Five strangers guard our secrets: The Minders by John Marrs #bookreview #TheMinders #20booksofsummer20

In the 21st century information is king. But computers can be hacked, files can be broken into. So a unique government initiative has been borne. Five ordinary people have been selected to become the latest weapon in thwarting cyber terrorism. A revolutionary medical procedure has turned them into the ultimate secret keepers – the country’s most secretive information has been taken offline and turned into genetic code implanted inside their heads.
Together, the five know every secret – the truth behind every Government lie, conspiracy theory and cover up. Only somebody has discovered who the secret keepers are. And one by one, they are being hunted down…

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Hi and welcome to my review of The Minders!

As soon as I heard about this book I pre-ordered it, I hardly ever pre-order but one has to make an exception for John Marrs! And what a blooming brilliant year it’s been for us Marrs fans, not one but two books out this year, I could get used to this!

The Minders is the third book set in the near future Marrsverse that also provided the setting for The One and The Passengers. Now, if you haven’t read those, or you don’t want to read them, no problem, it’s not even an official series, you’d have no issues whatsoever if you were to pick up The Minders. BUT (and it’s a massive but), they are GENIUS and you should absolutely read them ALL!

For those of you who have missed it, The One is about technology allowing people to find their one true love through DNA. Of course lots and lots could go wrong with that and some of those downsides return in The Minders. The Passengers (ICYMI) is about self-driving cars and how they might be hacked and The Minders refers to that.

What happened in The Passengers showed the world in general, and the UK Powers That Be specifically, that cyber realism is a very real threat. Storing sensitive data on servers that are constantly on the move proves inefficient. Consequently, medical experts, the government and MI5 have come up with a way to guard the country’s secrets: they will no longer be stored on computers and servers that can be hacked, they will be implanted in the heads of five people who have proven themselves capable by solving a puzzle only very few people can solve.

Note to the wise: if you see this online challenge thingy inviting you to start your life again by trying to solve a puzzle less than 1% of the population can solve, DON’T CLICK ON THE LINK. Before you know it there’s a bead in your head and you’ll know what a certain sheik did in a certain hotel room and all the other loathsome stuff that was swept under the rug for diplomatic reasons.

So. Implanting all the country’s deep dark secrets in the heads of people, what could possibly go wrong. Well, for starters, people aren’t computers. And so the Minders think, they feel, they might let something slip, they might want to ease someone’s pain by setting the record straight, they might snap… And there’s also an external threat: their locations are secret, with only one man having a clue where the Minders are, but someone is hunting them, picking them off one by one, stopping at nothing.

John Marrs has done it again: The Minders is a compelling, thrilling, twisty and twisted read that I had the utmost trouble putting down. Like The One and The Passengers, it’s very Black Mirror-esque but better (yes I went there, I regret nothing) and if you enjoy this kind of science fiction where the world is still the world as you know it but with some kind of enhanced technology that is speculative yet terrifyingly plausible, The Minders is definitely the one for you. Highly recommended!

Note that The Minders is only 99p on Amazon UK at the moment! Get it now!