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Click Here for Murder
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Author: Donna Andrews
List Price: $22.95
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0425188566
Publisher: Prime Crime (06 May, 2003)
Edition: Hardcover
Sales Rank: 78,706
Average Customer Rating: 4.14 out of 5
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Customer ReviewsRating: 2 out of 5
Click Here For Vapid Novels
I read the two books by Donna Andrews about the adventures of Turing Hopper, the AI detective, "You've Got Murder" and "Click Here For Murder". These two books are written as shallowly and simplistically as any Nancy Drew or Tom Swift adventure.Adventures they are, however, so, if naive, juvenile, straightforward prose and univocal storytelling, style and plot is what you are looking for, these two books are worthy of your time. I recommended both of them to my fifteen year old daughter. I admire that the author produced these two books and is evidently working on yet a third. She is an ardent writer, brimming with energy. Very likely, she won't stop at three or even four installments. She will continue to owe special thanks to "all the readers who, like (her own protagonists,) Maude and Tim, didn't have any problem believing that Turing was real." I daresay I will continue not to number among them.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Enjoyable computer tale with a few loose ends
When one of her staff members is killed, artificial intelligence personality Turing Hopper suspects that she may also be a target. The only clues are the role-playing game that the victim spent so much time playing, and his strange lack of a true identity. Turing assigned her two friends to find out more about the game and more about what Ray Santiago did before he became Ray Santiago and joined her company. What she doesn't expect is that she'll be sending her friends into danger--or that Santiago's killers just might be a threat for a bright artificial intelligence--like her. Author Donna Andrews does an excellent job making computer crime approachable, using non-technical language and humanizing her computer-program protagonist (as well as providing a couple of very human sidekicks). Turing's concerns about turning into HAL (from 2001) and worries about following the law and respecting privacy add to reader safety. The role-playing game that Andrews describes is also believable, even as it spills out from the computer into the real-world of Washington D.C. Andrews is a skilled writer and provides a page-turning thrill-ride. Although I liked Turing (despite her occasional descents into self-appraisal, I found sidekick Maude a little harder to like. Her moonlighting for Turing's company sounded unethical to me. Worse, she didn't seem to hesitate to shoot to kill, even when she wasn't fully aware of the situation. Nor did she seem to suffer any ethical consequences after she'd actually killed. The hints at the use of games for pedophilia also struck an incongruous note. Although this was an important justification for Santiago's initial involvement, Andrews should either have made this a bigger element or left it out. CLICK HERE FOR MURDER isn't a perfect story, but it is a well written and entertaining adventure. The use of an artificial intelligence character creates an enjoyable alternate spin to the usual mystery novel and Andrews develops this story line convincingly, in a way that will be enjoyable both to computer professionals and to those who remain a bit concerned about the role of computers in our lives.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Fun and intelligenct mystery
'Click Here for Murder' is the second book in a new series featuring Turig Hopper, an Artificial Intelligence Personality. In this installment, a talented system engineer that is working on creating a secure new 'home' for Turig is murdered. As Turig and coworkers / friends decide to look into Ray's murder, they discover that Ray Santiago does not really exist. Not only is the group concerned about how well they knew Ray, his access to the passwords that could shut Turig down introduces a new urgency to solving the crime. Assisted by Maude, a coworker at Turig's birth company, and Tim, a new private detective, Turig discovers that Ray was involved in a virtual reality game that had moved into the physical world as a live action role play. This plot line adds intensity to the story, and smoothes the introduction of a new character, Claudia, a private detective from Florida. After a chase involving a good mix of technology and old fashioned 'who dun-it,' the group solves Ray's murder while setting up the reader nicely for the 3rd entrant in the series. Donna Andrews does a great job intertwining technology and crime. Turig's intelligence allows for a challenging story line, but her nascent personality prevents the book from becoming impersonal. This is a fun read that both mystery lovers and technologists will enjoy, with unique characters that catch the reader's attention.
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