With the traditional academic term over and the summer holidays upon most of us, now feels like a fitting time to share some further recommendations from the UWE Bristol Policing Team. From a good old-fashioned ‘whodunnit’ to a psychological classic, or a perhaps a non-fiction based on science and nature – there is something for everyone.
Join Eve, Ian, and Stephen in their recommendations below and enjoy!
Eve Smietanko recommends ‘The Fury’, by Alex Michaelides.
If you’re like me and struggle to read crime fiction for the frustrating inaccuracies but miss the thrill of a whodunnit, then this is the book for you. Set on a small Greek island, several friends meet, and one, unsurprisingly is murdered. A kind of modern Agatha Chrisie with a twist begins to unfold. Learning more about each of the characters and the relationships between them, you see that they are far messier and more complicated than appears on the surface. The story is told through the perspective of one of the characters, but as he explains at the beginning – can you trust the storyteller? Through the classic twists and turns of crime fiction you guess and second guess who the culprit is. Most satisfyingly for me, due to the remote and somewhat idyllic setting, there are no police in sight! This is a murder that has to be solved by the people involved who are stuck on an island knowing one of them guilty.
For anyone who has been out of the habit of reading for a while or finds it difficult to get stuck in, this is a great book to start with. It is easy to read and has cliffhangers and short chapters that leaving you thinking ‘oh I’ll just read one more’. This is also a great one for those of us who partake in ‘reading masochism’ – not the devouring of smutty novels I hasten to add, but the insistence of reading difficult, high-brow tomes for an ego boost rather than enjoyment! There’s a lesson for everyone in the novel whether it be a reminder that reading really can be for pleasure or whether it’s to reconsider notions of perspective, trust and truth.
Ian Lowe recommends ‘Nexus’, by Yuval Noah Harai.
Earlier this year I finished reading Nexus by YNH. This is the third book I have read by the author, and to suggest each one has changed my perspective on the way I look at the world would be an understatement. I would strongly recommend all four of his books, especially Sapiens.
Nexus is a look at information systems and how humans have shared and created information throughout history. Starting with the spoken word, stories. Then the first giant breakthrough, written words / text and the creation of documents, which at the start meant clay tablets, then papyrus paper. Through books, which to start with meant religious texts (although there is a lot more to it than this). And the second world changing breakthrough. The printing press, which took production of texts like the bible from single figures per year to tens of thousands. Think how many people you can influence now you have the means to create that number if identical texts?
Once humans reached this level of information producing technology the emphasis changes to information and data control. ‘He who has control of the information controls the world’. If you don’t believe me, well read the book. But also look at mainstream media, social media, the rise in fake news. Pretty much all media in the USA is owned by two companies for example. The use of information and its manipulation to control, persuade or change people’s opinions.
The book ends with a look at Artificial Intelligence (AI), the good, the bad, and the downright scary. How AI is the next revolution in information and data sharing and control. What AI can currently do, and trust me it is more than you realize, and where it is possibly going.
I leave you with a quote from Jerry Seinfeld that I think YNH would appreciate:
‘We’re smart enough to invent AI, dumb enough to need it and so stupid we can’t figure out if we did the right thing’.
Stephen Brown recommends ‘Crime and Punishment’, by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
As an avid reader, who devours both fiction and non-fiction I would recommend, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment” to those in the criminological field. This is a profound psychological novel set in 1860s St. Petersburg. The story centres around, Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov, who is an impoverished former legal student who suffers from a mental health crisis, or maybe it was always there. He has a theory that humanitarian ends justify evil and indeed tests this hypothesis by committing a heinous crime.
The book does paint a picture of mental health, abject poverty, misfortune and provides a conundrum of trust and scepticism. Perhaps, the biggest take away is the profound dive into someone’s mind that clearly focusses on ‘malice aforethought’ and the ‘guilty mind’ (Mens Rea). This is manifested by his unpredictable behaviour which is clearly determined by his conscience and subsequent paranoia that are interspersed with moments of clarity, although these a few and far between.
In summation the book compounds how Raskolnikov struggles with his conscience and the psychological torment of his actions. Consequently, during a moment of clarity, he confesses his guilt and accepts his punishment. The novel delves deeply into themes of morality, guilt, and redemption and this is why I would recommend it. Reader beware as it is not an easy read.
Editorial Team
Paul Williamson (Editor-in-Chief); Claudia McCready (Lecturer); Claire Bowers (Senior Lecturer); Eve Smietanko (Senior Lecturer) & Ian Lowe (Senior Lecturer).
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