Killing the Messenger by Christopher Wallace

Mental health as a vote-winning issue might stretch the most overactive of imaginations, but that’s the premise behind Killing The Messenger. Dr Greig Hynd’s success in preaching the gospel of positive mental health attracts the attention of a governing party in need of revival. With breath-taking haste, he’s catapulted into Westminster and installed as Minister for Well-Being. Before long, he’s perfectly placed to effect a return to power for a thinly-disguised Blair-alike as prime minister. 

It’s an intriguing set-up. But although Hynd’s meteoric rise is billed as charisma-fuelled, there’s little evidence to justify the glowing portrayal. A banal speech to his party conference mystifyingly delivers a crouching ovation. There’s also a lack of context. With big chunks of political life – elections, opposition parties, the economy –  largely ignored, the story of Greig Hynd’s path to power has a curiously hollow feel. More successful is the depiction of Calum Begg, an advertising executive in charge of the government’s well-being campaign. Begg’s sardonic narrative, chest-tightening bouts of stress and shouty meetings inject some welcome bite into the book. But the notion that a government might use mind-messing experiments with subliminal advertising seems far fetched. Unless, of course, you know different.