Reviewed By Liz

ISBN 0-7387-0833-X

Hardworking Silicon Valley executive Ian Michaels comes home one day and discovers the body of a murdered woman on his bed. He is pretty sure it is his cleaning lady, Gwendolyn, who he has never met but has corresponded with via sticky notes left on the fridge. He is surprised to discover that she is young, beautiful, and her family, friends, and the police are under the impression that the two of them were involved. Confused and frightened by the possibility that he could be convicted of her murder, Ian takes advantage of his entrée into Gwendolyn’s family to learn more about her and find her killer.

Dot.dead is written by Keith Raffel, a Silicon Valley insider, and incorporates some of his knowledge of tech startup companies and industry culture. One of the plot lines shows the reader the “innovate or die” side of the competitive technology business. This information is interesting and incorporated into the book pretty smoothly.

Raffel does an excellent job of dropping everyman Ian Michaels into a perplexing and scary situation and letting him investigate his way out. Raffel has also given us excellent characters. The people Ian meets along the way are well thought out, have clear motivations that ring true, and they aren’t just filler. Unfortunately, most of them aren’t good suspects, either. Raffel has given us so few suspects and plot twists that the identity of the killer is painfully obvious.

Dot.dead shows us that Raffel has the skills, technical knowledge, and dedication required to write a great mystery. If he can combine those assets with a more sophisticated/complicated plot, his next book could be a blockbuster.

Favorite character? Ian’s mother. Who can resist a good Jewish mother? Did I guess it? Yes. Will I read another? Yes. I want him to wow me with the next one.

Mystery Book Reviews by Liz at http://reviewedbyliz.com ©2007

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