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The Real-Town Murders
The Real-Town Murders | Adam Roberts
5 posts | 4 read | 2 to read
Alma is a private detective in a near-future England, a country desperately trying to tempt people away from the delights of Shine, the immersive successor to the internet. But most people are happy to spend their lives plugged in, and the country is decaying. Alma's partner is ill, and has to be treated without fail every 4 hours, a task that only Alma can do. If she misses the 5 minute window her lover will die. She is one of the few not to access the Shine. So when Alma is called to an automated car factory to be shown an impossible death and finds herself caught up in a political coup, she knows that getting too deep may leave her unable to get home. What follows is a fast-paced Hitchcockian thriller as Alma evades arrest, digs into the conspiracy, and tries to work out how on earth a dead body appeared in the boot of a freshly-made car in a fully-automated factory.
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review
RaeLovesToRead
The Real-Town Murders | Adam Roberts
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Mehso-so

I was hoping for a genre mashup - mystery meets sci fi - but it didn't have any of the elements I would expect from a mystery novel (suspects, intrigue, clues etc).

It throws you straight into an action movie peril-fest without pausing to make you care about the characters.

Overall, I was underwhelmed.

⭐⭐ / ⭐⭐⭐ 2 or 3 stars

RaeLovesToRead #cloakanddaggerchristmas : A mystery featuring a private detective 3y
39 likes1 comment
blurb
RaeLovesToRead
The Real-Town Murders | Adam Roberts
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Not sure I'm feeling this book so far. Don't get me wrong, it might get better (I'm 90 pages in), but so far it's stressing me out without piquing my curiosity. I prefer to be hooked / intrigued before the peril starts!

Pickles was lying on my back and I heard a flopping noise. I turned around and she was lying next to me with her paws in the air... for a moment I was worried but then I realised she'd just fallen asleep and dropped off 🙈😸

BookmarkTavern 😍😍 Tell Pickles I love her. 😂 3y
RaeLovesToRead @ozma.of.oz I did! 😸😊 3y
48 likes2 comments
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RaeLovesToRead
The Real-Town Murders | Adam Roberts
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@vivastory #cloakanddaggerchristmas

Me yesterday: I'm far too busy to take on another reading challenge.

Me today: ^^ ... no harm in looking to see if I have any suitable material 🤔😅

vivastory 😂 A bookish challenge is just so hard to resist! Looking forward to your prompts 3y
RaeLovesToRead @vivastory Turned out it was surprisingly easy! I already have a stockpile of mysteries. It's the best sort of fiction when done well. 3y
vivastory It's definitely one of my favorite types of fiction. It's my go to genre when I'm tired or overwhelmed by life. 3y
See All 6 Comments
RaeLovesToRead @vivastory In my case that's like... every day! Haha 😅😐 This'll be a good chance to read something more upbeat, I reckon. Having said that, last time I read a Soji Shimada book there were a LOT of women getting chopped up, so maybe not. 3y
vivastory Was that Tokyo Zodiac Murders? I read that one a few years ago. I always meant to read more of his work 3y
RaeLovesToRead @vivastory Yeah, that's the one. It was good but rather gruesome, and yet emotionally detached from the gruesome. 3y
38 likes6 comments
blurb
The.Intentional.Reader
The Real-Town Murders | Adam Roberts
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Future England where everyone lives in an immersive world called “the Shine” and life is fully automated. So when a man ends up dead in the back of a trunk in a fully automated car factory, Private Detective Alma is called in to solve the who, why and how.

review
Herschelian
The Real-Town Murders | Adam Roberts
Bailedbailed

This book was recommended to me by someone who knows I like crime fiction. It is about a PI in the near future, when most work is done by robots, ‘sims‘ and myrmidions. Humans spend their lives in the ‘Shine‘ a virtual reality world; she is contracted to solve a murder when the contract is abruptly ended.
The was so much complicated sci-fi stuff as to how the communicated, none of it very clear and at times downright unbelievable. Gave up on it.

Herschelian For the sake of fairness, I must add that my husband just read it and thought it very good! Each to their own. 6y
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