I enjoyed this! As is the case with pretty much all of John's books, to be honest. It was an interesting idea and what is scary about these books, is the real possibility of things like this in the future. This collection of dystopian books is a lot different from his others, but very much still enjoyable. Some good twists and turns, and plenty of drama!

Wow what a story. The story is set in the same world as The One and The passenger. The characters are likeable as the minders with the information they need to carry, however someone wants them dead. The story comes to a dramatic conclusion and the reason why. Bring on the next book John Marrs

Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience

The Minders by John Marrs is an incredibly gripping and thought-provoking sci-fi drama series which has been given the green light to be a Netflix original. Set in the 21st century, five strangers are chosen to become minders, selected to guard the most confidential information the country has – transferred from a computer into a unique medical procedure and implanted into their heads. With each minder having a unique set of secrets, their stories intertwine and the audience is given a window into the complexity of the world’s deepest, darkest secrets. There are complex moral questions at play and the ever-evolving suspense of the show keeps the viewers wanting more. It is certainly a show to watch and is sure to leave its mark.

I love everything written by John Marrs, especially the high tech spooky stuff he keeps rolling out.
I was captivated from page one and my attention was maintained throughout - the chores had to wait! Five stars from me.

I always enjoy any John Marrs book! I love the details of his stories and all of the plot twists that happen at the most unexpected times. The Minders was absolutely no different! It was intense and utterly gripping all the way through.

Original and genius.
What I have come to expect from John Marrs books.
I love this sub genre which Marrs has created and this book did not disappoint.
Would highly recommend to anyone after and contemporary and original thriller.

My first book, that I have read by this author, absolutely brilliant! Highly recommended, and I will definitely read others written by this author!

Thank you Netgalley, the publisher and John Marrs.
I did not know starting this book that it would spoil two of the books which I already own but I have not read.
It was very disappointing to say the least.
The book was still enjoyable and I will try rereading again after I read. “The one and The Passengers”
3 stars

If you're in for a psychological thriller full of action and twists, 'The Minders' could be your cup of tea.

CAUTION

This story takes place in the same world as The One and The Passengers.
If you haven't read those books yet and you're planning to, it's highly recommended to read The Minders afterwards as it contains big spoilers about these two earlier books!

REVOLUTIONARY MEDICAL PROCEDURE

As computers can be hacked, an unique government initiative saw the light: the country's most secretive information has been taken offline and turned into genetic code implanted inside the heads of five ordinary people.
Together, the five know the truth behind every Government lie, conspiracy theory and cover up.
Only somebody has discovered who the secret keepers are. And one by one, they are being hunted down...

VARIATION

Something John Marrs often does in his stories, is writing from different points of view.
It's no different in this book where we follow five people: Flick, Charlie, Sinéad, Emilia and Bruno.
Every chapter is told from the point of view of one of these main characters.
Either you like that or not. But I certainly do, as it offers a lot of variation during reading. Furthermore, it keeps the pace in the story, because almost every chapter ends with a cliffhanger and is therefore as addicitive as a soap opera.

Another nice touch is the fact that these chapters are interspersed with other 'material' like minutes from top secret meetings, a contract of employment, …

What also deserves a mention is the use of synaesthesia as a plot element.
Not everyone knows this perceptual phenomenon which is often described as a 'crossing of the senses' and causes some people to see colours when they hear music, give human-like personalities to numbers, letters and days of the week (f.e. seeing a red haired woman when thinking of the number nine), …

CONCLUSION

Actually this story - just like all the books of John Marrs I've read so far - makes me think of a soap opera.
On the one hand it reads very fast and knows how to keep your attention with all the cliffhangers and twists.
But on the other hand, you'll only be able to enjoy it to the fullest if you can regularly suspend your disbelief.
And when you think about the story after you've finished reading, you'll realize that there are some major plotholes that don't make much sense.
For this reason the book gets 2,5* which is rounded up because of the reading enjoyment.

THE AUTHOR

Until a few years ago, John Marrs worked as a freelance journalist based in London (England) and spent 25 years of interviewing celebrities from the world of television, film and music for national newspapers. In 2018 he became a full-time writer.

His debut novel The Wronged Sons saw the light in 2013. It was re-edited in 2017 and got a new title: When You Disappeared.
In May 2015 he released his second book Welcome To Wherever You Are. It was re-edited in 2021 and got a new title: The Vacation.

2017 was a fruitful year in which he published no less than two books: The One and The Good Samaritan.

From then on, John Marrs released a book every year.
​In 2018 there was the police procedural thriller Her Last Move.
In 2019 readers could discover The Passengers, a thriller set in the same world as The One.
In 2020 he wrote the bestseller What Lies Between Us, a psychological thriller which has been optioned by Renée Zellweger's production company.
And in 2021, he released The Minders, which took place in the same world as The One and The Passengers.

Next year there will be two new books: a psychological thriller and a work of speculative fiction.

If you want to read more about this author you can head over to https://www.johnmarrsauthor.com/

4 - 4.5 stars
Another gripping, intelligent and innovative read from John Marrs - although not actually part of a series I'd recommend reading The Passengers and The One prior to reading this as both are referenced and have relevance to the story.

Five ordinary people become something extraordinary - to prevent cyber terrorism and hacking, the country's most classified information has been taken offline and turned into genetic code implanted inside their heads. Fabulous writing, great characters and a plot which will keep you riveted.

Can't wait to see what this brilliant author will come up with next!

Many thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for the opportunity to read and give an honest review of this book

I've read The One (and watched it on Netflix) and Passengers and so this was the next read of the author's dystopian world and it didn't disappoint.

Set in the near future, The Minders follows 4 volunteers who are helping to guard the UK’s secrets from hackers!
Five strangers guard our secrets. Only four can be trusted. What a brilliant premise!

Had me gripped with it's multi-layered twists and turns and pace. I couldn't put it down until I knew everything. Written with skill, as usual. I would recommend this for a fast pace, incredible read.

I was so excited to get to read this as I have really enjoyed John Marrs’ books previously and find them really fascinating and exciting.

What caught my attention with this one was the idea of life in the future and what that will look like. Marrs did and excellent job of creating this and making it believable! Some ideas can be far fetched but you read this book and thoughts are running through your head that this could actually be true.

Despite having not read The Passengers (this book follows it on), I don’t feel like it stopped me from understanding what happened in the previous book and I love that about this novel too.

Definitely one that everyone should read; full of suspense, intrigue, heart pumping moments and also moments of reflection. I really love the John Marrs brain thinks and this latest instalment didn’t let me down!

3.5 stars.

This book had a very intriguing futuristic plot. It started with a very slow build-up of introducing the five main characters (sometimes a bit too slow for my liking), which was really in contrast with the very fast pace that happened in the second half of the book. The short chapters and switchovers between characters felt like a format written for TV episodes. While it made the book easy to read, sometimes it was too distracting because I kept finding myself being pulled out of the story while I had just started getting hooked by a particular character.

From the aspect of information security itself, when talking about high-value, high-profile, high-stake data, I'm generally not a fan of biometrics. If the biometric measures are intended to guard the data from being stolen, they're insecure because humans are generally weak links that are prone to social hacking (or ransom/threats). And if it's better for the other party to destroy the data, then it's too 'easy' to just get the human beholder killed, thus endangering lives. So while the idea makes a great story plot, it's not realistically great to implement.

I quite enjoyed the book. The short chapters were easy to consume as I mentioned before. And while slowing down the pace overall, the heavy character introductions at the start meant that I did connect with (some of) them, and that made me care about what happened to them.

I'm not so crazy about the ending because it was a bit too 'neat' for my liking. But I didn't hate it. It was a good entertainment overall, and the plot was definitely original (and provocative) enough to be a conversation starter!

Where does John Marrs get his ideas from? Quite frankly, I don’t want to know!
This is a horrifyingly good book. It truly makes you wonder if there are ‘Minders’ amongst us already.
A great story, 4/5

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House UK, Cornerstone, Del Rey for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I really didn't like this book, I thought it was disappointing and could've been executed way better, and despite being a standalone novel it spoils two of John Marrs' previous works that I probably would've picked up if I hadn't had them spoiled in this one.

Ace. Took me a while to get round to it, but once I started I read it in three chunks - if work hadn't got in the way, I think it would have been a weekend book [started Saturday and finished by Sunday].

Marrs has found a great niche - not sure whether it's a techno thriller - definitely a fast paced thriller, with some technology and a futuristric vibe, but not sci fi.

Loved the premise, fantastic plot and really good characters/action. I won't go through what the book's about - lots on this elsewhere, just to say that it's a belter, with tie ins to his previous books Passengers [my first weekend book for a long time!] and The One.

I see Marrs has a new book in the pipleine scheduled for 2023[?] The Marriage Act - I'll be keepoing an eye out for that one

Top tip - you don't neeed to read Marrs' books in order, but it helps - Passengers, The One and The Minders - Enjoy:-)

I enjoy Marrs’ books, so I was looking forward to reading this,
If like me you have read The One, and Passengers, you will already be familiar with the futuristic, dystopian world that Marrs creates, however you don’t need to have read them before picking this book up but it may help as there is a little bit of a backstory, but you wouldn’t be disadvantaged by reading this first.

I did enjoy this, but not as much as his other books, I just didn’t feel it flowed as well, and without giving any spoilers away, I just couldn’t see any reason for some of the characters decisions. I felt that the ending was a little disappointing - it didn’t fully make sense, almost as if Marrs had rushed it, was at a limited word count and had just been told that this is how it must end.
I’m sure others would disagree, and despite this, I will still continue to pick his books up, as he does have a way of pulling us into his world.
It’s a relatively easy read, and I finished it in just over 24hours.
It’s not a ‘must read’ and I won’t be shouting it from the rooftops, but I wouldn’t be discouraging others either, I feel it’s a marmite book that his fans will love, but new readers of Marrs might just find average.

Another mind-blowingly intelligent thriller from John Marrs, The Minders is a brilliantly written and superbly complex story that is driven by tension-fuelled action.

With references to The One and The Passengers, I love this near-future world that Marrs has created. It’s so original and well-thought-out but it also feels completely believable. Some elements are so close to home that there’s always an added element of horror in how some of these technological advances may become reality (or maybe some are even happening already), especially with how our personal data is involved.

Marrs uses his trademark technique of short chapters told through a number of characters. Usually, this is what keeps me so gripped to his books as the frequent mini-cliffhangers keep the story rapidly progressing and you constantly on edge. But while I was eager to keep reading, I wasn’t quite so gripped this time around.

The problem for me was that I didn’t see how one story, in particular, was related to the others, which did stunt my enthusiasm at the start. But it all leads up to an exhilarating ending, and I love how the story comes together in the end. It completely took me by surprise and I’m forever blown away by Marrs’ storytelling genius.

Marrs is most definitely one of the best authors out there at the minute. While this wasn’t an instant favourite for me as the three other books I have read by him have been so far, there is no doubting his capabilities as a phenomenally talented writer.

In this novel, as in life, information is power. A hacking collective has been targeting governments and holding them to ransom. Pay up a crippling amount of money or have your secrets sold to the highest bidder. Britain is determined not to fall into their trap. Information has been turned to genetic code and hidden in five specially selected members of the public. Five people hold the information that could destroy the country for five years, living incognito. At the end a new start. But five years to stat hidden is a long time when there's a traitor within the programme.

This is set in the same world as The One and The Passengers. Can you read it without reading them? Yes but you'll have no idea whats happening. I've read them and was occasionally clueless. But if you have read them you will love this. It's not as instant as The One or as action packed as The Passengers but it's bloody clever with some truly shocking moments.

For me John Marrs has a lot in common with another thriller writer, Simon Kernick. Their books are very different in tone and subject but their style is almost cinematic. When I'm reading their books I'm there with the characters. It's truly a shame that Netflix decided to mess with The One like they have. It was brilliant as it was and with all three books (maybe more?) adapted they'd have had a huge hit on their hands. But ah well at least we have these fantastic stories. Please Mr Marrs, could we have some more?