I received a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. The premise of the book sounded interesting, but I did not enjoy it as much as I thought I would. A decent read overall but not exceptional for me. ( )

In The Punishments, by J. B. Winsor, the United States government is now run by the Christian version of Muslim extremists today. Throw in a little Nazis style tactics and you have the premise of this satire style novel.

In the not so distant future, The Department of Virtue enforces Biblical law and all must abide by the laws or be punished. At the head of it all is Reverend John a fanatical Christian fundamentalist. He will stop at nothing to achieve his goal of preparing everyone for the Rapture which he believes is imminent. All people are watched (here the similarities to 1984 abound) information is gathered and will be used against people. In an effort to rid the country of all resistant, Virtue twists facts about people who do not support or stands against Virtue and then has them killed or tortured until the admit to crimes they never committed.

Senator William Thatcher is one of the few trying to expose Reverend John to the American people for what he is and end his rule of supreme corruption. Yet, his ideas have exposed not only him as a danger to Virtue’s power but also his family.

A well written and very powerful novel given today’s political climate.

I received a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review. ( )