19. Cocaine Nights - JG Ballard

Having never heard of this book, the title and cover caught my eye when my friend was reading it, so I borrowed it after she was done. The beginning got me hooked and I started reading intently, but soon found it was going nowhere. A slight twist on a murder mystery, I thought it’d be fast-paced and dramatic, but what little drama it had, was not particularly thrilling.

The story turned into more of a societal observation of many areas of rich coastline in Europe - how people move there but retreat into their own houses within their gated communities. With the twist of one man changing it, of course.

Overall I wasn’t overly impressed, and the ending was most certainly an anti-climax. Although there was no build up, so I’m not sure I can really call it that! The ideas and observations of the society were interesting enough, but could have been done much better - same goes for the murder aspect.