THE SUBJUGATE

Written by Amanda Bridgeman

BY JULIE MATTHEWS

A year or so ago, whilst browsing the book tables at Supanova, I was reading the back cover of “The Subjugate” when a bubbly voice piped up “What do you think of the cover?”

Born in Geraldton WA, Amanda earned her BA in Communication Studies from Murdoch and has racked up a huge portfolio of novels, novellas and short stories.

“Umm, intriguing” I replied.

“Do you like mysteries? Science Fiction mysteries?” a smiling young woman asked.

“Yep, I love ‘em” I enthused. “I’ve never read any from this author though, is she any good?”

“Well, she’s written a lot of books and I think so” she smiled. “After all, it’s me!”

We both burst into laughter and immediately began chatting like we’d known each other for years. Authoress - Amanda Bridgeman is warm, vibrant and intelligent.

She has won and been shortlisted for numerous awards and enjoys working across different genres both original and media tiein fiction, including a novel and short story in the Marvel X-Men universe.

Promising to work my way through her huge repertoire of novels and clutching my now autographed copy of “The Subjugate”, I scurried off to get started. “The Subjugate” had me gripped from the beginning. This scifi thriller is part of the Salvation series and is being developed for TV by Anonymous Content (Mr Robot, The Alienist, True Detective), Aquarius Films and has received development funding from Screen Australia.

The blurb read:

“In a small religious community rocked by a spree of shocking murders, Detectives Salvi Brentt and Mitch Grenville find themselves surrounded by suspects. The Children of Christ have a tight grip on their people, and the Solme Complex neurally edit violent criminals –Subjugates – into placid servants called Serenes. In a town where purity and sin, temptation and repression live side by side, everyone has a motive. But as the bodies mount up, the frustrated detectives begin to crack under the pressure: their demons are coming to light, and who knows where that blurred line between man and monster truly lies…”

And the book delivers! It’s well written, extremely tense at the end and scarily believable. The characters are fascinating and there were enough twists and turns to keep my heart hammering and stop me from putting the book down. It even got a unanimous thumbs up from my longsuffering Book club.

This old school whodunnit cleverly set in our highly possible future is a great read and one of my favourites. I can’t wait to read more of Amanda’s work.