A very unique story line that raises so many questions, Scott J Holliday could probably write several more books from them. Good old fashioned police work, investigating crimes and catching criminals now has an unusual twist. There exists a machine that allows the police to see the victim's memories, right up to the point of death. This should make catching the killers easier, but nooooo, there is always someone out there smart enough to get around the systems. So how do you catch them? You will just have to read the book and find out...and you really do want to read the book.

In Scott Holliday's newest novel, "Punishment", the world John Barnes lives in is very close to the world that we live in. Except of course, that there's a machine that let's people access their memories and transfer them to and from other people, into their heads. The only problem, is that a little bit of their consciousness is brought with it, and is left wherever the memory is transferred. It's used for detective work, to see the last memories of the murder victims, celebrities sell their memories, and it's also used as a torture device in the military for prisoners of war, and prisoner's can get a lighter sentence by reliving their victim's memories of what they've done. It's use in this story specifically, is to track down a serial killer named Calavera.

The thing that stood out the most for me is the violence, i haven't read a lot of violent books like this lately, and the machine, because there isn't anything like it in real life, and if there was I'm sure it would be put to use immediately, for better and for worse. Calavera himself also stood out, because his reasoning was so different from the other serial killers I've heard about. Although he's a crazy person, he did have a reason that he thought made it okay to kill people, and I really liked that the book had such rich backstory for him. I was so excited reading this book, it pulled me in immediately and I couldn't put it down. Fans of the tv show Hannibal will love this book, because it shows the detective's side of serial killers, as well as a much more personal level for Barnes himself.

The characters are full of life, and they're easy to imagine as real people. If you're looking for a refreshing new murder mystery novel, this is something you should look into, because I don't think you won't regret it. Reading this made me want to read the other novels by the author, although they don't seem quite as violent as this one, they do seem interesting. I also really liked the cover, it's bright colours and sugar skull theme really drew me into the book and it's like it decided for me that I would read it. My favourite scene in the book is probably the beginning one, where Barnes is drunk standing on the train tracks while a train is coming in hot. It really set the tone for the entire book, and although I've read other people's reviews that said they didn't like it, I really thought it was an exciting and dramatic way to begin a book. I didn't have any questions about this story that weren't answered in the text, and that's a rare thing for me. This book might be one of my new favourites, and again, you should definitely check it out if you think it's something you'd like. The book is released today.

Here's a link to the author's Twitter, and another link to the book on Amazon.

https://twitter.com/HollidayAuthor?lang=en

https://amzn.to/2OrhYK8

Thanks for reading!
(Radioactivebookreviews.wordpress.com)

Science-fiction enters into the repertoire of crime fighting - and of punishing those who commit crime.

Detective John Barnes is tired, he drinks too much, he's violent, he's had enough and want to retire. Enter one serial killer who taunts him at every move, and drove his predecessor insane.

But the police have the technology to unlock the last thoughts and emotions of the victims, and thus find the clues to solving these murders. Now the police can literally visualise each crime scene as the last moments of the crime are played out. As we know, police and scene of crimes officers see so much brutality already, the introduction of this machine makes for a disturbing view of a kind of future policing and gives new meaning to the words "information overload".

Can Barnes find the killer before he too goes mad from all the voices in his head. You need to ask yourself ..... are you willing to take the ride?

Not as good as the blurb promised. Glad that this book was not a purchase or I would have requested my money back. Do not recommend.

Punishment introduces a cool concept into the dark world of crime fiction; a machine which enables law enforcement to temporarily transpose the dying memories of murder victims into their own corpus of memories. The criminals in the fictional (future?) world have acclimatized to this new wave of policing and now wear masks to hide their identity, which means good old fashioned policing is still paramount to catching a killer.

In Punishment, a killer is terrorizing the populace and taunting the police by brutally murdering unsuspecting and seemingly random victims with a pick axe and leaving cryptic clues at the murder scene for the likes of Detective Barnes and his partner Franklin to decipher.

This is an inventive book which not only introduces some cool tech into the crime fictional realm but also provides the real world implications of such technology on the open market; b-grade celebs selling memories, prostitutes selling weird and wonderful experiences at a price, and addicts known as munkey's who can't get enough. And the perhaps the best part of the 'machine', the ghost memories which live on in those who experience the transference.

The criminal element itself is pretty straight forward serial killer and the protagonist conforms to the tried and true genre troupes, however, these are both a positive and complimentary to the complexities introduced by the technology.

My rating: 5/5 stars. This is a great start to a new series featuring a troubled Detective who himself looks like being on the brink of sanity - I mean, how long can someone function with a bunch of murdered peoples dying memories? One of the top new books of 2018.

El Dia de los Muertos

El Dia de los Muertos translated means Day of the Dead. It’s a Mexican holiday where family and friends honor those who have died.

Punishment is the first in the Detective Barnes series about a Detroit homicide cop out to catch a killer whose victims are chosen based on their absence as regular visitors to their loved ones gravesites. After a ten year limitation placed on them by the killer who obviously has the means to know who is visiting graves and who isn’t, the victims are horrifically murdered with a pickax. It’s brutal and gory. He wears a sugar skull, the symbol of El Dia de los Muertos. His calling card is a bad poem offering clues left at each murder site.

Barnes is a somewhat suicidal cop who has never forgiven himself for his brother’s death years ago. Tortured, self-punishing, and relying on hard liquor to get him through the day, he is hell bent on finding the killer and bringing him to justice. The twist is that Barnes himself may be on the victim list.

Enter The Machine, it’s a tool used by the police force to extract memories from the victims or anyone else for that matter into the person hooked up to it. It is used extensively by Barnes in spite of the grave side effects. See, once the thoughts, memories, and experiences from one person are downloaded into another, they don’t necessarily go away and Barnes has to keep reliving murders and hearing the thoughts of the dead, sometimes to the point of them coming out of his own mouth. The ultimate danger of The Machine is that someone else, even if dead, can ultimately dominate another living body. This adds another layer of complexity to solving the case and Barnes is running out of time to live a life he doesn’t feel he deserves to live.

Part sci-fi, part horror, part psychological thriller, Punishment takes a real event and crafts a deeply disturbing and imaginative thriller around it.

BRB Rating: Read It

Future machine extracts memory from living or dead people and can be downloaded into someone else. Used for fun ("you can be a Kardashian for a day"), detective tool, and as punishment for criminals. Murderers must relive their victims final moments as the victim. The murderer feels every fear, terror, and pain that they caused the victim. Now that's justice.

The story line of a detective trying to find a serial killer by tapping in and experiencing the victims last memories is so unique. This is a fast read only because you can't wait to see what's on the next page. You won't need a book marker for this bad boy.

I dont know if I want this made into a movie or a regular tv series. This would have made a good Bruce Willis movie.

Hey HBO, let's get this made into a series.

This is the second book with this theme that I've had in the last couple of months. AND, there's IZOMBIE, which also works on the same premise. Unfortunately, I think it's worn thin for me because while this has it's positives, it just wasn't for me and I DNF.