Product Description

A frightened government has decided to force the entire
population to carry Identification Cards at all times. As a trial they introduce them to Spawater. Should the ID cards and their controlling National Database be successfully implemented in Spawater they will be imposed nationwide. Book two of the seven-part Spawater Chronicles recounts the effects of ID cards on the town.
Joanna opposes them on principle and joins the National Campaign against Identity Cards, Jady is also against, but sees in them an excellent moneymaking opportunity.
Hanif, the computer expert, supports them and is employed to run the local trial by the senior civil servant, Mr. Dauntliffe, thus causing friction in the gang's social lives.
Michael, a good-natured Austrian - Germany lite - master criminal, sees ID cards as the perfect cover to commit an audacious crime in the middle of town, under the noses of Inspector Brewe and her disloyal assistant.
Can the Masked Pimpernel, that anonymous campaigner against paranoid government control freaks, save the day?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1986383 in Books
• Published on: 2009-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 354 pages

Review
When we read Tighe's first book his style reminded me of Douglas Adams Hitch Hiker's Guide series. Now I think he may have found his own unique style. Humour keeps a reader keen while the twisted story line offers a different perspective on an issue of national importance in the current nervous climate. Little pieces of the story, such as a pro-ID card character forgetting his office ID and being refused entry by people who knew him, really pulled the debate in focus. Try something different and read Identity Cards with a couple of friends. It will fuel a lively debate and you can share the funny bits. Sniggering to yourself on the train to work worries the other passengers. It's not necessary to read the books in-order but does flesh out the characters in a way that leads to a feeling of knowing them as people and explaining their thoughts and actions. --Mark Atkins

When Spawater is selected as the guinea pig for universal government ID cards, our friends are thrown into a tizzy. One is even selected to run the database, threatening his friendship with the others. Meanwhile, nefarious "architects" from out-of-town are trying to steal the town's ancient Roman baths. But their ID's show them to be OK! What is to be done? Can the cards be trashed, the friendship repaired, and the baths saved, all in time for drinks at Lifeboats'? Stay tuned... --Libby Cone - Author War on the Margins

From the Publisher
The Spawater Chronicles are either serious books with added comedy, or comedic tomes poking fun at the pomposity of the serious.
We are not sure which, so we gave the author a seven-book contract to find out.

From the Author
Over two thousand years ago the Romans came, saw and conquered Britain.
They stayed for a few hundred years, give or take, until rising Villa prices, the ferociousness of the local lions and the quality of home brewed wine convinced them to take all roads back to Rome.
No Romans remained. Britain, both sides of Hadrian's Wall, became a Roman-free zone.
Except....
There was one little town where the Roman bugle-song anthem of retreat, 'Legitus Quickitus', was not heard. One town where the Romans and the locals, ears full of soap, were so busy splashing around together they missed the thunder of the departing last night chariots of fire. And as there were no cabs due for another 15 hundred years - and that's if you believe the cab office - the town's Romans decided to stay.
The town grew, thriving on the naturally occurring spa waters, nurtured by the river Fons and hardened by the combination of original Brits and Roman bath lovers. The last bastion of the Roman Empire, it is now a mighty town indeed.
The town's name? Spawater, home of the legendary Spawater Baths.
The Spawater Chronicles are the tales of its citizens, and how they take on the world and win.

Customer Reviews

Be afraid. Be VERY afraid!
Warning: do not read this book on a train or while waiting at the doctors. When you laugh out loud, (which you will, often) they'll all start looking for your lost marbles. As well as being incredibly funny, it was also scary. If you're against the compulsary implimentation of identity cards, read this book. If you're pro ID cards, read this book, it might make you think again. If you couldn't care less about the issue but could just use a little chuckle therapy, read this book - you will know and care more by the end. This is the second in the Spawater Chronicles. I have just bought the third, Casino. I can't wait to see what Jady and co will do next.

Be afraid. Be VERY afraid!
Warning: do not read this book on a train or while waiting at the doctors. When you laugh out loud, (which you will, often) they'll all start looking for your lost marbles. As well as being incredibly funny, it was also scary. If you're against the compulsary implimentation of identity cards, read this book. If you're pro ID cards, read this book, it might make you think again. If you couldn't care less about the issue but could just use a little chuckle therapy, read this book - you will know and care more by the end. This is the second in the Spawater Chronicles. I have just bought the third, Casino. I can't wait to see what Jady and co will do next.