Review by Chevesic_1234 -- The Dark Web Murders
Posted: 16 Aug 2020, 15:47
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Dark Web Murders" by Brian O'Hare.]
I have rated The Dark Web Murders by Brian O’Hare two out of four stars. This book is a crime thriller. A serial killer, going by the pseudonym “Nemein” (meaning “to give what is due”) commits murders and posts about them in his blog that is located in the dark web, detailing how he committed the crime, describing his feelings and elaborating
his philosophical ideas regarding concepts such as justice and vengeance. The perpetrator views himself as a sort of God or avenging Angel, dispassionately meting out justice to wrongdoers as he judges them. However, the protagonist- DCI Sheehan- recognizes him for what he is: a narcissistic sociopath with a God complex. The novel follows the DCI and his team solve the gruesome crimes and catch Nemein before he kills any more.
As a work of detective fiction, this book was a disappointing read. The ‘reveal’ of Nemein’s identity was not surprising in the least. There are far too many characters in the book and thus, most of the suspects are dealt with in the most superficial and perfunctory manner possible. Hence, it becomes obvious to the reader soon that the one person that dips in and out of the narrative the most frequently must be Nemein. The author does take the effort to list out all the characters at the beginning and also summarizes the characters and information in the dialogue. Unfortunately, it does not prevent the book from being very scattered, superficial and tedious.
Most of the author’s energies are directed in ensuring that every one of the many characters on the DCI’s team has a more-or-less equal distribution of roles and dialogue, instead of focusing on the actual investigation. The investigation itself is painfully unintelligent. Upon discovery of Nemein’s blog, the DCI does not immediately involve forensic technologists to even attempt to locate Nemein; experts in linguistics or literature are not called to analyse the content of the posts itself nor are psychologists brought in to evaluate the peculiar features of the crime. The team of detectives is ignorant about the most basic concepts such as ‘dark web’, ‘psychopath’, ‘narcissist’ and ‘cryptographer’. Despite several characters noting DCI Sheehan’s prowess as a detective several times, he does not behave with rationality or prudence. For instance, he does not think to reveal Nemein’s identity to his team as soon as he figures it out.
The prologue is very tense and exciting. Yet, the climax is extremely contrived and boring. Though the book is of substantial length, neither the suspects nor any aspect of the investigation is covered properly. Each is merely touched upon briefly. Further, Nemein’s motivations are apparent right from the prologue and all subsequent attempts to pull the wool over the reader’s eyes during the investigation do not work. These reasons prevented me from rating this book three or four stars.
There are positive aspects to the book as well. Nemein’s blog posts are very skillfully written. He comes off as highly educated, intelligent and determined but also simultaneously gives the impression of being deeply narcissistic and delusional. His depiction of his understanding of justice and vengeance was both interesting and genuinely chilling. This was sufficient for me to not give a rating of one star. Also, the protagonists do not engage in sermonizing or moralizing and there are no excessive descriptions of emotion. The narrative does not veer off to discuss the personal problems of the protagonists. This keeps the novel from becoming too dark and heavy. Finally, the book is thoroughly edited and grammatical errors and typos were scarce.
I would recommend this book to adults venturing into the C/T/M/H genre. If a reader is familiar with the genre or is critical as a reader, they will probably be dissatisfied by the lack of surprise and the irrational methods of investigation. The crimes are gruesome but the book, overall, is not very dark and those readers who only want a mild level of seriousness ought to pick this book up. However, it must be mentioned that Nemein’s blog posts are worth reading and if one is interested in essays about topics such as justice, morality, revenge, retribution etc., it is worth reading the book.
******
The Dark Web Murders
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
I have rated The Dark Web Murders by Brian O’Hare two out of four stars. This book is a crime thriller. A serial killer, going by the pseudonym “Nemein” (meaning “to give what is due”) commits murders and posts about them in his blog that is located in the dark web, detailing how he committed the crime, describing his feelings and elaborating
his philosophical ideas regarding concepts such as justice and vengeance. The perpetrator views himself as a sort of God or avenging Angel, dispassionately meting out justice to wrongdoers as he judges them. However, the protagonist- DCI Sheehan- recognizes him for what he is: a narcissistic sociopath with a God complex. The novel follows the DCI and his team solve the gruesome crimes and catch Nemein before he kills any more.
As a work of detective fiction, this book was a disappointing read. The ‘reveal’ of Nemein’s identity was not surprising in the least. There are far too many characters in the book and thus, most of the suspects are dealt with in the most superficial and perfunctory manner possible. Hence, it becomes obvious to the reader soon that the one person that dips in and out of the narrative the most frequently must be Nemein. The author does take the effort to list out all the characters at the beginning and also summarizes the characters and information in the dialogue. Unfortunately, it does not prevent the book from being very scattered, superficial and tedious.
Most of the author’s energies are directed in ensuring that every one of the many characters on the DCI’s team has a more-or-less equal distribution of roles and dialogue, instead of focusing on the actual investigation. The investigation itself is painfully unintelligent. Upon discovery of Nemein’s blog, the DCI does not immediately involve forensic technologists to even attempt to locate Nemein; experts in linguistics or literature are not called to analyse the content of the posts itself nor are psychologists brought in to evaluate the peculiar features of the crime. The team of detectives is ignorant about the most basic concepts such as ‘dark web’, ‘psychopath’, ‘narcissist’ and ‘cryptographer’. Despite several characters noting DCI Sheehan’s prowess as a detective several times, he does not behave with rationality or prudence. For instance, he does not think to reveal Nemein’s identity to his team as soon as he figures it out.
The prologue is very tense and exciting. Yet, the climax is extremely contrived and boring. Though the book is of substantial length, neither the suspects nor any aspect of the investigation is covered properly. Each is merely touched upon briefly. Further, Nemein’s motivations are apparent right from the prologue and all subsequent attempts to pull the wool over the reader’s eyes during the investigation do not work. These reasons prevented me from rating this book three or four stars.
There are positive aspects to the book as well. Nemein’s blog posts are very skillfully written. He comes off as highly educated, intelligent and determined but also simultaneously gives the impression of being deeply narcissistic and delusional. His depiction of his understanding of justice and vengeance was both interesting and genuinely chilling. This was sufficient for me to not give a rating of one star. Also, the protagonists do not engage in sermonizing or moralizing and there are no excessive descriptions of emotion. The narrative does not veer off to discuss the personal problems of the protagonists. This keeps the novel from becoming too dark and heavy. Finally, the book is thoroughly edited and grammatical errors and typos were scarce.
I would recommend this book to adults venturing into the C/T/M/H genre. If a reader is familiar with the genre or is critical as a reader, they will probably be dissatisfied by the lack of surprise and the irrational methods of investigation. The crimes are gruesome but the book, overall, is not very dark and those readers who only want a mild level of seriousness ought to pick this book up. However, it must be mentioned that Nemein’s blog posts are worth reading and if one is interested in essays about topics such as justice, morality, revenge, retribution etc., it is worth reading the book.
******
The Dark Web Murders
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon