Read Only Wednesday - The Colchester IDS by Charlotte Deallie #scifi

Read Only Wednesday is when I talk about a book I've just read, am about to read or have added to my TBR pile. This week it's The Colchester IDS by Charlotte Deallie.

I was directed to this book by a friend because I actually live in Colchester, and I've been talking a lot about writing an urban fantasy set in my home town. Normally I don't pick up contemporary Earth scifi - I tend to find it dull. I want spaceships and/or aliens, or lots of cool tech. But this is free, and one of the reviews on the UK Amazon site said it was science fiction with a romance. Scifi romance set in my home town? I'm curious, especially as the author doesn't live here. So we shall see. I plan another reading binge over the Christmas holidays when I'll be closing my social media for about three weeks, so hopefully I'll get to it then.

Blurb:
‘The Colchester IDs’
by Charlotte De'allie. A darkly comic tale of murderous ID theft in a small British town. Young journalist Emily Wakefield is drawn into a nightmare conspiracy involving avatars, 3D technology and a mysterious cell phone company with a terrifying ambition. Read chapter one here for free.

Emily Wakefield led what most people would consider a normal life; an every day kind of life. She drove her little car to work from Monday to Friday on a local newspaper. She lived by herself. She owned a cat. She didn’t get enough exercise. The one element missing from her existence was companionship; a partner to make life complete.

Paul Ramdin worked at the local gym. His was a life full of routine administration and personal training. He shared a flat with his sister. They rowed over who should cook dinner and who did the washing up but generally they got on.

Phone Utria - a brand new mobile communications business, hungry for international success with ambitions of rapid ascent up the corporate ladder. Utria sprang up from nowhere; a high tech futuristic company, anything but ordinary; anything but routine. Customers came flocking to sign up for bargain phone contracts, free gifts and to see RITA, the first Relative Interactive Team Avatar in existence. A perfect customer services hologram and mascot to Phone Utria, she had to be seen to be believed.

Together, Emily and Paul are helplessly and unknowingly drawn into a terrifying series of events, leading to a climax which strikes at the heart of the human race’s addiction to the computer age and artificial intelligence; an addiction which could threaten mankind’s very existence.

Print - 400 pages.
Amazon US $0.00 at time of posting.