What if men were tagged and tracked 24/7 and confined to their homes twelve hours a night?   Would this decrease the crime rates?  Would women be safer on the streets and at work?  In CURFEW, women run the world, but it isn’t an infallible system, and solving one problem creates others.  For Sarah, Cass, Helen, and Mabel, their false sense of security comes crashing down when one of them is murdered. As these women traverse their lives, one will make a very bad decision and one will end up murdered.

Set in a futuristic Britain, CURFEW follows the lives of several women living under the new system designed to protect women.  After several years of increasing male violence and the murder of a high-profile female MP, women revolted, and the government passed the Prevention of Femicide Act of 2023.  This Act established the curfew system.  Men must be in their homes by 7:00 pm and they must stay there until 7:00 am the following morning.  They must wear electronic tagging devices that track their movements.  In the new system, women can prosper whereas the men are relegated to lower paying jobs due to their restrictions.

Sarah became a tagger after her husband was sent to prison for breaking curfew.  Sarah is happier without her husband, but her daughter, Cass, is not.  Cass is angry at her mother, and she hates her new living situation at the all-female Motherhouse.  She blames her mother for her father’s incarceration, and she despises the curfew and the fact that her friend Billy is restricted.  

 
Helen is a teacher and looking forward to receiving her Cohab Certificate so she can live with her handsome boyfriend, Tom.  Helen’s friend Mabel dislikes Tom, but Helen just thinks she’s jealous.
Pamela is a veteran detective, and she remembers the days before curfew.  She believes a man is responsible for the murder.  But how did he circumvent the system set in place to protect women?  The authorities don’t want to believe a man committed the crime.  They want to believe their system is fool-proof and safe, but Pamela is determined to uncover the truth and bring justice to the victim no matter what her superiors say.

CURFEW is a thought-provoking novel that sets up a world that leaves you wondering what if?   Told through several POVs and alternating timelines, readers get a sense of where the novel is going and how these separate lives will collide.  The author did a nice job of prolonging the suspense by withholding the identity of the victim until the end.  This keeps readers guessing as new revelations come to light.  This is a well-written and bold novel that will keep readers invested.   

As a dystopian novel, I enjoyed the premise of CURFEW however realistically, most of the women are misandrists and there are no redeemable male figures represented throughout.  The closest is Cass’s friend, Billy.  The female characters are also not overly likeable, and they lie and deceive as well.  This novel would be an intriguing discussion at book clubs.