The Bell Ringers » (Bargain)

JOHN LEE is a well-known herbalist, who practices in North Carolina and lectures widely.

In Henry Porter's critically acclaimed novel The Bell Ringers, England in the near future is eerily familiar. There are concerns about terrorism, the press is feisty, and the prime minister is soon to call a general election. But quietly--largely unknown to the public or even most in government--things have become undeniably Orwellian. Cameras with license-plate recognition software record the movements of every car. A sophisticated top-secret data-mining system known as Deep Truth combs through personal records, identifying violators of minor laws as well as those disposed to "antigovernment" beliefs. In the interest of security, the divide between private and public has crumbled. Freedom has given way to control.

David Eyam was once the prime minister's head of intelligence. He was one of those who knew about Deep Truth, but he suffered a fall from grace. Then, while on vacation in Columbia, he was killed by a terrorist bomb. Now his former lover, Kate Lockhard, has been named as the benefactor of his estate. But Eyam has left her more than just wealth; Kate is also heir to his dangerous secrets.

Chilling, absorbing, and unsettlingly realistic, The Bell Ringers is a fearless work from a talented novelist at the top of his game.

The Washington Post - Patrick Anderson

…one of many novels that have attempted to update Nineteen Eighty-Four—and one of the more impressive…This is a sophisticated, engrossing and important political thriller. Porter wants us to see that the same technological tools that can be used to fight terrorism or to make government more efficient can also, in the wrong hands, be used to destroy freedom. Perhaps Porter's most important updating of Orwell is to show how corporate money might work with political corruption to create a dictatorship behind a democratic facade. The American corporation in this novel supports charities and think tanks, but it also makes the supercomputers that endanger civil liberties, pays huge bribes to the prime minister and his top aides, and provides hit men to dispose of critics.