AUTHOR: Ben H. Winters
This book would have resonated with me at any time, but it is especially relevant now. Golden State is what California has become in this alternate reality of our world. After some sort of catastrophe, the Golden State was created as a refuge from lies. The worst thing anyone can do is commit the crime of lying, and to keep the populace truthful, there are cameras everywhere, recording all actions and transactions from varied angles. Citizens, including the enforcers and those in the governing bodies, maintain Day Books, which are journals they write all their daily transactions, then store safely for future reference. And everything goes into the permanent Record.
Laszlo Ratesic has nearly two decades working in the Speculative Service, special truth enforcers who are capable of sensing lies. When a roofer falls to his death, it becomes Laszlo's job, along with his rookie partner on her first day, to seek out any anomalies. The death seems cut and dried, but a little investigating reveals a small anomaly that leads to another, and suddenly, the cut-and-dried case is leading the two Speculators down a dangerous path.
Winters is a clever writer who not only creates fascinating realities, but also almost painfully real characters and enough tension and plot twists that kept me reading. At its heart, the book (to me, anyway) asks "What is truth?" and "Do we want to live in a world where every moment in one's life is recorded and fiction is unknown?" And still, people lie and twist the truth. Can any irrefutable truth even exist and how much are we willing to give up for it to exist? In our reality, technology is already advanced enough for these questions to be considered, before it's too late.
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