Identity Crisis

Identity Crisis by Ben Elton

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


*** Possible spoilers ***

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. However, if you happen to be 'woke', you won't. It's a biting satire on political correctness and it's incredibly well done. Tucked into a murder mystery are all these conflicting identities along with proper speech. The plot moves right along although for the police, and for the readers, there are precious few clues.

There were a couple of gaffs on the part of the author. For example, one of the characters regarded as a suspect until an alibi is found, seemed to leave his wallet at the site of a murder. Even when the police had positive proof he was somewhere else, they could have followed that avenue of investigation. Presumably, he'd had it stolen and the police would have backtracked his movements and possibly located some evidence that way but not attempt was made to find out where he had been or who he had been with. Nevertheless, mistakes happen and this one didn't detract substantially from the story.

This is not the book for anyone who is looking for character development. Most of the characters are placeholders designed to emphasize some aspect of modern social-media culture being satirized. Not only are they not developed but a goodly number are dead not long after being introduced. The protagonist's surname is Matlock and I suspect the author chose that name to evoke memories of the television show of the same name. He represents sanity in a sea of cultural turmoil.

If you despise 'wokeism' you'll enjoy this one, otherwise you may want to take a pass on it.



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