The Sanctuary: the gripping must-read thriller by the Sunday Times bestselling author

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As is my wont, this is another hairdresser read. I need something to lose myself in, once the small talk has finished. I enjoyed, “The Last Day,” by Andrew Hunter Murray and was pleased to read his latest. However, although I found this a thought provoking read, it was definitely a slow starter and I found it hard to engage with the central character, Ben. Andrew also writes jokes and journalism for Private Eye magazine, and hosts t Andrew Hunter Murray is a writer from London. His first novel, The Last Day, is a high-concept thriller set in a world whose rotation has slowed to a halt. The Last Day will be published in the UK and USA in February 2020 by Penguin Random House. Longman, Will (19 October 2017). "Andrew Hunter Murray interview - How to improvise a comedy based on Jane Austen's work". LondonTheatre.co.uk . Retrieved 14 April 2020.

Unfortunately the plot doesn't really live up to the excellence of the setting. Pemberley is a cross between cult leader and the kind of billionaire that we are increasingly seeing in real life who use their ridiculous wealth to carry out extraordinary experiments, with no real democratic or governmental control over them. In Pemberley’s case, he has decided that if humanity is about to bring about its own extinction, he will use the Sanctuary as a kind of Noah's Ark, but one where he is the supreme and sole ruler and where the normal rules of morality and ethics don't necessarily apply. Both mad science and cultish leaders have been done many times in dystopian fiction, and I'm afraid Murray doesn't really bring anything original to it. This was an addictive read and I loved the dystopian twist, this is a new genre for me and I fully lost myself in this book. Set in a near future UKesque landscape, the last elephant has died (thanx, mankind), and the world is heading more towards the toilet than we believe it to be these days. Society is becoming layered - the wealthy live in secure villages (created by a billionaire developer) where everything is put on, then further out are their upper level helpers (teachers, doctors, professionals), then further still are the blue collar and unskilled workers, all dependent upont the village though. The Sanctuary is a dark tale, warning of man’s desire to play god and exploring the impact our actions can have on those around us.Finally, whilst the characters of Pemberley and the island’s inhabitants are interesting and the mystery hanging over Cara’s whereabouts keeps the suspense heightened, Ben as a central protagonist is far less compelling. It becomes clear why Pemberley takes such an interest in him later on, but it’s a reveal that falls flat when you spend a whole book wondering why this reclusive island would happily host a painter who spends all his time just wandering about. You’ve got to pay your way, Ben. Ben only came to the island to bring his fiancée Cara home. But when he arrives, he is rapidly seduced by the vision of a better way of life, as described by the charismatic and mysterious Sir John.

The journey to the island is a harsh and challenging one and when he does arrive, Ben discovers that the community on the island is a secretive one and they do not welcome uninvited visitors. Ben is a painter, he has been living with his fiancée Cara for ten years, she has recently been working for millionaire philanthropist John Pemberley at his remote island known as The Sanctuary. When Ben receives a letter from Cara saying she wants to stay on the island and is calling off their engagement Ben decides to travel to the island for answers. The Sanctuary has made a big splash in the reading world, and it’s clear to see why. As an imaginative dystopian thriller, Andrew Hunter Murray’s book has an incredibly enthralling premise and a good few mysteries that should keep a reader invested throughout their time with the story. Cards are played close to the chest and little is given away. We sense a growing need for Ben to act, but he does not seem immune to the spell of the great man. Our questions are, eventually, answered and we sense just how close Ben comes to a very different story.Superb writing but a disappointing twist 🙄 and climax and weak ending. It was almost one of the best books l've read this year but the last 20% wasn't as great. Interesting concept though. All told, a well written and pleasant read that takes its time to gently take you to where it is going. Quite honestly a brilliant book which, like all the best dystopian fiction, makes us question our own world by showing us another world that is going slightly awry in ways not dissimilar to our own. Very many shades of H.G. Wells’s The Island of Doctor Moreau and the classic movie Logan’s Run. I live in London, in a small flat with large bookshelves, and I'm already working away on the next novel idea...

It’s a decent enough plot but the delivery was poor, it’s some kind of dystopian future however nothing is explained - there’s just vague references throughout to the planet declining and animal extinction. This aspect of the book would have been more enjoyable if there was a proper explanation of what had happened and what is going on. Part way through the first act of this explicitly three-act SF novel, I was finding things distinctly depressing. (But there's better news to come.) The first person protagonist, a portrait artist named Ben, lives in a low-key dystopian future for a country that is never explicitly identified, though is fairly obviously England. Cities are in decay, the economy seems to be pretty much non-existent and the only places that are pleasant to live in are Villages (with a capital V) - walled communities where old rich people are waited on hand on foot by the young poor. Finished this book so at least that’s something. I usually return half way through if I’m not into it but this just didn’t do it for me at all. A remote island, owned by a wealthy philanthropist who is building a brand-new world on the ruins of the old one. This book took a totally different turn to what I was expecting! Really enjoyable, stayed up late to finish it as the story was so tense towards the end.' Read more DetailsBen is looking forward to meeting up with Cara, but she writes to say that she intends to stay on the island, he sets out to find her. We then follow his journey across a blighted land, as the book touches on environmental change, wealth being in the hands of the few, while the many work to service the needs of those in the villages. Ben’s desire to reunite with Cara is harder to understand as their relationship doesn’t seem particularly close or warm. Then, as the novel progresses and secrets are revealed, it was difficult to really know where the author wanted the plot to go. Murray does a very good job of creating his setting. Although it seems the book is set in the future, it's a future that is already very recognisable. Climate change has progressed, though not yet to the worst predictions, and extinctions are becoming more and more commonplace. Although it would appear that the society is well on the way to becoming fully dystopian, it hasn't yet. However, the divide between rich and poor has increased, again quite recognisably, with the ordinary people living in cramped conditions in the overcrowded cities, while the wealthy live in luxury in closed villages outside. Pemberley, Cara's employer, is the creator and owner of most of these villages, and while it's not totally clear, it seems this may be where his wealth comes from. The place is also not specified, but feels very like Britain, with Ben living in what seems like it's probably London, and the Sanctuary being set in the north, probably off the coast of Scotland. So there's a real feeling of familiarity about both time and place, but the differences are enough to produce a sensation of unease caused by the feeling that we’re heading there fast. Outside novel-writing, I work for the TV show QI, as one of the 'Elves' finding out Quite Interesting facts about everything under the sun. I also co-host the podcast No Such Thing As A Fish, and write jokes and journalism for Private Eye, Britain's leading satirical magazine. No Such Thing As A Fish has also led to a spin-off TV series, No Such Thing As The News, and three books co-written with my colleagues on the show - the Book Of The Year 2017-19. I found this to be a slow read (but I enjoyed it none the less) up until Ben reaches the island, then it’s full steam ahead Andrew Hunter Murray has a very cool, detached, almost period writing style - combined with the dismal setting (it's never really explained how we get from where we are now to this miserable future) made the first act difficult to engage with - but the whole feel of the book changes with the second act when the action moves to a private island - the sanctuary of the book's title. This is an apparently utopian society, constructed by the billionaire behind the Villages. Ben manages to get to the island (half-killing himself in the process) to see his fiancée who works there - he expects to hate the place, but initially he finds it beguiling.

I felt there was very little mystery, really, but this is slightly spoilery, I suppose, so don't read on if you don't want any spoilers!

Ben meets many of the island’s inhabitants, learns many aspects of life there, and sees much that impresses him. However, doubt still lingers, especially due to the continuing silence and absence of Cara, and the island clearly has other mysteries which also worry him. As Pemberley’s long-term plan is obviously nearing completion, what will Ben learn? What will he do? And where is Cara??? Murray is a writer and researcher for the BBC panel show QI, as a member of the team known as the " QI Elves". He co-hosts the spin-off podcast series No Such Thing as a Fish in which he and three other QI Elves – Anna Ptaszynski, James Harkin and Dan Schreiber – share their favourite facts from the week. Murray wrote and co-presented the podcast's spinoff television series No Such Thing as the News. He currently hosts " Drop us a line" as part of the Club Fish podcast. I really struggled with Pemberley's goal too. He was obviously a very intelligent man, who had a lot of vision in some ways, and achieved a lot, but his main goal made zero sense to me.