PotsandPlots

Moving from Paris to Berlin for me reading for my latest review, and a book that I enjoyed far more than my previous two reads.

Warning: The book deals with some strong themes, including racism and rape. It’s the most visceral and real thriller I’ve read in a while.

Growing Information:

Plant With: Crime, Technology, Berlin

Grows Into: A timely thriller that explores the role of technology in society.

Rating: Vibrant Annual 🌻🌻 (Check here for rating information.)

Published in English via Blackstone Publishing on May 19th 2026. Many thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy of the book to review.

The Review

Views is a slim thriller, clocking in at just over 200 pages. It opens innocuously enough with a dinner date. This is interrupted by the arrival of a viral video featuring a graphic attack on a missing German girl. The attack was perpetrated by 3 French speaking African immigrants.

As Yasira’s dinner date says, the video is “explosive.”

Yasira Saad is Chief Inspector of the BKA, Department for Serious and Organised Crime, which is akin to the FBI. She is asked to head up the investigation into the attack and find the girl, Lena, and the men responsible. There is a little hope of finding Lena alive, but Yasira and her team must work as fast as possible to do so.

Living in a Powder Keg.

It’s hard to say too much more about the storyline of Views without revealing key plot points. It’s a taut thriller, with businesslike cops desperate to prevent a tragedy and further violence from erupting on the streets.

There were obvious parallels in this book to the real-life events after the Southport murders, here in the UK. As well as being a thriller, this book doubles as an examination of the rise of anti-immigrant sentiment and its manipulation to foment unrest. While the book takes place on the streets of Berlin, it’s easy to translate its events to the UK or indeed many other European cities.

Arguably, the book is less about the actual crime itself and more about its repercussions throughout society. How reaction to it runs out of control on social media. The book is called Views, after all. This is a story about misinformation and fake news. It’s designed to wake us up.

As a 50-something-year-old, I have little idea of what technology can do. Even what it could do a few years ago. With the rise of AI, things are about to become a whole lot worse. This is the central thesis of Views. It’s a wake-up call that the world has changed. Politicians and law enforcement are behind the curve, and they need to catch up, lest tech-savvy troublemakers push us into a place of nightmares.

I’ve already mentioned the dark nature of this book. This is exemplified by the novel’s ending, which pushes things to the limit. I wasn’t wholly sold on the conclusion; I’d have preferred something different. Almost certainly something safer.

I guess the sign of a good novelist is when they give their readers something they need rather than something they want. I may not have liked the ending, but there is no doubting its power, or that it made me consider the ramifications of Views all the more deeply.

Views is not a book to be enjoyed, but it is vital reading. So much so that I have also ordered Marc-Uwe King’s previous novel, Qualityland. Views forces us to confront the unpalatable nature of societal division and the power of modern tools to promote it. Tools that most of us barely begin to understand.