” A Caution to Rattlesnakes”
by Brad Stevens
Great Britain in the year 2070. A totalitarian government has passed laws victimising racial minorities, prohibiting homosexuality, and preventing women from voting or having abortions. When a feminist group launches a terrorist attack, the state responds by creating the Hunt, a weekly contest in which ten randomly selected women are pursued by ten male Hunters across an abandoned district of London.
Mara Gorki is a lesbian crime novelist struggling to cope with painful memories of her obligatory participation in the Hunt two years ago. When a series of laws are introduced eroding what few rights women have left, a second encounter with the Hunt becomes a terrifying possibility. Mara and her lover Yuke Morishita, with whom she has developed a telepathic link, consider fleeing by boat to France. Since the coast is heavily guarded, failure would prove fatal. With her options being gradually reduced, and her dreams increasingly haunted by a mysteriously powerful individual known only as John Smith, Mara will soon come face to face with the forces controlling Britain, and be forced to question her assumptions about the nature of reality.
Only one thing is certain.
At the moment of death, all will be revealed.
Viv Drewa - The Owl Lady 