The Intrusions by Stav Sherez.

Follow Detectives Carrigan and Miller in this British crime thriller. Although this is the third book in the series, it can be read as a standalone. I have not read any book written by Stav Sherez before but this was recommended by a friend on Goodreads.

I found this novel to get off to a poor start and I did not engage with Detectives Carrigan and Miller. The story appeared to be quite dull although it involved a missing young woman in alarming circumstances. But I urge readers to bear with it as this story vastly improves once a profiler becomes involved. Then I engaged fully with this novel and found the profiler's input to the case very interesting indeed. My interest increased further when the title of this novel came into play. The Intrusions are those enabled by modern technology and social media using Remote Administration Tools. For good measure, throw in a cocktail of drugs including DMT - (N,N-Dimethyltryptamine) and you have a very entertaining and thought provoking novel.

I think The Intrusions is a good contemporary tale. Some people use social media so heavily, they forget about the dark forces behind the scenes which could come into play. I particularly liked the exploration of Remote Administration Tools as their use can be quite creepy. People can forget that although they see a lot of cameras, there is often one camera that they fail to spot. We now live in a world where these intrusions happen 24 hours a day. Many coach drivers on the National Express network here in the UK have been sacked due to those 12 second video clips downloaded using Remote Administration Tools on the Dashboard cameras, one facing forward the other spying on the driver.

I enjoyed reading The Intrusions. Characterisation was not marvellous and I did not develop an empathy for any of the characters. It does not qualify as a character led novel as their roles were weak. But where it scores heavily is in the social commentary on social media and Remote Administration Tools. Years ago the worry was of Big Brother watching your every move, now in 2017 the worry of The Intrusions is of those dodgy individuals covertly watching you from afar. I think this novel is a good read, there are novels with better characterisations and plots but The Intrusions is very thought provoking about the way our society has progressed, so it is 4 stars from me.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Faber & Faber for giving me a copy of this book on the understanding that I provide an honest review.