Review of Identity X by Michelle Muckley

[Barbara Ann RS]

Muckley has written an intellectually gripping thriller that demanded and kept my attention from the start.  What happens when you walk out of your front door and realize that you no longer officially exist in society? When you realize the little plastic government issued ID card that you must use everywhere to do almost anything has suddenly become deactivated? This is the mystery Ben Stone, a prominent medical scientist working in the U.K., must solve after he awakens one morning following the celebration of the success of his team’s NEMREC project.

 

Ben has dedicated his adult life to finding a cure for genetic diseases, such as the debilitating Huntington’s disease, which gradually destroyed his father’s life. The emotional scars he’s carried from childhood as he watched his father’s quality of life slowly disintegrate have been the driving force behind the past twenty years of his scientific work. Unfortunately, over the course of his life, his passionate need to save others has gradually eroded his personal life, and when we meet Ben, his marriage is barely hanging on by a thread and his family life is less than fulfilling.

 

When the book begins, Ben’s medical dream has finally come to fruition when the NEMREC project proves to be successful in changing an individual’s genetic code by repairing faulty DNA to cure diseases. Ben is pleased that his revolutionary scientific breakthrough can now save lives, but what he doesn’t realize is that the reverberations of NEMREC’s success will reach beyond the medical community to a covert government organization with nefarious plans for NEMREC’s use.

 

The story starts off a bit slowly so Muckley can immerse readers into a world where almost every aspect of your life can be tracked by the government via your identity card, and the government has the power to deactivate your card for even the tiniest of infractions that can leave you vulnerable and take away some of the basic rights and freedoms many of us take for granted. The author spends a great amount of time with character development. Ben may be the protagonist of the story but he’s not the one dimensional good guy wearing a white hat. In reality, he’s a flawed hero who must now deal with the consequences of his past actions and mistakes.

 

The action picks up when Ben finds himself on the run from powerful enemies who have erased his identity as a precursor to ending his actual life.  Deception and betrayal cut deeply into the grooves of this cat and mouse chase that ensues with Ben trying to stay alive without knowing who he can now trust. As Ben begins to realize that many of his memories of significant life events have been manipulated by others, his whole perception of reality comes crashing down around him. Now he’s left with the realization that he has been a pawn in a game of warfare and, ironically, his life’s work will be used for death and destruction rather than improving the quality and longevity of life unless he can stay alive long enough to intervene.

 

By using a third person omniscient point of view to tell the story, Muckley helps readers to get the thoughts, perspectives, and motivations of many other main characters who are involved in the plot. While this certainly adds depth to the storyline, at times the shift from one character’s thoughts to another occurred within scenes and the abrupt transition caught me off guard and interrupted the flow of the story as I found myself re-reading passages to see when the shift occurred.  

 

The ending is quite dramatic and suspenseful but was a bit vague for my preference since it was left open to speculation about what eventually happens to Ben and his family. The last chapter is really an epilogue with an OMG scene that would make a great foundation for a sequel. If Muckley decides to build upon this shocking conclusion, I’ll be ready and waiting to read the follow up to this engaging thriller!

 

I received a copy of this book from the author for an honest and fair review. 

Link to Review

http://sunmountainreviews.wordpress.com/2013/12/22/review-of-identi...