I haven’t read any James Carol books before but I do own “Kiss Me, Kill Me” and I’m fully aware that he is a respected writer with several crime novels already under his belt. “17 Church Row” is a techno thriller like no other and it really does need to be read to be believed. Not so many moons ago, this story would have been classed as futuristic even science fiction. Scarily, now a lot of the story’s premise could be described as very realistic and utterly believable. What the future holds with regards to artificial and even ‘actual’ intelligence is something that is very hard to comprehend and quite scary but with the modern ‘Alexa’ and ‘Siri’ in our households, nothing is unachievable and more and more, robots and AI are taking over manual tasks.
The first half of the book is a slow burn, getting you used to the state of the art house in question with it’s technology and being introduced to the family who have bought it and moved in there. I did feel the emotions Bella’s parents felt due to the accidental death of her sister very palpable and truly understood Nikki’s anguish and panic attacks relating to her feelings of grief. I didn’t particularly like any of the main characters, though I did take to Catriona the architect of the house and thought she played her part in the story well.
This book opens with a superbly intriguing prologue that remains a thread throughout the story and doesn’t become apparent how it entwines itself within the main premise till later in the book and is quite a twist. The denouement is fast paced and I felt it did save the book after a very slow first half. Although a lot of readers may find “17 Church Row” strange or even frightening, I did enjoy reading and appreciated how the author was conveying the message of how AI may take over the function of humans one day in an interesting and well written crime thriller. If you fancy something a bit different, I’d happily recommend this book but if you like your crime mysteries to be traditional and straight forward this may not be for you. Intelligent, chilling and well worth a read!
3.5 stars.
The first half of the book is a slow burn, getting you used to the state of the art house in question with it’s technology and being introduced to the family who have bought it and moved in there. I did feel the emotions Bella’s parents felt due to the accidental death of her sister very palpable and truly understood Nikki’s anguish and panic attacks relating to her feelings of grief. I didn’t particularly like any of the main characters, though I did take to Catriona the architect of the house and thought she played her part in the story well.
This book opens with a superbly intriguing prologue that remains a thread throughout the story and doesn’t become apparent how it entwines itself within the main premise till later in the book and is quite a twist. The denouement is fast paced and I felt it did save the book after a very slow first half. Although a lot of readers may find “17 Church Row” strange or even frightening, I did enjoy reading and appreciated how the author was conveying the message of how AI may take over the function of humans one day in an interesting and well written crime thriller. If you fancy something a bit different, I’d happily recommend this book but if you like your crime mysteries to be traditional and straight forward this may not be for you. Intelligent, chilling and well worth a read!
3.5 stars.