To The Last Page

I will make exceptions, but it would take something special for me to want to read any more books with titles that are variations on The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle or The Many Lives of Heloise Starchild , but we are talking about Max Barry here. Barry, in my experience ( Jennifer Government , Lexicon , Providence ), has always been creative within the conventions of the science fiction genre, so when he comes in with a book entitled The 22 Murders of Madison May , I don’t even need to read the blurb or synopsis to know he’s going to come up with an entertaining and distinctive variation on a theme that is often difficult to work with. Those who haven’t read Barry however it might take a little more convincing, so to summarise the concept (which is admittedly is a little easier than trying to describe The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle ) it’s about a 22 year old woman, Madison May, an estate agent, an actress or whatever she happens to be in 22 different realities in which sh...