To Kill The Truth was an excellent political thriller that was almost perfectly paced and very timely. I could hardly put it down! The plot never got stale and even though there were a couple of eye-rolling coincidences at the end, I loved it.
This was the fourth book in the Maggie Costello series. Maggie is a feisty red-headed Irish woman who, before this book commences, worked for the US government as an advisor. Apparently, in the previous book she made the decision to step away from government and focus on other, more sedate things. When a prominent historian is killed, though, Maggie’s old friend from government, Donna, contacts her and asks her to investigate. We soon discover, when a library (part of the Alexandria group) burns down, an individual (or group) is trying to destroy historical documents and thereby wipe the collective memory. Obviously they don’t stop there. They destroy digital records as well as murdering the likes of Holocaust survivors.
A sub-plot, and an excellent one at that, was the trial of Mr Keane who was being sued as he denied slavery. This tied in expertly with the main plot and demonstrated how far and deep these opinions reached.
Although Trump was never named, it was obvious the book was a swipe at his administration. Just have a look at this quote for example:
It’s fatal flaw, you see, Maggie, was that it relied on shame. Truth relied on shame. People were embarrassed to be caught in a lie. They were ashamed of it. Before him, no-one wanted to do it. But then this once-in-a-generation, hell, once-in-a-millennium man comes along and he couldn’t give a rat’s asshole. He doesn’t even blush. He feels no shame. He doesn’t care. And because he doesn’t care, you don’t need to care either. And, just like that, it’s over. Truth is dead.
The thing is, though, once-in-a-millennium? I sincerely hope so, but it’s set a trend. Nothing illustrates that more than Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and cohort. Truth is dead? It’s an extremely dangerous trend. No-one knows when it will end and that is scary. However, don’t let that put you off reading this, because there’s no better time to. We can’t ignore what’s going in and be apathetic. There are still liberal commentators out there, such as James O’Brien who’s book I would implore everyone to read. I reviewed it not so long ago and it illustrates the hypocrisy of Brexit philosophy.
Obviously this was plot-driven and I’m much more a character-driven narrative fan, but that didn't curb my enjoyment at all. Every character was believable, although Maggie was by far the best She was feisty and strong and wouldn’t take no for an answer. I’m going to go back and read the first 3 books in the series and I'm really looking forward to learning more about her and her past.
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 - Sam Bourne)
