4 out of 4 stars
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The Dark Web Murders is the first book written by Brian O’Hare that I have read. Because I was reading it to review, I read it slowly, carefully, word for word, often reading aloud to myself until my voice was hoarse. As a result it took me two days to read instead of my usual few hours of skim ’n scan and so these characters lived with me arguing, defending, thinking, laughing, crying and yelling for two days and to a certain extent, every now and again, they still do. Because of (ethical) questions they raised within my mind, perhaps they always will.
It’s been a long time since I’ve read a novel this carefully, this thoughtfully, so immersed in the tale that the book’s world becomes more real than my own and must say, what a pleasure: the book is well written and edited and so reads easily, it’s written in good English English and contains no profanity for effect. (A nice change – I’ve always thought, esp. excessive, swearing proves little more than a lack of vocabulary.) The book has everything a good tale needs to drown in: love and hate, power and play, suspense and wonder, horror, loyalty, murder, betrayal, more ... it held my interest in a vice, broke my heart as it rolled on, filled me with sheer horror at times and it has what I would call a realistic ending rather than one that would have left me, as the imaginary fly on the wall, feeling smugly well-satisfied with the world it created.
The Dark Web Murders tells how Chief Inspector Jim Sheehan and his SCU team unravel a series of gory and extremely gruesome murders, murders obviously related by method but which appear to have no connection to each other or connecting motive. We follow who they investigate and how, why this and not that, their trails, where those trails break apart and where they come together and how they lead the authorities deep into a world of utter depravity and sex trafficking. Once the team finds Nemein’s dark web blog, we follow what confuses them, what they glean from it and how Nemein sets up his own downfall within it, which, unless you’re more observant than I am you don’t actually realise until the end, but Jim Sheehan wondered – and thankfully – made notes because those notes saved a life and his own sanity. Unlike me, Jim Sheehan did not get lost in the beauty of Nemein’s language.
What I liked best about the book .... the interaction between the team members, their quirks, their faults and flaws and how they work around and with them, and their respect and care for each other. I enjoyed intelligent police officers asking seemingly dumb questions and what they learnt from frustrated or irate answers. I liked Nemein, no – I was fairly sure within a few pages into chapter three who our Nemein was and so I watched and listened carefully to what Nemein did and said, and so no – I didn’t like Nemein, I loved Nemein, and Nemein broke my heart. Yes, I know he was a psychopathic narcissist (likely with a good dose of OCD thrown in) but he no more chose to be a psychopathic narcissist than I chose to have brown eyes instead of blue. All his life his psychopathy was under control – until the event that “all but destroyed my life.” The event that sent him off the rails of normal and into the abyss of full blown psychosis and madness.
What I disliked about the book? What it left me with. The age old dilemma, “sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” How/where do we find, who will be our eunuchs? Division of power tries, but division of power is still made up of humans and so unable to see all its own cracks, or police itself or be nanny to itself with 100% effectiveness especially across the lines of division. Like Nemein and his ‘noble soul,’ how many bright young lives filled with potential are lost to the system that by its nature is, and must remain impartial, uncaring? And I really hate that, if anything brings the topics this book covers to mind (such as now writing this review or a whiff of human trafficking on the news,) Nemein’s pain still screams in my head.
For the reasons given in my second paragraph, I rate this book a solid 4 out of 4 stars and definitely recommend that if you like a good detective murder mystery that you read it and yes, I will read more of Mr. O’Hare’s work. .... I just hope he doesn’t make me fall in love with any more criminals.
PS. All but one of Nemein’s murder victims got off too lightly. I would have liked them to have screamed in pure agony for a hundred years, each, before receiving the comfort of death.
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The Dark Web Murders
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