Review: Quick Reads – Cut Off by Mark Billingham @mgriffiths163

I love the Quick Reads books – they are exactly as billed. Quick – reads. A great way to introduce authors and to encourage non readers back to the printed word. Both Mandie and I have read some of these, so we’re sharing the reviews too.

The Official Book Blurb

Step into a thrilling Quick Read from number one bestselling crime fiction author Mark Billingham.

It’s the moment we all fear: losing our phone, leaving us cut off from family and friends. But, for Louise, losing hers in a local café takes her somewhere much darker.

After many hours of panic, Louise is relieved when someone gets in touch offering to return the phone. From then on she is impatient to get back to normal life.

But when they meet on the beach, Louise realises you should be careful what you wish for…

If you enjoyed Cut Off, try Love Like Blood, the latest novel in the series starring Mark Billingham’s detective hero, DI Tom Thorne.

Jen’s View

How would you cope of someone walked off with your phone? Are you like most people these days, every single piece of information you need stored somewhere in the depths of the chips and plastic that make up your various mobile devices? I know I can’t remember half of the phone numbers of family and friends and have little interest in learning them as they are all there at the touch of a button and backed up in the cloud …

Cut Off is a very short but sweet look at the reality of our over reliance on technology and the danger of making mad decisions when feeling a false sense of security. It’s hard to say too much as the book really takes less than an hour to read, but the basic premise if a young woman, whose who life in pretty well contained in her phone manages to lose it. In trying to retrieve it, she find herself in a very precarious position, the realities of living a ‘virtual life’ becoming very apparent to the reader.

It certainly makes you question lifestyle choices. I know people who have hundreds if not thousands of on line friends, but how many of them do they really know. How many would come running if they thought you were in trouble. That is one of the themes explored here – just how well does our ‘victim’ know her friends and where are they now that a new ‘friendship’ is being forced upon her?

Quite chilling, slightly crazy and certainly thought provoking, it will make you think about all those times you have flown into a mild panic just because your phone won’t charge and perhaps remind you that things could always be worse … Great little story, even if I could have read a few chapters more.

Mandie’s View

Time to admit that I have not previously read anything by Mark Billingham…. Shocking I know. This is more to do with I am not a fast reader and I have sooo many books I want to read. I have however seen some of the TV adaptations so that has to count for something right??  This is why I love short stories and quick reads… I get to experience the authors I have stuck in my TBR list.

Cut Off shows just how dependant we become on technology. Louise feels like her right arm has been removed when she loses her phone, after all her whole life is on it. This is something we can all probably relate to. It also shows how we can be so engrossed in our little world at the edge of our fingertips we can become less observant of what is going on around us, no longer relying on true human interaction and more willing to believe the quick text message or online post.

I guess my only problem with a quick read is that sometimes you are left with the feeling… so what happened next?? This was one of those times

Cut Off is part of The Reading Agency’s Quick Reads series and is available to buy from the following links. For more information on The Reading Agency, check out their website here.

Amazon UK | Kobo | Waterstones