Described as a “metafictional murder mystery examining the loss of identity in the virtual world of the internet”, Steve Hollyman’s new novel is a sensationally well executed piece of writing that plays with what is real and what isn’t. When protagonist Vincent wakes up in an apartment in New York, he has no memory of how he got there. Therein follows mysterious and sinister phone calls, an explicit video gone viral, hidden identities online, and a murdered girlfriend back in the UK. This reads like a Kaufman film, and gave me that sensation of feeling like I’ve been flipped upside down and didn’t know if I was coming or going. It bounces between two different key texts that are supported with conversations about the events in the book via footnotes between the author and a man named Ike A. Mafar. And, I loved that whiplash sensation of confusion and intrigue that this format created. ‘Esc & Ctrl’ reminded me of reading Palahniuk occasionally, then the movie ‘Memento’, and at the very second I thought “this reminds me of House of Leaves”, the book directly addresses the similarities to Danielwski’s magnum opus. This is incredibly self aware writing. It is clever, having these cultural touchstones to trick the reader into a sense of familiarity - then whips away the rug from your under your feet to leave you feeling confused and unsettled. The unsettling sensation that Hollyman conjures in his writing probes the edges of horror without definitively delving into the genre, and is all the more effective for it, creating a text that challenges the reader, and demands a level of interaction and investment that will reward any effort made to mine the depths of this mystery. ‘Esc & Ctrl’ has become a late and serious contender for a place in my top 10 releases of 2022. It is a serious literary accomplishment.