Justice City

by D.G. Compton

In a governmental Punishment and Protection center, Charge Nurse Landon is wondering why one of the new inductees seems familiar. Meanwhile Chief Inspector Duncan is driving home from a stakeout in Liverpool. When the two men's destinies meet, the result is a complex mystery with a political edge.

Genres: Science Fiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

David Guy Compton has published science fiction as D.G. Compton. He has also published crime novels as Guy Compton and Gothic fiction as Frances Lynch.

Reviews

[Dark-Draco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Justice City is a new type of prison, where inmates are isolated from each other and the rest of the world, and subjected to audio punishment. But one of the them is murdered. There are only 4 suspects and it should be an easy case. Only, things get a bit complicated!

I love things set in the future or an alternative present, and the idea of justice City is actually feasible - only the author never really makes the most of it. Using an exaggerated future to express your ideas is ok, but it should be subtle - hell, he even gets one of the characters to repeat a page long speech just to ram his message home! He might of well as set it in the here and now, at a standard prison and made a decent crime novel - as it stands, I was a bit disappointed that it didn't really go anywhere.

Worth reading just for some of the ideas on justice and punishment, but I won't be tracking down more by the author - I prefer to make up my own mind about something rather than be twisted into someone else's way of thinking.

[Travis Bird · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit dated but a good piece of "anxiety" writing with a very good development of complex characters.