An Interesting Take on a Mystery

3.75 out of 5 stars

To be honest, diving into Holliday’s Machine City – I did not realize that I was starting with book two.  I regret not reading book one because I think he covers a lot of the topics and more of the “what makes these characters tick” along with some better detail and explanation of the technology and why and how it’s being used (and abused).

Starting with book two was a little bit of a hindrance to the start of the story and I ended up putting it down for a little bit (I honestly had the intention of picking up the first book, Punishment, but time got away from me). Thankfully Holliday was able to explain at least most of the important things that I missed in Punishment.

In Machine City, we have a detective who no longer wants to get on the machine who is basically asked/forced (depends on how you read into it) to get back on the machine at least one more time to help solve a missing child. Without ruining the rest of the book – I’ll skip ahead to my thoughts.

Machine City was a book that surprised me.  The technology in it was reminiscent of a lot of movies and books that I’ve read but not any specific one that I could say “yup, it’s just like that one”.  It seemed to take bits and pieces from a lot of Thrillers and Sci-Fi that I’ve enjoyed, shook them up, and poured out Machine City.

John Barnes was one of those “you don’t like him until you do” kind of characters, especially starting from scratch and not knowing who he was or what made him tick.  The first time I remember falling for him was when he came out of the machine screaming.  I thought, “oh my god, who the heck is this and I need to know more”.

Overall, Machine City was one of those futuristic thrillers that felt gritty and real.  Holliday was able to tell a story that could have been set in almost any time period with almost any tech but did it in a way that incorporated some new technology that added another layer of depth to the story.

Book Description:

Machine City by Scott J. Holliday
Narrator: J D Jackson
Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
Series: Detective Barnes #2
Published by Brilliance Audio on October 16th 2018
Genres: Mystery
Brian
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