This book has been garnering a lot of attention lately, due to the fact that the case the book is about- the East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker/Golden State Killer– is believed to have been apprehended (via, of all things, those DNA testing kits you can get from Ancestry.com). Michelle McNamara’s book has been credited by some as being the driving force behind the solving of a cold case from the late 70s, early 80s, although the police forces involved have denied this.
Michelle McNamara died in 2016; a true crime blogger, she became obsessed with solving the case in which one man was suspected of committing 12 murders, 50 rapes and over a hundred burglaries between 1974-1986 in California. She sifted through thousands of forum posts, befriended detectives on the police forces involved and read hundreds of documents from the various different cases that made up the vast spider web of one man’s horrific crime spree. This book is as much about her dedication to solving the case as it is to the victims of the crimes, the man who perpetrated them and the police who tried to stop him.
I’d tried to listen to the excellent Casefile podcast on this case. However, it’s about seven hours all in and I bailed after one episode; the matter-of-fact tone and details of the crimes were too much for me (and I like true crime!) However, this book is sensitive and respectful of the victims, never ghoulish or gory. I felt that, unlike some true crime writers, McNamara was truly on their side.

I received an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to NetGalley, Random House, and the author Ben H. Winters.
An interesting premise, and a promising start with a good amount of mystery and intrigue. However, it veered off towards the end in a messy, tangled, and confusing denouement. The ending felt rushed and unplanned, like the author had begun writing without a finale in mind, and had scrambled to tie up the loose ends. 
Disappointing. 2 stars.

What an exciting fast paced original post apocalyptic novel! The lead character, Laszlo Ratesic, is a 54 year old nineteen year veteran of the Speculative Service. He lives in the Golden State a place where the truth is guarded closely and lying (contradicting the truth) is the greatest crime and is punished by exile. This was fast paced and gripping. The only disappointment was the ending that wasn't fully tied up so will have to wait for the next book for that.

This is a dystopian novel, the protagonist comes from a family of Law enforcement and where law is the most valued truth, he resides in The Golden State, a nation resembling California, where like-minded Americans retreated after the erosion of truth and the spread of lies made public life, and governance, increasingly impossible.

Unfortunately I read this book a while ago and seem to have missed it when writing reviews. - sadly I cant remember enough detail to give a full review.
However, thanks to NetGalley for the ARC :-)

I love a good dystopian read and found myself not disappointed with this. I loved Part 1 and honesty could have just read a whole book based on solving truth crimes and would have been very happy. Part 2 was a little wacky and seemed to be off tangent to part 1 but this was fixed with Part 3. Part 3 brought it all together and give me a good solid ending.  I would say that Part 3 felt a little rushed and could have been longer with more time spent in the various places but overall this book was very satisfying.

I like dystopian novels but unfortunately despite the promise of an intriguing story I was unable to engage with the book.

I couldn't get very far into this book, unfortunately. I never really got in to it (too quirky for me, which is saing something as I'm normally a sucker for dystopian novels).

This started off very well, with an interesting idea and it was fairly easy to pick up on the world-building.  As I read it, I thought it would be really fascinating, and that by the end I would love it.  But when I reached that point, I felt that the ending rather let the earlier parts of the book down.  There was interest, but it didn't seem to pack any punch.
Most of the book was very good, although sometimes I wasn't sure whether it was a murder mystery or a more complex dystopian novel.  It felt like such a great idea, that could have been tweaked a bit and then it would have been an excellent book, which was a bit of a shame.

I’m a society of extreme monitoring and suggestive privacy invasion, this novel plays with the ‘theme’ of 1984 in our modern society. Brilliant pace and an excellent concept

A universe where any lies, even white ones, are against the law. No thanks! Even those lies which protect your loved ones (of course your hair looks great) are illegal. The police know when you're lying as well, so there's no hiding. This dystopian novel does what dystopians do and exposes our protagonist to the truth. This book will keep you confused and in the dark in the best way possible! It can be a bit slow at points but I still really enjoyed it and am grateful to NetGalley for allowing me to read a copy.

A world where all lies, even teensy little fibs are a crime and there are law enforcement agents that KNOW when you are lying. As far as dystopian worlds go I'll take zombies thank you very much! 

This novel goes straight to letting us know what a crazy world this is. Even a lie that protects someone is punishable. In this world Lazlo Ratesic has spent 19 years believing in the truth, having total faith in The Golden State. But a new partner and series of events challenge his faith in the system he has dedicated his life to.

I spent the second half of this book scratching my head, wondering what the hell was going on. Fantastic! As long as it's not ridiculous I love stories that are implicit in what is happening and where they are heading. It does slow down a bit too much at times so not quite a five star novel for me, but a very highly rated 4 stars.

This book is about an alternate state that sees that society values truth and law above everything else. I had a feeling it was a bit like 1984 but I didn’t enjoy it as much. 

The alternate society really focuses on the truth and there are cameras watching everything that is happening in people’s lives. Lazlo Ratesic is a long-term veteran for the Speculative Service however his life is about to change following what he believes is a cover up of something that runs deep.

It’s quite scary how much closer we are to a 1984 society. This book gives the concept a modern revamp. While it’s far to say that it’s more of a homage than an original work of fiction, it is well written, engaging and something I would recommend alongside 2018’s Vox.

A brilliant story of truths, untruths and the moral confusions between. I loved this book! Well written and absorbing.

To begin with I enjoyed the dystopian focus of the book but unfortunately I lost interest and found that it dragged. The narration was quite confused too and went off on random tangents sometimes.

In a world full of 'fake news' the Golden State in Winters' novel can seem like a utopia. The Golden State of the title is, obviously to us, California and the book is set after some kind of catastrophic event - as far as the people of the Golden State are concerned they live in the last inhabitable place left. Their survival is attributed to the fact that they adhere to the truth. At all times. In fact, more than that, they keep records of everything so that everyone agrees on what is real and true - they refer to it as the 'Objectively So'. This situation is monitored by cameras, which are pretty much everywhere, and policed, in part, by the Speculative Service. They are the only people who are permitted to, well, speculate (since speculation is the act of considering and rejecting things which may not have really happened) and they can tell when people lie. Laszlo Ratesic is from a family who have worked and died for the service but his latest investigation, and his unwelcome new partner, will make him doubt himself, the service and even the truth itself.

This book is not just a fascinating blend of science fiction and Chandleresque hardboiled crime but also a look at what could happen if we try to replace our current world of 'fake news' with a benevolent dictatorship based on narrow focussed view of what the truth is. Let's face it, any world where the truth is written in stone but works of fiction are banned doesn't sound like much of an improvement to me.

This isn’t a genre I usually read but I was intrigued by the synopsis. I’m glad I read something out of my comfort zone as I really enjoyed the story and ate up the pages and plot as if it was my usual crime/thriller.  The characters are well rounded and the dystopian world is very subtly introduced so as to make it accessible to the uninitiated reader. A great piece of writing

I quite liked this book – it was proper old-fashioned science fiction along the lines of Philip K. Dick and reminded me very much of Minority Report. The story centered around Lazlo Ratesic, a citizen of the Golden State and member of the Speculative Service whose job it was to enforce the Objectively So: the criminal offense of lying. The upholding of the truth requires Lazlo’s special sixth sense combined with the constant surveillance of all Golden State citizens but absolute power corrupts absolutely and when he stumbles across previously unknown truths, his reality unravels.

I really enjoyed the Big Brother overtones within the novel and it was interesting to read from the point of view of the enforcers, not the average dissenting citizen. The world building was great, very cohesive for such a bold idea and held together well. I enjoyed the questions that the book raised around morality – is it possible to be completely honest all of the time? Is freedom always such a good thing or should we appreciate the use of CCTV etc. as a protectionist measure? However, as the book went on it became a bit absurd, then a lot absurd, then descended into an ending that came so far out of left field that it could have belonged to another novel entirely. Still, I enjoyed the majority of the book very much so I gave it 3.5 stars

This was a very strange, Dystopian story. It is based in what was once California but is now a new world, where the biggest crime is to lie. There are various controls on peoples lives, cameras everywhere, everyone has to keep a diary and these are stored when a person dies. Anything from the old world is forbidden. and there are police who detect when people lie. I had up and down feelings about this one and at times it seemed almost childish.  Certainly an interesting concept.