You might choose to read a book on holiday, on a long journey or in a cafe, but the majority of us most likely settle down for a night of crime fiction in our own homes, right? It’s a safe haven, with the fridge and kettle close by, a comfy chair and maybe even a cosy blanket – but what if your place of abode was out to get you?
It’s an idea that obviously popped into the twisted brain of Kevin G Chapman, an author best known for his New York-set police procedurals featuring NYPD Detective Mike Stoneman and regularly reviewed here on Crime Fiction Lover, who has gone off-piste this time for a standalone book that will really have you thinking about those smart appliances you picked up in the sale.
Welcome to Utopia Tower, a luxury apartment block in the heart of the Big Apple where residents live rent-free as long as they stick to the tenets of The Utopia Handbook, as defined by The Founder – AKA tech billionaire Jameson Z Conrad, who bankrolls the whole thing. An act of philanthropy? Ah, that’d be telling, and I don’t want to spoil the fun.
What can be said is that ‘The Building’ as the residents call it, has been operating for 10 years now and a slew of residents have been living there from the get-go. Mary Adler, chair of the residents’ board, is proud to number herself among the group that proudly calls itself ‘The Originals’ and is a complete convert who won’t hear a bad thing said about the place.
With its own gym, laundry and the most modern of mod cons, including robot concierges, affectionately nicknamed Jeeves and Alfred, an apartment in Utopia Towers is highly sought-after and would-be residents are tightly vetted, and so it falls to Mary to run the rule over Antonio Pagan, a young lawyer who wants to move in to look after his ageing grandmother, Mildred, who is also an Original.
Antonio is a lawyer, and he’s a bit sceptical about the benefits of living there and seems loath to sign the required NDA that will rubber stamp his approval as a resident, but the pair eventually come to an agreement and over the weeks that follow they gradually become unlikely friends. Which is going to come in pretty useful when the perfect paradise begins to show cracks.
First, a problem teenager falls from the balcony of his mother’s apartment, in an apparent act of suicide over a girlfriend. When a second young man with a troubled history of domestic violence dies in gruesome fashion in an accident involving an elevator that had this reader groaning out loud, Antonio is convinced that the deaths were no tragic accidents. The police are called, but in a building filled with residents who are sworn to keep things to themselves, they struggle to see Antonio’s point of view. Things are about to get worse, though…
Kevin G Chapman has used all of his plotting chops to come up with an ingeniously scripted, cleverly original story that keeps the reader guessing throughout. His set pieces are particularly impressive, with the aforementioned elevator scene and Utopia Tower’s ill-fated Christmas party as standouts.
It’s a book written with a light touch, but one that covers some prescient themes very well. How far should big tech be allowed to take over our lives? Is there such a thing as a perfect society? And in a world of AI, who’s actually in charge? You’ll find yourself pondering these questions and many more in an entertaining novel that in the past would have seemed like science fiction, but now – well, who knows?
For another claustrophobic crime read where a building is almost an extra character, try Iris Yamashita’s City Under One Roof.
Self-published
Print/Kindle/iBook
£3.77
CFL Rating: 4 Stars
