#BookReview-‘This Is Gomorrah’ by Tom Chatfield

About the book…

‘This Is Gomorrah’ by Tom Chatfield is out now from Hodder and Stoughton publishing, in ebook and hardback formats-if you are a fan of conspiracy theorists, Black Mirror and thrillers then you will not want to miss this stunning debut! My grateful thanks to Louise Swanell for my gifted paperback review copy.

What he knows could kill him. . .

‘Gripping, intelligent and stylish’ Sophie Hannah 

At the darkest heart of the internet lies Gomorrah. 
An exclusive online market place where anything and everything is for sale: guns and porn, identities and elections, lives and deaths.

Azi Bello is nobody’s idea of a hero. 
From a shed in his mum’s back garden in East Croydon, he spins webs in the darknet to lure evil from the shadows. Until evil comes knocking at his door in the real world, taking everything he has, sending him on the run, risking his life, offering him redemption. But at a price he never expected to pay . . .

The gates of Gomorrah have been opened. All hell is about to break loose.

Praise for This is Gomorrah:

‘A techno-thriller with wit and style.’ Mick Herron

‘Punchy, powerful and one hell of a wild ride, this is thriller writing at its absolute best’ Chris Whitaker

‘Tom Chatfield has written the classic twenty-first century thriller. Move over James Bond: Azi Bello has hacked your smartphone and he owns you.’ Michael Ridpath

‘A seething knot of spies, hackers, terrorists, tech and humans: absolutely brilliant’ Carl Miller

‘Fast and funny, dangerous and blinding-bright . . . an adrenaline-rush of a book for our menacing times’ Paul Cody

What reviewers have said about This is Gomorrah:

‘Unputdownable . . . action-packed and engaging’

‘It did not disappoint. Moves at a break neck pace from start to finish . . . one of the best thrillers I have read so far this year’

‘This book feels so current, and frighteningly so in many ways. I liked the detail and tense and gritty prose. Looking forward to the next book!’

‘I am lost for words to describe just how spectacular this book is . . . a must read and I suspect it’s going to be a big hit’

‘This is one of the best books I have read so far this year, a clever rollercoaster of a ride and I cannot wait for the next book in this series’

I was a bit worried that I might not get the tech speak and follow the story in this thriller series opener but the hook was just so good ,how could you not wave your hands in the air and say ‘Yes please!’

My other half is a webmaster who has dabbled in the darkweb as part of his work for forensics , the small bits he has told me are genuinely terrifying, so it did not take much to pull me straight into the storyline of how the darknet shifts public perceptions, changes facts to be something completely different and makes everything that society deems unsellable, up for grabs.

The ease with which Azi, expert self taught hacker,sets himself up as a bot named ‘Jim’ is frankly terrifying, the way in which he moves at ease as the ghost of a ghost shifts reality as he exposes this, hacks that, shares news and manipulates his online prescence. However, reality and online versions of himself collide at the mention, by one of his hacker friends Sigma, of Gomorrah. She has discovered that 50 far right members of the Islam Republic , believed to be dead and reported to be dead are alive.They have been dispatched around the world for purposes unknown.

By telling Azi, she has made that knowledge his problem, and they realise that the people behind the people behind the ones who manufactured this event, have clocked both of them. They have broken the first law of hacking-leave no trail.

”’Azi,we are on the same side.The people we are attempting to stop are worse than the infants you’ve been baiting ,the ones playing at white supremacy from their bedrooms.These are the people your kindergarten Nazis dream about going to for lessons.We are trying to save Munira-and I’ll be able to tell you more about who ”we”are later.frankly,I’m making it quite a show of faith asking you to help us like this.I know you like to think of yourself as a good guy.This is your chance to make a difference.Here.”

With point and counterpoint, twist and twist again the chase is on to take the right information to the right people whilst staying alive and maintaining their USP-the knowledge inside their own brains, the only place that it is actually safe , inaccessible and undownloadable (for now).A world wide hunt ensues as Azi and Munira(Sigma) try and tackle the truth of Gomorrah, who is behind it and is it really as simple as dividing the world into thos with Black hats or those with White?

”Azi has spent the last decade on the pale side of this grey zone-but he has also become increasingly unhappy with the whole hackers and hats thing.He has come to think of himself as something else:a conoisseur of biases,blind spots, delusions ,illusions, confusions, bewilderments, aversions,and longings;the overlooked and the understudied;the groupthink and the solecism;the fact that very few people are still concentrating when they get to the end of the lists like this.”

It’s a fabulous, ground hitting, concept smashing debut novel with so much room to grow from. I found myself questioning everyone’s motives, throughly intoxicated by the conspiracies and those unravelling them as well as the details and intricacies of character development. Thoroughly recommended and highly enjoyable but also very disturbing.

About the author…

Dr Tom Chatfield is a British writer, broadcaster and tech philosopher. His books exploring digital culture are published in over two dozen languages.

A columnist for the BBC, international commentator and TED Global speaker, he has worked as a writer and consultant with some of the world’s leading technology firms.

Most recently, he researched his new book Critical Thinking as Visiting Associate at the Oxford Internet Institute

Links-http://tomchatfield.net/

Twitter @TomChatfield

@HodderBooks

@Louiseswannell