The Sanctuary: the gripping must-read thriller by the Sunday Times bestselling author

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First off, Andrew Hunter Murray has certainly created a believable and vivid dystopian sci-fi world. Not only does he tap into the very real fears of our current climate crisis, highlighting how the divide between rich and poor could play out in the future, but he does so in a way that still feels unique. The idea of isolated Villages living in their own bubbles away from the troubles of the world is eerily believable. Murray is a writer and researcher for the BBC panel show QI, as a member of the team known as the " QI Elves". He co-hosts the spin-off podcast series No Such Thing as a Fish in which he and three other QI Elves – Anna Ptaszynski, James Harkin and Dan Schreiber – share their favourite facts from the week. Murray wrote and co-presented the podcast's spinoff television series No Such Thing as the News. He currently hosts " Drop us a line" as part of the Club Fish podcast. I live in London, in a small flat with large bookshelves, and I'm already working away on the next novel idea...

Andrew also writes jokes and journalism for Private Eye magazine, and hosts t Andrew Hunter Murray is a writer from London. His first novel, The Last Day, is a high-concept thriller set in a world whose rotation has slowed to a halt. The Last Day will be published in the UK and USA in February 2020 by Penguin Random House. Part way through the first act of this explicitly three-act SF novel, I was finding things distinctly depressing. (But there's better news to come.) The first person protagonist, a portrait artist named Ben, lives in a low-key dystopian future for a country that is never explicitly identified, though is fairly obviously England. Cities are in decay, the economy seems to be pretty much non-existent and the only places that are pleasant to live in are Villages (with a capital V) - walled communities where old rich people are waited on hand on foot by the young poor. Outside novel-writing, I work for the TV show QI, as one of the 'Elves' finding out Quite Interesting facts about everything under the sun. I also co-host the podcast No Such Thing As A Fish, and write jokes and journalism for Private Eye, Britain's leading satirical magazine. No Such Thing As A Fish has also led to a spin-off TV series, No Such Thing As The News, and three books co-written with my colleagues on the show - the Book Of The Year 2017-19.Di Filippo, Paul (10 February 2020). "There's no shortage of novels about what happens when the Earth stops spinning. 'The Last Day' may set a new standard". The Washington Post . Retrieved 5 March 2020. It’s a decent enough plot but the delivery was poor, it’s some kind of dystopian future however nothing is explained - there’s just vague references throughout to the planet declining and animal extinction. This aspect of the book would have been more enjoyable if there was a proper explanation of what had happened and what is going on. Set in a near future UKesque landscape, the last elephant has died (thanx, mankind), and the world is heading more towards the toilet than we believe it to be these days. Society is becoming layered - the wealthy live in secure villages (created by a billionaire developer) where everything is put on, then further out are their upper level helpers (teachers, doctors, professionals), then further still are the blue collar and unskilled workers, all dependent upont the village though. Our main character is Ben, a painter, whose fiancée has been working for millionaire philanthropist John Pemberley at his remote island, known as The Sanctuary. Increasingly concerned at the hold this place seems to have on Cara, Ben takes himself on a journey fraught with danger to make his way to the island. Murray's debut novel, The Last Day, a dystopian thriller set in a future where the Earth has stopped spinning, was published in February 2020. [3] Film and TV rights for the novel have been sold to Stone Village Television. [4] His second book, The Sanctuary, was published in May 2022. [5]

Superb writing but a disappointing twist 🙄 and climax and weak ending. It was almost one of the best books l've read this year but the last 20% wasn't as great. Interesting concept though. The narrator, Benjamin Parr, is an artist living in “the city” (unnamed but I assumed London because of the length of journey he has to make to get to the island where The Sanctuary is set). His fiancée, Cara, goes off on an assignment to work for a mysterious wealthy man who has set up a community on an island, John Pemberley. She does not return, and Benjamin follows his heart (pun intended) and makes his way up there to find out what is going on. As is my wont, this is another hairdresser read. I need something to lose myself in, once the small talk has finished. Cards are played close to the chest and little is given away. We sense a growing need for Ben to act, but he does not seem immune to the spell of the great man. Our questions are, eventually, answered and we sense just how close Ben comes to a very different story. A remote island, owned by a wealthy philanthropist who is building a brand-new world on the ruins of the old one.My biggest problem was that it didn't capture my attention, so I was mostly bored, which also meant that my attention was drifting (mostly listened to the audiobook - the author did a great job narrating it!). I didn't really like the main character either, and wasn't particularly interested in the mysterious island.

The Sanctuary is a dark tale, warning of man’s desire to play god and exploring the impact our actions can have on those around us. The Sanctuary is one of those books that slowly but relentlessly draws you in. Not a lot happens, and what does happen does so slowly, until the story eventually reaches its climax and end. And it does so very enjoyably.

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This book took a totally different turn to what I was expecting! Really enjoyable, stayed up late to finish it as the story was so tense towards the end.' Read more Details This was an addictive read and I loved the dystopian twist, this is a new genre for me and I fully lost myself in this book.

Overall, this was a book that held our attention and we did enjoy it. But, compared to other dystopian works we’ve reviewed such as Hanna Jameson’s The Last, it just didn’t strike the same sort of punch enough for us to say we ‘ loved’ this book. Dystopian thriller. A charismatic billionaire has created gated communities where the rich are tended by the poor working outside their doors. And on an offshore island, he is building a further community. A young artist makes his way their to find the woman he loves who has become one of the leading figures there. And while there, he finds out the truth… The journey to the island is a harsh and challenging one and when he does arrive, Ben discovers that the community on the island is a secretive one and they do not welcome uninvited visitors. Unfortunately the plot doesn't really live up to the excellence of the setting. Pemberley is a cross between cult leader and the kind of billionaire that we are increasingly seeing in real life who use their ridiculous wealth to carry out extraordinary experiments, with no real democratic or governmental control over them. In Pemberley’s case, he has decided that if humanity is about to bring about its own extinction, he will use the Sanctuary as a kind of Noah's Ark, but one where he is the supreme and sole ruler and where the normal rules of morality and ethics don't necessarily apply. Both mad science and cultish leaders have been done many times in dystopian fiction, and I'm afraid Murray doesn't really bring anything original to it. Murray does a very good job of creating his setting. Although it seems the book is set in the future, it's a future that is already very recognisable. Climate change has progressed, though not yet to the worst predictions, and extinctions are becoming more and more commonplace. Although it would appear that the society is well on the way to becoming fully dystopian, it hasn't yet. However, the divide between rich and poor has increased, again quite recognisably, with the ordinary people living in cramped conditions in the overcrowded cities, while the wealthy live in luxury in closed villages outside. Pemberley, Cara's employer, is the creator and owner of most of these villages, and while it's not totally clear, it seems this may be where his wealth comes from. The place is also not specified, but feels very like Britain, with Ben living in what seems like it's probably London, and the Sanctuary being set in the north, probably off the coast of Scotland. So there's a real feeling of familiarity about both time and place, but the differences are enough to produce a sensation of unease caused by the feeling that we’re heading there fast.

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Hunter-Murray is fast becoming one of my favourite authors. His writing style is articulate and educated, whilst remaining easy to read (and easy to lose yourself in).