIST * Porter rails against that very British apathy which has already allowed the state to pass all the legislation necessary to turn his dystopian nightmare into reality - the same apathy, ironically, which makes such nakedly polemical British novels so rare, and welcome * DAILY TELEGRAPH * A tense, intelligent conspiracy thriller set in a horribly plausible future-present Britain where surveillance is so pervasive that it's impossible to do anything unobserved * THE GUARDIAN * A vibrant thriller dealing with some of the great concerns of his [Porter's] journalistic career: the surveillance state and the erosion of individual liberty. Although set in the future, it feels as up-to-the-minute as tomorrow's headlines * NEW STATESMAN * If the best thrillers should disrupt all sense of cosy complacency, Henry Porter's The Dying Light made just emerging from under the duvet seem a risky prospect. The author and Observer political commentator has woven an upsetting truth into his fiercely intelligent tale of a near-future, police-state Britain - all the legislation necessary to create the "technological totalitarianism" he depicts is already in place * METRO *

About this edition

• Publisher: Orion
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0752874845
• ISBN 13: 9780752874845
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 400