Near Future Dystopian Thriller, Outside, Confirms That Curiosity Plays Havoc With All That You Think You Know

On The Table Read, “the best book magazine in the UK“, first book in The Phoenix Series by Aaron Gransby, Outside, is set in near future London about a journalist investigating a missing civil servant.

Outside

Outside is the first installment of Aaron Gransby’s The Phoenix Series, taking readers to near future London, where the economic powerhouse of the City dominates the nation. Those lucky enough to be born Citizens live a gilded life, working hard four days a week and playing harder for the other three, whilst the nation is ruthlessly governed like a business.

Journalist Rory Kennet has always felt slightly apart from life inside the electronic walls and finds himself banished to the Outside. When he is asked by a friend to conduct a seemingly straightforward investigation into the disappearance of a civil servant, little does he appreciate the life changing repercussions of his seemingly innocuous good deed. As Rory adjusts to his new life he vows to discover and expose the truth behind The City’s Removals policy. But as he set out on his quest he had no idea that what he was to find out would shed a new light on his whole existence.

Set in a near future society that we can all recognise, this fast paced and immersive thriller is a thought-provoking observation on the perilous path that Society seems to be following. With echoes of previous injustices in both our own country and others close to home, it combines the past and present to paint a picture of a disturbing but all too plausible future, surprisingly wrapped up in a very readable thriller. Set in London, where Gransby was born, St Albans, where he now lives, Harrow and Watford, there is a real life authenticity to his dystopian tale.

Aaron Gransby

“My writing is driven by feelings by isolation, abandonment, anxiety and loss – all the high points of life,” said Aaron Gransby. “Outside will be followed by Destination, a collection of short stories on a similar theme and a follow-up to Outside is also in preparation. I am also pleased to say that that the jacket of my novel is by renowned artist and printmaker, John Duffin.”

Aaron Gransby is a journalist, award-winning newspaper editor and magazine publisher. He is a product of suburbia – London’s Metroland – which can be either a comfortable, middle class, idyllic place or a series of soulless, dull housing developments holding apart two ring roads, depending upon your point of view.

He himself has seen both sides, living his early years in a typical, three-bedroomed semi-detached house before spending the remainder of his childhood until he left home at 18 on a succession of council estates.

His fascinating debut novel, Outside, works on different levels as both a highly readable dystopian thriller and a comment on the way our society is heading which goes much deeper. The society he describes is informed both by his own experiences and his self-confessed ambiguous feelings about the world we live in now.

He now lives in St Albans, Hertfordshire.

Find Outside now:

Independently published, Outside is available in paperback (£7.99) and Kindle format (£3.99 or free via Kindle Unlimited) on Amazon at https://amzn.to/3DpDjiC and https://amzn.to/3D2poOi

 A limited edition hardback is also available, at £14.99 directly from the author’s website (www.aarongransby.com). It can also be ordered through Waterstones.com.