By Louis Greenberg

Titan, out now

When Lucie Sterling worries that her niece Kira has disappeared, she must probe the secrets of Green Valley – the only place where digital technology is allowed…

What would happen if we turned our back on the digital technology that is slowly but surely encroaching on all aspects of our lives? If we didn’t have smartphones, but relied on analogue devices? How would policing work in such a society – would it revert to the way that it was fifty years ago? Those are some of the questions at the heart of Louis Greenberg’s intriguing novel, set in a world that pushed back against the tyranny of the digital, and put those who refused to relinquish their devices in Green Valley – a community where everything is seen through the I, and it’s all too easy to lose yourself in a version of reality that commandeers your senses.

That there’s something rotten at the heart of that “paradise” will come as no shock (and isn’t really a spoiler!) but the way in which it’s revealed, and the solutions that people either side of the border between the two worlds come up with are quite novel. There’s a sequence that will feel familiar to anyone who knows the very early Doctor Who story The Keys of Marinus and some point of view shifts that jar initially but become very effective as the horrifying truth becomes clearer.

Verdict: The ramifications of Greenberg’s set up often take second place to the detective mystery, but it’s a well told tale. 8/10

Paul Simpson