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Murder.Com |
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M urder.Com: The Dark Side of the Net bySarah St. Peter Dageforde Publishing Inc. 238 pages, 1999 ISBN 1886225419 Reviewed by PJ Nunn Read our author interview Computer viruses can be devastating but this one is deadly. Elizabeth Strong is every inch the polished professional, with a high rise apartment, a high paying job, and a high octane Mercedes to prove it. You’d never know it from looking, but her reality is very different from most. She believes she has the mask firmly in place, hiding the secrets of her past. But someone knows and has embarked upon a violent and diabolical killing spree to exorcise those demons, leaving Elizabeth teetering on the edge of sanity. The murders appear to be random at first. But when a man who lives in Elizabeth’s apartment building and her estranged father are both found dead under questionable circumstances, police detective Kyla Gillespie gets suspicious. Unable to maintain the pretense any longer, Elizabeth takes a leave of absence and enlists the aid of Zipper, a man of seedy character with a heart of gold, and Beulah, a bag lady who’s seen everything. Can the killing spree be stopped, or has the final outcome already been decided? Who will live to tell the tale? Although it’s billed as a murder/mystery, MURDER.COM is more of a psychological thriller since the reader learns early who the killer really is. That doesn’t hinder the flow of the book at all, and the pace continues to build right through to the end. The character of Elizabeth is well developed, making it easy for the reader to visualize her activities, even in extreme moods. St. Peter shines in her knowledge of the troubled psyche and her ability to translate that knowledge into word pictures easily grasped by the reader. Although tastefully written, the memories of abuse throughout the text paint vivid and troubling scenarios, perhaps because they are so realistic. This book is not for the squeamish. MURDER.COM is an excellent portrayal of the ramifications of early childhood trauma. It is also unusually accurate in demonstrating the intricacies of a mind fragmented by dissociation. MURDER.COM will leave readers surprised from the outset and committed to the very last page. |
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