A Kinder City
by Peter Taylor-Gooby

In a city that runs on greed, where does that leave love?

The City is governed by the grim law of profit and loss. No exceptions, no place for compassion, pleasure, friendship or love.

Franklin, the richest man in Market World, wants to put a price on everything. His giant factories spew forth road beasts – the huge machines that devastate the lands beyond the City in pursuit of yet more wealth.

David, an Enforcer, must defend the Law. He meets Sarah, a villager from outside, and begins to understand that a different more joyful life is possible.

And he knows that Franklin is his enemy.

5 out of 5 fairies

What would you do if you lived in a world where you carried your worth on your wrist, and everything cost you part of that worth? Peter has an amazing talent for bringing his settings and characters to life in a way that will captivate you and make it hard to set down the book for even a few hours. It’s not too hard to draw parallels between Market World and how it handles things and the extremes that capitalism has produced in the US today. A brilliant story that reminds readers that sometimes the perfect exterior hides a rotten core.

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I enjoy talking to my children, holidays, hill-walking and riding my bike. I’ve worked on adventure playgrounds, as a teacher, as an antique dealer and in a social security office in Newcastle. Before that I spent a year on a Gandhian Ashram in Vijayawada, supporting myself as assistant editor on a local English-language newspaper.

In my day job I’m an academic but I believe that you can only truly understand the issues that matter to people through your feelings, your imagination and your compassion. That’s why I write novels.

My first novel, “The Baby Auction” 2017, is a love story set in a fantasy world where the only rule is the law of the market. That someone should help another because they care for them simply doesn’t make sense to the citizens of Market World, any more that auctioning babies might to us. My second, “Ardent Justice” 2018, is a crime story set in the world of high finance and city fat-cats, where money rules, but greed can trip even the most successful. My third, “Blood Ties” 2020, is about the ties of love in a troubled family, and the bonds of debt that chain illegal immigrants to people-traffickers, and how they can be broken through self-sacrifice. My fourth, “A Kinder City” 2022, returns to Market World where the relentless pursuit of profit leads to environmental devastation. I hope you enjoy them.

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