Reviewed By: Ali Karim - RAM
Murder on the Internet
Amazon UK PB Amazon UK HC
Ron Ellis
Class/Genre: Mystery Hard Boiled Police Procedural
Series: Detective Chief Inspector Glass
I had only read one of Ron Ellis's previous books ‘Single Shot' featuring his character Johnny Ace. The new book however features the grumpy Detective Chief Inspector Glass as well as an appearance from Glass's son-in-law DCI Robin Knox. I was somewhat taken aback with a dedication to our illustrious editor Mike Stotter as well as many other British Crime-Fiction enthusiasts and was somewhat nervous in reviewing this book.
What if I didn't like it? Well luckily for me (and Mike Stotter), I thoroughly enjoyed this police procedural (which is incidentally the third in the Glass series). This book features great dialogue, lashings of coal-black humour intertwined in a tortuously complex tale full of subplots and mischief. Glass is a bit of an old dinosaur struggling in today's modern police world. He is investigating the murder of the down-at-heel elderly gay actor Max Cadamarteri. Glass considers the case one of a simple lovers tiff under the lights and greasepaint, but his sergeant is not so sure. His son-in-law Knox, is meanwhile hard at work tracking down a serial killer called ‘The Spa Killer' who operates nationally. Then Ellis brings this complex tale right up todays headlines withthe problems of internet chatrooms, teenage sex and the growing problem of date- rape. Glass soon finds himself facing the worst from the damp-floor of the Internet as he closes in on an internet porn-ring that sources teenage girls to be kidnapped and killed to order, and exactly who is ‘The Spa Killer'? A fast read as the first murder starts on page two.
The book sparkles with great wit (considering the subject material) and is beautifully bound by Nirvana Press, a must for Ron Ellis's fans and it will hopefully gain him a wider readership.
Ali Karim - RAM
Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Ali Karim - RAM
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