The Spectator

A Novel

De: Timothy Balding

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Roger P., a convicted double killer, escapes from custody, leaving a manuscript in his cell recounting fragments of his life and the events which result in his trial for murder. Entirely narrated by his inner voice, the document charts his rise and fall as star reporter of The Daily Hack, a scurrilous popular tabloid.

As the Hack’s Investigations Editor, P. uncovers celebrity and political scandals, all the while promoting the anti-immigrant, anti-social benefits agenda of his owners and their bent politician cronies. Happy at first in this scabrous life exposing sex criminals and financial fraud, rubbing shoulders – and often sharing beds – with actresses, secretaries and various informants, P. is increasingly troubled by an incessant, critical voice in his mind telling him that he’s a liar, worthless, shallow, a swindler, and that he should face up to it. Interrogating P. insistently about the charade of this tabloid life, his inner voice – who likes to be called The Spectator – begins to mock and abuse him, calling him an ignoramus, a philistine and a cheat who must change before it’s too late to be saved and his life falls apart.

The scene is set for this contemporary social novel about the poisoning of a nation’s psyche by tabloid media and the existential torments of one man struggling to escape his fate as both one of its villains and its victims.