Game Show

The news is very shocking. Russian troops are terrorizing Ukrainian civilians, raping their women, abducting their children, looting their homes and killing indiscriminately. Shocking, but, sadly, nothing new. The same thing happened in Myanmar, in Syria and Bosnia.

This book, set in 1992 as the world woke up to the appalling genocide of Bosnian Muslims, asks questions that are still chillingly relevant today. What makes ordinary people do outrageous things? Russian sons, brothers and husbands today are driven by the same twisted psychology that propelled their Serbian counterparts in the 90's to rape and murder.

Who would stop them? Who would accuse them? Who would be left, to tell the tale?

As a counterpoint to the situation in Bosnia, a nondescript northern UK town is the location of a radical new game show. Contestants in disguises are encouraged to lose their inhibitions in a series of 'games' that will skew their personal standards, warp their beliefs and quash their individuality until they are a mindless mob.

In a disturbing denouement, war and game meld into each other as action and consequence are divided, the words 'blame' and 'fault' have no meaning and impunity reigns.

Game Show explores the premise of Situational Psychology, which posits the idea that any of us, if placed in certain circumstances, will follow the crowd.