by Guy Holmes ~
The police procedural meets 1984. In this sharply drawn, prophetic literary thriller, an anti-crime video surveillance system turns New York City into the base for an astonishing conspiracy that reaches to the highest levels of government. In this gritty cop story in the tradition of Mike Figgis's Internal Affairs, a radical crime-fighting system has just been implemented in New York. With thousands of video cameras mounted around the city -- and a special undercover division of the NYPD roaming the streets with tranquilizer guns -- P.E.A.C.E. (Police Enforced Anti-Crime Environment) details a future where the intensive monitoring of society is the price paid for safety. Strongly supported by the public, the new system has dramatically reduced crime, but something below the surface is festering. At the center of Holmes's futuristic novel is Mac Wells, a cool-headed P.E.A.C.E. Force officer whose steely nerves have made him a legend in the NYPD. But when Wells accidentally "tranqs" his partner and best friend, he unveils the first layer of a shocking conspiracy. Suddenly, this champion of the P.E.A.C.E. system becomes its target: he and his wife are hunted down in a world where the truth the public accepts is a lie, where the technology that sets people free is their jail, and where reality itself seems to be slipping away. More than a thrilling story, P.E.A.C.E. is a cautionary tale ripped from today's headlines. An eerie reflection of the explosion of video surveillance used today, Holmes's startling debut novel hardly reads like fiction.