I picked up this book and from the outset expected a somewhat trashy page-turner of a murder mystery. It was everything I expected and more. While some things were predictably formulaic -- what is a better motivator than the death of "the only woman he ever truly loved"? -- other aspects were refreshingly new. Imagine a murder mystery with a character who is not a private eye, a cop about to retire, or a beautiful criminal psychologist. This story centered around a computer programmer with a yen for travel. His skill set did not include being able to disassemble a Kalashnikov in 20 seconds flat, or knowing which fuse to cut on a bomb, or even stunt driving. Instead, his murder solving skills involved tracing IP addresses to exotic locations and cracking secure sites, not because he has mad hacker skillz but because most internet amateurs are pretty sloppy about security.

The most endearing quality of this book was where it spoke to my people. I remember the restaurants he mentions from San Francisco, I was there during the crash, and I too had friends happily liberated in their unemployment. And while I haven't been to Nepal or Africa, I know the adventure backpacker routine of waking up at four to travel to the next destination, the pleasure of spending 24 hours a day with strangers you only recently met, the recurrence of fellow travellers along a route mapped out by Lonely Planet, the pride felt when you discover something good that's not mentioned by the Book. It reminded me of all my travels and my friends travels and my days in techno-geek San Fran.

The reactions of the lead character were also well-written. He often did something really quite stupid (race out to follow a murderer, track him down at night) but understandable from his point of view. And Evans had the courtesy to make him believably weak at times. He doesn't win over a muscle-bound psychopath through physical feats, he does so through subterfuge and luck. At times the book read too much like a pissing contest between the adventuresome hero and the evildoer, each thumbing their noses at each other and engaging in taunts, but there was enough to speak for the book that I didn't mind the overflowing testosterone too much.

Would I recommend this book? Sure. I certainly couldn't put it down, and it's always nice to be reminded that such books exist. Is it the best-written novel ever? Certainly not. But the meat of the book is written from experience, and that gives me real hope for Evans other books.

If there's one plot element that I like less and find to be mishandled more frequently than the 'love conquers all' trope, it's the serial killer. I used to be deeply fascinated by serial killers, but their 'fandom' rouses in me a furious disgust that I can only relate to an incident of my youth, when upon turning over a seemingly quite dry dead bird that I hoped to take home as a specimen I found the underside wriggling with maggots.

So naturally I went ahead and read Dark Places by Jon Evans.*

What I want to make perfectly clear up front is that I thought that this was probably the best handling of a serial killer vs. ordinary guy plot that I have ever read... more ( )