Customer Reviews

The Dying Light

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Henry Porter is one of those suspense writers whom I can't help wishing wrote a lot more, and wrote a lot faster. But the I suppose if he did, he wouldn't be able to craft such well-written novels that are, to me, a model of the genre.

Porter's latest offering opens at the inquest into the death of David Eyam, a former 'spook' and onetime high-ranking British civil service officer who has, it seems, been blown to smithereens while on holiday in Colombia. Or has he? That's just one of the mysteries that his friend and former lover, Kate Lockhart, must unravel after she discovers that Eyam has left the bulk of his estate to her. But that legacy could prove dangerous, as quickly becomes apparent when someone close to Kate and Eyam is murdered. She must unravel the clues he has left behind and uncover the truth behind British government attempts to remove the last iota of privacy from its citizens in the name of security -- a system built on dangerously flawed computer programs administered by politicians and their cronies who are able to manipulate that system in pursuit of power and profits.

While conspiracy theories may lie at the heart of the plot, they never take a back seat to character, and they are handled so deftly by Porter that I never felt as if I was being preached at by the author. The characters themselves are human, with flaws aplenty, but also with courage and imagination; the villains of the piece emerge as rather shabby individuals rather than evil demons -- a satisfyingly nuanced approach. Nor does Porter neglect the ugly reality that all of those who advocate freedom from invasions of privacy must be prepared to address -- the fact that the bulk of citizens don't really care, assuming that it won't affect their lives. As Kate points out angrily to one of those she is working with to combat the government's plan, codenamed "Spindrift", "Nobody cares ... as long as they feel safe, can feed themselves and watch TV. ... The whole point of governments is that they take decisions about issues the public doesn't want to think about." Porter's counter-argument, conveyed very adroitly through the beliefs and actions of the "Bell Ringers", helps demonstrate why we should all care.

Porter envisaged this book as a bookend of sorts to his earlier novel, Brandenburg Gate, which revolved around the sudden collapse of the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe and of the Berlin Wall itself. and the passage of that society into "light and freedom" in 1989. This book outlines the reverse process, one that Porter describes in his author's notes as being already underway in Britain, where CCTV cameras sprout on nearly every street corner and national ID cards aren't far away. It's a cry from the heart, but thankfully, the book that has resulted isn't a ponderous polemical treatise but a fascinating and suspenseful novel, with characters and ideas rather than dead bodies and brandished weapons driving the plot.

Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys this kind of politically-oriented suspense. I've rated it 4.5 stars (the conclusion was a tad too pat and Hollywoodesque), but rounded it up to 5 stars. Another of Porter's novels that literally starts out with a bang in the shape of an exploding bomb is Remembrance Day, and I'd urge you to seek that one out as I still think it's this author's best work.

This wonderful novel is very insightful. It could be dedicated to all those who believe that both US / UK government surveillance security systems "make us safer."

(copy from amazon.co.uk review columns)

I bought this novel with high hopes. While they weren't quite reached, neither were they dashed. The Dying Light is a competent novel of intrigue and suspense, which centres around the ever-increasing BIG BROTHER type technology being deployed on citizens worldwide (a subject I have considerable interest in). On the whole I would have to recommend this novel as an enjoyable way for folks to be educated about the evils of BIG BROTHER - and how it is, sadly, already a major part of our lives.

Published in 2009 it is set in the future, but is kind of in the now as well. In other words, it is an imagined future extrapolated from the present. As Porter writes in the Afterword - "The laws that play a part in The Dying Light all exist".

The book is a political thriller. David Eyam, a former spy and highly placed government worker, is killed in a bomb explosion in Columbia. His one time lover and close friend Kate, also with a background in the spy business, can't help but notice unusual activities when she attends the funeral. She inherits his house and flat and money as well as mysterious documents. Her innate mystery-solving skills are alerted and she is drawn into working out what is going on.

I loved reading this book. The writing is smooth and easily moves between the present and the past to fill in the blanks. The characters come across as real, and the situations are believable. Very good.