Mostly Murders

A dystopian novel depicting a society in a not so distant future, where people are so desperate for order that they willingly embrace surveillance, government control, and the slow but steady replacement of human interaction, accountability, and sensibility with machines and algorithms. Democracy and freedom are long-lost ideals, sacrificed on the altar of innovation and stability. They are not taken from people by force by power-hungry warlords or scheming dictators, but simply hollowed out and watered down by elected politicians and officials until they become naught but a memory of how things once were.

But what happens to justice in a system based on control and numbers? What lengths will people go to, to avoid chaos and rebellion, and is order worth it, if our humanity is the price we pay for it?

Part, thriller, part speculative fiction, part cautionary tale, The Weight of the Satchel shows how even good intentions can lead down a path of control and power and the reduction of people into nothing but numbers in a budget.

And yet, this isn’t a novel about evil people doing evil things. James Badman paints a surprisingly tender portrait of the people in power and the people supporting them, showing how a dystopian society can come about from a desire for peace and prosperity, how anyone can be corrupted by fear or trauma, and how small sacrifices in the name of the greater good can spiral into a dangerous erosion of democracy. This is not a brutal, loud or bloody dystopian tale, but a delicate and subtle one, making the whole story so much more believable and terrifying.

Thank you very much to James Badman for this ARC. The Weight of the Satchel releases today, November 25th.