From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Jun 12 18:50:31 1996 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!nntp.uio.no!news.cais.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.kei.com!uhog.mit.edu!news!news From: agapow@latcs1.cs.latrobe.edu.au (p-m agapow) Subject: Review: "Justice City" by DG Compton Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Keywords: author=paul-michael agapow Lines: 46 Sender: wex@tinbergen.media.mit.edu (Graystreak) Organization: Calvin Coolidge Home for Dead Biologists X-Newsreader: (ding) Gnus v0.94 Date: Mon, 10 Jun 1996 22:53:44 GMT Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Lines: 46 Crime and Punishment:"Justice City" by DG Compton Review Copyright 1996 paul-michael agapow It is "the day after tomorrow" in Britain. Spurned on public demands for harsher punishment, Justice City is a high-tech goal where punishment is handed out in the guide of precisely applied torture. A vicious killer is murdered during his induction into the prison, with there being only a few possible suspects. As political machinations abound, a black Scot outsider cop is put on the case and pushed for results. "Justice City" (please ignore the somewhat hokey title) is a slippery customer, a book that is never quite going in the direction you think it is. At first it acts like a near future crime and punishment novel, the introduction in the gleaming high-tech prison city being the point at which it's most like a conventional SF novel. Then it swerves and looks like a typical mystery/crime novel as the detective muses on how each of the suspects had the means, method, motive and opportunity, almost like Inspector Dalgleish gathering all the suspects at storm-racked Ghastly Grange ("I suppose you know why I've brought you all here ..."). Then it descends into a psychologically intense thriller ... It's an economical novel with lean writing, the pages just blistering past under your fingers. The characterisation is excellent as well (with the exception of one homosexual character, whose depiction verges on parody) which is vital, because without it the psychological conundrums of the novel would fall flat. Along the way the text contains some cold meditations on punishment and justice. It's a thoughtful, well-executed and bleak book that packs a punch. If you approach this as a piece of SF (or crime), you'll likely be disappointed for "Justice City" is not interested in genre matters. Read for its own value, it's an excellent and highly recommended read. "The Magnificent Ambersons" on the Sid and Nancy scale. %A DG Compton %B Justice City %I Victor Gollancz %C London %D 1995 %G ISBN 0-575-05840-4 %P 288pp %O paperback, Aus$11.95 paul-michael agapow (agapow@latcs1.oz.au), La Trobe Uni, Infocalypse "There is no adventure, there is no romance, there is only trouble and desire."