Features
- Cover Type: Hard Cover with 240 pages
- Published by: St. Martin's Minotaur August 22, 2006
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0312332491
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0312332495
-
Book Dimensions:
8.4 x 5.3 x 1 inches
- Weighs: 8 ounces
From Publishers Weekly
At the start of Australian author Johnston's sequel to
The Trojan Dog (2005), Sandra Mahoney stares at a carefully composed scene on a computer screen—a young man dead on the rocks below a castle—and wonders if it represents murder or suicide. A somewhat disjointed plot unfolds from this intriguing opening, as Sandra, a
computer crime consultant, and her partner, Ivan Semyonov, retrace the life of the victim, Niall Howley, both at the hospital where he worked in radiology and on the Internet, where he became the Irish hero Ferdia in an elaborate game called Castle of Heroes. The details about Internet game playing and the bits of Irish folklore lend interest, but too many unnecessary details such as Sandra's repeated mentions of her baby Katya's hair distract. Well-knit prose and concise descriptions keep the energy level up and the action moving along, but some readers may feel cheated that the story dribbles to an end.
(Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
In the second Sandra Mahoney mystery (after
The Trojan Dog, 2005), the Australian self-made sleuth and computer-crime expert looks into the apparent suicide of a young man who was addicted to an online role-playing game. If he really killed himself, did the game or one of its players make him do it? At once a sharply plotted mystery and a rather unsettling exploration of the hard-core gaming world, the novel is a good example of the state of Australian mystery fiction today: tough, aggressive, and memorable.
David PittCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Reader ReviewsIvan and Sandra have opened up a consultancy mostly dealing with white collar crime. Since Ivan is involved on another assignment, Sandra goes to the home of Moira Howley who wants her to find out what was going through her son Neil's mind when he committed suicide. The police think he became involved in a MUD internet game Castles of Heroes and was despondent when the gamemaster executed his character and kicked Neil out of the game because he was trying to steal his source code. He jumped off Telstra tower but Sandra can't understand how he leaped over the barbed wire pointed at the visitor. She e-mails people who were involved with the game and all of them are shocked that Neil committed suicide. When she talks to the originator of the game, she learns that Neil signed on from the hospital where he worked as well as his home. She begins to believe someone else signed on using Neil's name especially since he complained someone was stalking him on the game. She wonders if he was murdered and she goes to the hospital to talk to his co-workers who refuse to talk to her. Someone thinks she is getting to close to the truth because a death threat via e-mail arrives. THE WHITE TOWER takes place in Canberra, Australia, giving armchair travelers an enticing look at the continent. The protagonist balances her roles as a wife, a sleuth, and a mother with an ease that seems natural and enhances the believability of the story line. Ivan is a great help who supports his wife emotionally in a way every a woman would like her significant other to support them. Dorothy Johnston provides a fine suspense laden mystery. Harriet Klausner
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