Shelf Control #60 – 27/01/2023
Happy Friday and welcome to today’s Shelf Control post! If you are looking for a fun, short sci-fi crime thriller, then stay tuned to check out today’s featured book.
Before I share the details on that book, here is a recap of what Shelf Control is all about.
Shelf Control is a regular feature on my blog. It’s a meme run by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies… a celebration of the unread books on our shelves! The idea is to pick a book you own but haven’t read and write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up!
If you want to read more about the Shelf Control feature, check out Lisa’s introductory post.
Now, let’s dive into today’s featured book!
Punishment – Scott Holliday
Genre: Sci-fi / Crime
Pages: 240
Audience: Adult
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Publication Date: 31 Jul 2018
Do you want to know what it’s like to die, to kill, to really fear for your life? Then get hooked…
Detroit-based homicide detective John Barnes has seen it all—literally. Thanks to a technologically advanced machine, detectives have access to the memories of the living, the dying, and the recently dead. But extracting victims’ experiences firsthand and personally reliving everything up to the final, brutal moments of their lives—the sights, the sounds, the scents, the pain—is also the punishment reserved for the criminals themselves.
Barnes has had enough. Enough of the memories that aren’t his. Enough of the horror. Enough of the voices inside his head that were never meant to take root…until a masked serial killer known as Calavera strikes a little too close to home.
Now, with Calavera on the loose, Barnes is ready to reconnect, risking his life—and his sanity. Because in the mind of this serial killer, there is one secret even Barnes has yet to see…
My Thoughts
I can’t remember exactly how I discovered this book when I added it to my reading list back in 2018. However, now, I love the idea of the synopsis!
Punishment is a very short book at just 240 pages. I imagine it would be the kind of book that would be great for crime or mystery readers who want to try a cross-over of science fiction for a change. Having read other books about virtual reality, and seeing/experiencing things from alternate perspectives relating to crime (Ctrl+S and Dark Matter are good examples), I’m excited to see how this comes to play in the narrative.
with the inevitable psychological element to the plot (and the impact witnessing such events would have on detectives investigating such crimes), there is a lot of potential for character development and future exploration of the impact using this technology has on people. As a former student of psychology, I would like to see some of this introduced in this short book.
I’m not entirely sure how graphic the book will be in its descriptions, but I’m not intimidated by that. There is very little I will shy away from in a book. Once I read this one, I’ll be sure to let you know.
It seems to me that there is a lot to fit in to the narrative with such a small page count. I’m hoping for a fast paced, crime thriller, full of action and with an interesting sci-fi twist!
That is all from me in today’s Shelf Control post.
Have you read Punishment by Scott Holliday? Have you read any other books like it?
