A Riveting Husband and Wife against all odds, tale

Digger 95 Broadway Reviewers

Life looks promising for Carrie and Tom even though they belong to a religious organisation deemed ‘extremist’ by the right-wing government of their day. They belong in a stable community but all that changes when they are invited to take part in activities to help the hungry, deemed subversive by the authorities. Soon, they are subject to a raid from the dreaded ATTF (Anti-Terrorist Task Force), whilst sheltering a wanted person in their own home. The situation worsens when Carrie becomes ill, is threatened with total benefit cuts and the couple can no longer tell who they can trust. Their …

Courier Review

Doreen Pearce

I find it difficult to write a fair review of this book because I am standing too close to the author. I know that some of the incidents in this book reflect those in her own life. The fact that she has written in journal form emphasizes this. I find it difficult to separate fact from fiction. Other people may not have that problem. Having said that the book is still a good read.
It is set in the future but only by fifteen years so it is very believable. Life in Winchester – comfortable, middle-class life at least – …

Haunting and Compelling

Lulu London

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 July 2015
I found the story compelling; I particularly liked the way the menace and threat gradually increases throughout the book, and how the fairly safe, routine world of the protagonist becomes incrementally more insecure and uncertain. There are parts of the book that make for difficult reading, but I was gripped. The story was convincing - the mix of the familiar and recognisable from contemporary society combined with the nightmarish vision of an American dominated UK was all too easy to imagine.

The relationship between the protagonist and Karl, a member of the …

Anxiously waiting for more

David Gulbrandson

Just as Aldous Huxley presaged a grim picture of a state-organized society in 'Brave New World', and George Orwell's jeremiad warned about totalitarianism in the 30's and 40's respectively, Allder has presciently given us a glimpse in the near future of a society 'protected' by anti-terrorism squads.

Her protagonist is an average woman going about life in an average way. Allder uses the woman's personal journals as a clever literary device and it pays off wonderfully in the end.

The compelling power of the book comes from Allder's juxtaposition of the quotidian journal entries with the looming menace of the …

Tension builds slowly

Sue Curd

Tension builds slowly but it's worth staying with the story. It seems quite credible that ordinary people could find themselves in the kind situations that evolve as the tension builds. There's enough of the story that draws on what already happens to make the step into what that might develop quite plausible. At first I disliked the repeated phrases - it's a journal format - but by the end I felt that the normality of this person's life came over more forcefully in those beginning stages and made the progression of the story even more shocking.

I read the book …

Not to be missed

Monica Ditmus

I found this a highly original book because of its underlying but never cloying spirituality, but it is also full of profound human insight and is absolutely gripping. Once started I could not put it down. Early on, the author skilfully conveys a sense of something sinister that lies behind the apparent ordinariness, and as the plot unfolds we are held absolutely in suspense. I thoroughly recommend it as not to be missed.

It's frighteningly easy...

Rebekah Schmid

This is an interesting book set in a dystopian near-future. It is frighteningly easy to see how our society could develop in such a way. The characters are well drawn. They handle the dilemmas caused by their convictions and beliefs within the constraints of the new society in believable and convincing ways.
The style of writing and excellent editing makes the book very easy to read. The story is utterly believable and the book is hard to put down as the main protagonist slips ever further into the complications and difficulties thrown in her way as she follows her beliefs into …

An intelligent View of what may be to come...

David Smith

Once I had started the book and really got through the first few chapters I was, in the overused phrase, “unable to put it down”. Setting the book just slightly in the future was a good idea as the scene was similar enough to today’s world but with the future setting to be relevant and believable if not frightening. I suppose that is the abiding thought of the book that we are about to enter a rather frightening time in this country and perhaps not just in the UK. I have just read on the Internet that one of the …