Subject: Review: "Justice City" by DG Compton

From: [email-masked] (p-m agapow)
Date: Mon, 10 Jun 1996 22:53:44 GMT

Crime and Punishment:"Justice City" by DG Compton
		Review Copyright 1996 paul-michael agapow

It is "the day after tomorrow" in Britain.  Spurned on public demands for
harsher punishment, Justice City is a high-tech goal where punishment is
handed out in the guide of precisely applied torture.  A vicious killer is
murdered during his induction into the prison, with there being only a few
possible suspects.  As political machinations abound, a black Scot outsider
cop is put on the case and pushed for results.

"Justice City" (please ignore the somewhat hokey title) is a slippery
customer, a book that is never quite going in the direction you think it is.
At first it acts like a near future crime and punishment novel, the
introduction in the gleaming high-tech prison city being the point at which
it's most like a conventional SF novel.  Then it swerves and looks like a
typical mystery/crime novel as the detective muses on how each of the
suspects had the means, method, motive and opportunity, almost like
Inspector Dalgleish gathering all the suspects at storm-racked Ghastly
Grange ("I suppose you know why I've brought you all here ...").  Then it
descends into a psychologically intense thriller ...

It's an economical novel with lean writing, the pages just blistering past
under your fingers.  The characterisation is excellent as well (with the
exception of one homosexual character, whose depiction verges on parody)
which is vital, because without it the psychological conundrums of the novel
would fall flat.  Along the way the text contains some cold meditations on
punishment and justice.

It's a thoughtful, well-executed and bleak book that packs a punch.  If you
approach this as a piece of SF (or crime), you'll likely be disappointed for
"Justice City" is not interested in genre matters.  Read for its own value,
it's an excellent and highly recommended read.  "The Magnificent Ambersons"
on the Sid and Nancy scale.

%A DG Compton
%B Justice City
%I Victor Gollancz
%C London
%D 1995
%G ISBN 0-575-05840-4
%P 288pp
%O paperback, Aus$11.95

paul-michael agapow ([email-masked]), La Trobe Uni, Infocalypse
"There is no adventure, there is no romance, there is only trouble and desire."