Felicia Yap – Future Perfect

‘Future Perfect’ by Felicia Yap is a book I have wanted to read for months. I got the chance to take part in the book tour so I jumped at the chance. The synopsis and cover got me straight away!

It is set in the near future with things looking quite similar to now just with a few ‘tweaks’, ie embedded technology. Humans are still as delicate as they have been forever.
Police Commissioner Christian Venger is having a really bad day, he is new to his job and isn’t even certain he is capable of doing it. Then there is a bombing in New York that he has the fallout from which could cause death and destruction at a London high profile fashion show. To top it off his fiancée, Viola has left him AND Alexa has informed him he may not live to see tomorrow! We see the events play out from various characters views who are linked to the fashion designer Alexander King whose model has her arm blown off on the New York catwalk. The London show is the one that is the ‘cherry on the cake’ of his glittering career.

Christian is the one who has to attempt to stop this killer in their tracks before anyone else is affected. Viola ( Christians ex who has just left him) has a computer programme she has been working on. It can identify the suspects of the crime. It brings some names out that Viola wouldn’t expect, so we see her attempting to solve this case at the same time as Christian.

The storytime slips back to Montana in the 1980s, then New York in the 1990s and then back to 2030 and the investigation. This shows us some past lives and glimpses of secrets that we are never really certain who is really who and what secrets belong to who. Creating a really intriguing story for me. I feel it has been beautifully and skilfully created with Felicia Yap weaving a tale that is the perfect pace and the tension that rises to a crescendo for the London fashion show and the climax we have been heading for. The unravelling of mysteries and the truth all happen here! The skills of Felicia Yap are second to none with this story filled with misdirection and red herrings.

I loved the way Felicia Yap has shown us a world that isn’t a million miles from how we are now and it makes it seem possible and quite real that this is how tech could go. The combination of thriller, mystery intrigue, and friendship works well and on that note, the title is a great one with the Future to be perfect and the fact that the author raises the concept of perfection too.

I am happy to say I am going to check out Felicia Yap’s other books… I have definitely found a fabulous author!

Thanks to Rachel’s Random Resources and NetGalley for my copy of the book.