like driving in stop and go traffic ( )

What an absolutely phenomenal crime thriller that I could not stop listening to! At some point today one of my teenagers was talking to me and I was smiling and nodding. They looked confused until they realised I hadn't listened to a word they were saying because I was so absorbed in my audiobook and didn't want to stop it. Never fear, I paused the book after being reprimanded for my neglect and some quality parenting ensued. Then back to the book I went! What a gripping storyline and a cast of top-notch characters. I will one hundred percent continue with this series when I have cleared my current library loans. Brilliant!

CW: Violent murders ( )

Never would have picked this up if I hadn’t been reading it for a class, but I think I might end up sticking with this series. I like the cop characters a lot, and I think the Monkeewrench folks could grow on me. I felt so smug because I was sure I’d figured out who the murderer was, but the plot turned out to be trickier than I expected.
I didn’t realize until today that the author is a mother-daughter writing team, which is cool. I wouldn’t have guessed it was more than one author, let alone two women. I don’t know if it was the pseudonym or the tone, but I thought I was reading a book by a dude.
It was an exciting ride, anyway. I could have done without the million references to how fat, yet how devastatingly sexy Annie is, but that’s my only real complaint. I didn’t need another series in my life, but I’m curious about what happens next for these characters. ( )

This was a very entertaining book, with a good mix of mystery, police work, technology, and humor. If not for my GR friends, I don't think I ever would have come across this winner.

I liked the people in the story, mostly, although some names were a bit unusual and it took me a while to remember who was who. The plot was tricky as nobody knows anything about the perpetrator, not even whether it was a male or a female.

There were several murders happening, and at first, the first one, in Northern Wisconsin, didn't seem related to the others, in Minnesota, which were definitely related to each other being copies from a computer game about a serial killer. It took a while to put them together, but once that happened, they were well on their way to a solution. But even then, it was not clear who it was until near the end of the book.

The name of the book comes from the name of the software company that developed the game that was being copied. The owners of this company were a strange group. There was a biker who looked like a Hells Angel, a very large woman who was apparently very sexy, a pretty young lady who always carried a gun - although apparently, they all did, just not quite as often. There was one guy who was more of a businessman and wore things like Armani suits, and a tall geeky guy. They were all pretty mysterious, having no background, and they were sort of a family. Needless to say, they were all suspects at one time or another.

I need to read another one or two right away, before I forget the names of the main characters.


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Oh my goodness. I think I have a new author crush. Actually, since Tracy is a mother-daughter team, does it count as just one crush, or two? I know I picked this up at a library sale but I don't remember what caught my eye, or if it was on my radar from LT. I really enjoyed the story. It reminds me a bit of Carol O'Connell. I was very aware of the pacing and it is break-neck at the end, maybe a bit too much. But it is the first in the series and debuts get a little leeway. It was SO funny, in a million ways, and yet it did not strike me as campy or trite. I think I could tell that it was two writers and I do prefer one over the other, but it did not bother me much. I will definitely read book two. ( )