B|t|B: Book Review – Auxiliary: London 2039 – Jon Ritcher

Title: Auxiliary: London 2039
Author: Jon Ritcher
Published: May 2020 TCK Publishing

Hello my fellow Bookworms and page turners,

I was directly contacted by TCK Publishing about this one as they thought it would be in my wheelhouse. After reading the Blurb and seeing that Auxiliary: London 2039 is a dystopian murder mystery set in a dark, future London with some serious Cyberpunk undertones I couldn’t help but agree with them, so I gave this one a look!

The story is centered around our main protagonists Detective Carl Dremmler who is assigned the murder case of Letitia Karlikowska. Their is already the suspect who they have bang to rights, so it should be a open and shut case. But, there is only one problem, the suspect is claiming that his robotic arm was hijacked.

Our protagonist, then explains to the reader that such a thing would be impossible, and gives us all sorts of reasons why it just couldn’t possibly happen. Dremmler’s convictions to this end are strong at first. However, over the course of the book as he gathers more and more evidence, he begins to question that despite all of its benefits, could technology be evil?

Over the course of the story, the plot thickens as Dremmler is forced to deal not only with the murder of Letitia Karlikowska, but also with the whereabouts of pretty young AWOL robot Cynthia Lu and a 3D-printed killer louse, in what at first seems like a wild goose chase opens up to be much, much more. On top of all of this our hard-boiled detective is also fighting his inner demons as he is haunted by the ghosts of his past, which enriches the growth of the character and allows the reader to connect with him and the world even more.

Ritcher paints a very good picture of this dystopian nightmare hellscape that is London in 2039, which is disturbingly believable given not only how things are today, but descriptions of areas of London that exist today giving it a direct comparison allowing the reader to put themselves in the scene.

I am not really going to get into the ins and outs of the characters, as that isn’t really the focal point of the story it’s very narrative-driven rather than character-driven and that is to its benefit considering the subject matter to hand, after all the world is a stage and we are merely players, well in Auxillary: London 2039 pawns to the overshadowing story arc of the progress of artificial intelligence and its overall effect on society, but you get the idea.

The only downside I can see to the story is that alot is going to happen in 19 years but given the year we all just had, im not so sure its that unbelievable now!

All in all this was a very interesting read, not only for the murder mystery element to the story but for the worldbuilding and nature of a possible future London. But dont just take my word for it, you can pick up a copy of the book here, and see for yourself

Until next time, read more books!