The 300 plus page story opens with the resignation sequence, as a dream, with No. 6 waking up in the Village. The book adopts the present tense and often quite short sentences. The plot takes its first twist into a murder tale, with a female Villager talking in riddles. Other early story devices com- prise undercover Village spies wanting to start up a Mafia/black market style operation, No. 6 becoming a journalist for the "Village Weekly" and a new technology system called "Juliet", which No. 6 wants to destroy.

He meets some disaffected youths - "Irrationals" - who see him as an icon. The book's structure begins to meander and we later have No. 6 and the murderous female No. 18 transported to a desert, followed by sequences amidst snow and ice, rivers and waterfalls, jungles and mountains. There is a bell tower bomb attack and the finale has Russians, derivative scenes from The General and computers ruling the world as in many sci-fi genres. An attempt is made to destroy the Juliet machine, with the Irrationals setting up distractions. Nods to Anthony Burgess, Spike Jones and George Orwell are present and Room 101Õs influence is also felt. The title refers to several dilemmas throughout the book, the main one being whether No. 6 can trust No. 18 and vice versa.

The novel mixes elements of the 1960s TV series with 21st century concepts and settings, in respect of which individual readers will have to decide whether or not the mixture works. There are more Prisoner novels due from Powys Media in the months ahead. A copy of Dilemma was kindly provided by them for Patrick McGoohan, and we duly sent this to him.