Bad Faith by Gillian Philip

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Pages: 256
Publisher: Strident
Released: 20th of August 2008

Life's easy for Cassandra. The privileged daughter of a cleric, she's been protected from the extremist gangs who enforce the One Church's will. Her boyfriend Ming is a bad influence, of course, with infidel parents who are constantly in trouble with the religious authorities. But Cass has no intention of letting their different backgrounds drive them apart. Then they stumble across a corpse. Who killed him? How did his body end up in their secret childhood haunt? And is this man's death connected to other, older murders? As the political atmosphere grows feverish, Cass realises she and Ming face extreme danger.

What I Have to Say 

The world of this book was so well created. The changes that were made were very well made so that you can still recognise our society hidden within.

And it makes it relatable in a way that makes the nature of the society – a hierarchy which works through a technique of spying on each other and creating fear - more poignant and also quite frighting.

The concept of secrecy was really well done. The fact that they present a public face to the world to hide what they really feel being the most obvious, but also the secrets that they keep in their own family.

These secrets that the main character's family keeps from her really help add to the depiction of trauma that runs throughout the book. There's really a sense that more is wrong than just from the accident, long before anything is actually revealed.

This book was really interesting and well worth reading.