The Execution Channel is lightly science fiction and largely political thriller. It’s a “counter-factual” starting with Al Gore winning the 2000 US presidential election but with, in a biting jab, very little difference in the events of the next four years. A mysterious device explodes on an American airbase in Scotland, there are spies and double-agents, and familial coincidences. Some of our protagonists are counter-intelligence operatives who specialize in placing false stories in the media and at a certain point in the story they, and we, are no longer certain what’s the truth and what’s a lie that they are telling.

FuzzyCo grade: A