by the pricking of her thumb

Hitting a Kubrick wall

Famously, adam Roberts never writes sequels. So why is he revisiting investigator Alma in a near-future England where people increasingly choose to live in a virtual world, the Shine?

Roberts’s own perspective is that, never having written a sequel before, this represented a new challenge. If so, it’s a challenge he should take on more often, because By The Pricking Of Her Thumb is a better book even than its impressive predecessor, The Real-Town Murders.

The first volume riffed off the films of Alfred Hitchcock, whereas this time around Roberts takes the work of Stanley Kubrick as his inspiration. More specifically, as Alma investigates whether one of the world’s four richest people is dead – and if so, which one? – she finds herself dogged by a “fan” who’s also obsessed with Kubrick’s films. Cue, for example, Alma finding herself “living” through a scene from 2001 in virtual reality. Throw in all manner of punning and sly gags – Alma is menaced by the Kry twins at one point – and it’s clear Roberts is having huge fun in a manner that recalls the early work of James Lovegrove in its fascination with puzzles and intellectual games.

This could easily spill over into being clever-clever, a criticism we levelled at Real-Town Murders, but here that never happens. That’s in part because Alma’s relationship with the bedridden Marguerite, someone who will die if she doesn’t receive medication from Alma every four hours and four minutes, anchors the novel. It may also be because it’s technically a better book than its predecessor, more tightly plotted and filled with ideas as Roberts, for instance, explores the nature of money and wealth in a post-scarcity world.

A witty, bittersweet and near-perfectly executed novel that’s possibly Roberts’s best book to date. Jonathan Wright

Also new from Adam Roberts: Haven, a book set in the same post-apocalyptic world as Dave Hutchinson’s Shelter.