Few authors do satire as well as Ben Elton and this seems to be his vent on everything that is absurd and simply wrong in our modern social media, PC correct world. More recently he has had successes with three hit West End musicals, including the global phenomenon We Will Rock You.

I generally find Ben Elton's satire better than his plot (other than Two Brothers which is masterful). So, true to form, Elton takes on gender identity, the morality of the internet, UK referendums and the vacuous nature of social media to name a few topics. Of course, this is a very funny work of fiction, but there are some very disturbing truths which we will probably never be able to prove. In the end though, the things that made the book a standout in modern fiction (and indeed, modern satire) are almost entirely found within the first half of the story – the second half, as I’ve said, sort of just becomes a police story.Almost instantaneously after the press conference his social faux pas is trending number one on twitter. My least likeable character was Malaki because I felt, with her background (including honest parents and top-notch education), she had a responsibility to be a better person. A mathematician spinning the numbers to influence public opinion, a world-weary police officer struggling to keep up with inclusivity as well as other small cogs in this magnified melting pot of rage look so like our own world that it's hard to believe this is simply fiction. The UK is a few years into its post-Brexit position and another referendum is on the horizon – this time England wants independence from the union. Lots of people died but I didn’t really care about most of them because they were just stereotypes, and I know that was part of the discussion about identities, but if I only wanted satire and commentary, I wouldn’t read a novel.

As Rothfuss is fond of a simile (or seventy billion), this is like fish and chips: it’s filling, it’s familiar, it’s something you have as a treat because you recognise it’s not very nutritious and, despite that, you enjoy it so much you keep going back for more. Elton has his finger firmly on the zeitgeist of the times as he has his dig at Harvey Weinstein, interfering in political elections from foreign powers, political correctness, ultra-feminism, social media, immigration, fake news, Brexit. I really liked a lot of the characters - DC Sally Clegg was probably the most relatable of all the characters, but I even grudgingly found myself liking the gruff, old-fashioned Detective Matlock, trying to keep his head around a world he didn't grow up in, but doing his best. There were times when I felt as if he was mocking the whole idea of social justice, others where it seemed he was mocking those who couldn't keep up, or reactionaries who fly into an outrage at the slightest provocation.

The other thing about this concept is that if Ben Elton thinks that the world he's presenting in this book is somehow very wild and improbably extended beyond what's possible - he doesn't spend enough time on the internet.