A Cursed Place, Peter Hanington
A Cursed Place, Peter Hanington
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

A Cursed Place
A page-turning thriller of the dark world of cyber surveillance

Author: Peter Hanington

Narrator: Jonathan Keeble

Unabridged: 11 hr 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Baskerville

Published: 07/08/2021

Synopsis

Reporter William Carver comes up against Big Tech's manipulation and suppression of truth from the mines of Chile to the turbulent streets of Hong Kong.

Knowledge is power. And they know everything.

The tech company Public Square believes in 'doing well by doing good'. It's built a multi-billion dollar business on this philosophy and by getting to know what people want. They know a lot. But who else can access all that information and what are they planning to do with it?

Reporter William Carver is an analogue man in a digital world. He isn't the most tech-savvy reporter, he's definitely old school, but he needs to learn fast - the people he cares most about are in harm's way.

From the Chilean mines where they dig for raw materials that enable the tech revolution, to the streets of Hong Kong where anti-government protesters are fighting against the Chinese State, to the shiny research laboratories of Silicon Valley where personal data is being mined everyday - A Cursed Place is a gripping thriller set against the global forces that shape our times.

(P) 2021 Hodder & Stoughton

About Peter Hanington

Peter Hanington is the author of A Dying Breed, A Single Source and A Cursed Place, which star old-school radio journalist William Carver. Peter worked as a journalist and radio producer for over twenty-five years, including fourteen years at Radio 4 on the Today Programme as well as The World Tonight and Newshour on the BBC World Service. His field work has taken him around the world, from Russia to Hong Kong, Lebanon, Liberia and South Africa. He currently lives between London and New York and still travels frequently as research for his novels.

Reviews

Goodreads review by TKWILLS on August 23, 2023

About 2/3 of the way through the book I realized my rookie mistake—this is book 3 of the series. I had to decide whether to stop reading so I could start from book one, or carry on without two books worth of backstory. In the end I saw it through. The writing is excellent, the character development......more

Goodreads review by David on July 07, 2021

This is the third outing for Carver and Patrick in the Peter Hanington series. You can read then as standalone novels. This one begins in Brochu, a mining village in the Chilean Andes, and the first characters we meet are Jags and Pablo. It does not take long to establish that they are murderers. Th......more

Goodreads review by Eyejaybee on July 20, 2021

Like his protagonist (really a more accurate term in this case than ‘hero’), William Carver, Peter Hanington is himself a veteran reporter for the BBC Radio 4 flagship news programme Today. He is, as a consequence, able to give a clear insight in to the vnaities and internal hierarchies that beset a......more

Goodreads review by Z on August 06, 2021

The depth of the bond between the unlikely journalistic duo is tested like never before in the 3rd outing for old hack Carver. No one is safe as the old team are brought together with new allies to unpick shady goings on across the world, pointing to the power of the digital footprints we all make a......more

Goodreads review by Alex on July 17, 2021

A Cursed Place is the 3rd book in the excellent William Carver series by Peter Hanington. Carver is an ex BBC Journalist now university lecturer, who usually find himself in sticky situations when investigating where others might not. The story this time around finds Carver being pulled back into the......more

Quotes

*Praise for A Cursed Place*

A panoramic thriller that shuttles with aplomb between four continents... chockful of vivid characters Sunday Times

Whether in rioting Hong Kong, or a doomed Chilean mining town, or a sinister data-mining outfit in Silicon Valley, or the shabbiness of London's Elephant & Castle, Peter Hanington sustains a narrative drive that catapults you from first word to last. Just make sure you don't miss the scenery on the way - seeing from the inside how the BBC works and how news is made leaves you feeling that W1A may not be entirely caricature. A good, pacy, sinister and timely read. author of A Fine Madness

Peter Hanington draws you into the dark world of private cyber-surveillance, and the menace of the world he conjures - the world we all now live in - crackles off the page. His characters are beautifully drawn and so convincing that I found myself shouting "Get out of there now!" The writing is taut - not a wasted word - and the story is fast-paced, moving and twisting and quickening to a conclusion that is full of jeopardy and suspense. And when it ends, it doesn't end: it leaves you wanting the next chapter.

A Cursed Place is an exhilarating and beautiful novel that answers the most pressing question of our time: how to reconcile new technology with timeless human needs. It is written with such verve and precision, and its plot emerges with such terrifying force, that I enjoyed it even when the message it conveyed terrified me. Its characters will, I think, become literary legends. I have gotten to know William Carver quite well. He feels achingly familiar from my newspaper days. I don't always like him. But I do always admire him: especially that itchy yearning to hold mighty powers to account, and to discover the truth behind their dissembling. Peter Hanington's remarkable achievement is to have told a story which is as important as it is unputdownable. Anyone vaguely interested in the survival of our species ought to read this book - and will be thrilled they did so.

Hanington's third thriller featuring veteran BBC reporter, William Carver, is a true page-turner, combining the author's insights and expertise as a distinguished foreign correspondent with a pace that keeps the reader guessing and embroiled in a plot that sweeps us from Peckham, via Hong Kong and Chile, to the Big Tech citadels of Silicon Valley...highly recommended. Tortoise

Another page-turner from a writer who can take you into gripping worlds, real and virtual.

An intriguing, timely and unsettling new thriller.

A Cursed Place is a fast-paced and vividly written thriller. It takes the reader on a journey from the dark heart of Silicon Valley via a Chilean mining town and Hong Kong street protests and into the bowels of New Broadcasting House, in a dystopian tale of ruthless tech entrepreneurs exploiting their surveillance powers and morally compromised journalists feeling their way in the dark towards the truth.

Astute, pacy and possibly too true for its own good.

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List