#14. THE DEMOLISHED MAN By Alfred Bester

Published : 1953
Pages : 250
Overall Mark : 9/10

In a world in which the police have telepathic powers, how do you get away with murder? Ben Reich heads a huge 24th century business empire, spanning the solar system. He is also an obsessed, driven man determined to murder a rival. To avoid capture, in a society where murderers can be detected even before they commit their crime, is the greatest challenge of his life.

ALFRED BESTER (1913-1987)
A scriptwriter and journalist by profession, Bester set the science fiction field alight in the 1950s with two novels, The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination, and a succession of extraordinary stories. His work was an inpiration both to the SF New Wave of the 1960s and the cyberpunk movement of the 1980s.

VERDICT
There's something sneakingly clever about this novel, with the introduction of a code and the answers to all our questions almost from the get go. The character of Ben Reich is one of the saddest and most self defeating characters I think I've ever seen outside of a Shakespeare play, and the final twist almost trumps the main twist of the entire novel.