Blinders Keepers - by John Rachael

NO SPOILERS

(except that I have just told you there are no spoilers before you have read it for yourself! - which is in itself a spoiler spoiler.)

Being an educated human being with eyes, limbs and (reasonably) sound mind, I have a fairly cynical and bleak view when it comes to the current and future states of economy, society and politics. However, in terms of story telling, I prefer to use these views as merely a platform for my hard-boiled detective stories.

So “Blinders Keepers”, is not my typical kind of book. In fact, if it had not been for the wondrous social networking provided by my favourite website “Goodreads.com”, this book’s existence would have passed me by completely. But I am glad it did not…

If I were to sum it up in one succinct sentence, it would be “A joyously left-wing, tumble down the rabbit hole”. Allow me to expand (not a reference to my waist):

Joyously Left-wing:

This is a (healthily) left wing story by nature. It embellishes and caricaturises all that is terrible about government, the “playing politics to win (rather than help)” and manipulation of media that is so rife and powerful. Something that is ever-present and accurate is the big brother attitude and disregard of human rights that the powers-that-be can take, when they dress something in the label of “a threat to national security”. Like a rubber-stamp license to do whatever they want. But don’t get me wrong, the rebels are not without flaws. Mostly idealistic kids that sometimes lack a grounding in the world they think they are trying to change, many simply come across as lunatics, but for the most part they are good, and interesting, people.

Tumble Down the Rabbit Hole:

Being of a hard-boiled detective inclination I am a lover of intricate plot and believe a story can carry a message, but a message can not carry a story. So my only grumble about “Blinders Keepers” is that at times the plot is a little thin and linear and sprinkled with the occasional section of excessive exposition. However, this does not stop me giving the book five star on Amazon, because the writing style is so wittily descriptive and the characters and locations so vividly entertaining that I loved the book nonetheless. I only felt it necessary to comment such as I did not want any future readers to give up hope if they felt the same way. Believe me, the book is well worth continuing with and one of the best “indie” novels I can remember reading.

Oh and currently it is only 77p / 99c, so just give it a try!