A drunk teenager dies in a stolen car but pathologist Dr Sam Ryan discovers that he was really strangled. Later his friend is found drowned in the Cam and Jack Falconer, a poacher who saw the 'crash', is burned to death in his cottage. Dreadful deeds in rural England but this is really a cosy struggling to be a hardboiled-sort of Patricia Cornwell goes on Mrs Dale's Diary. In the final, 'epilogue' chapter I could almost 'hear' Mrs Dale herself.
The question throughout is 'who is 'Spider'' which makes it more of a thriller than a mystery. But there is no point detailing unimportant and boring things like parking and opening doors unless there is some significance in them, otherwise they get on your nerves, like the middle class maxims that litter the route-'never say never, never say always,' 'we've always paid our way' etc. Personal responses also seem unreal and the dialogue is very staged.
Why does Dominic, a boy described as shy, suddenly decide to become an extortionist to make his fortune? Why is Falconer, a strong man with a shot gun, afraid of noises outside his cottage as if he were a lonely old woman? Why is 'the pool' not readily identified. Do the life and actions of the 'Spider' make any sense, even for a criminal, once you know who he is? People need background and motivation and act in character-a world in which anything is possible is not very interesting because anything can happen.
Although topically dealing with computers and the Net, the details are inauthentic which will disappoint those it should appeal to. It also seems to take a clichéd view of the Net as a threat with the associated paranoia and mythology of it as a den of porn and illicit goods.
Another unfortunate cliché is the apparent view of gays as perverts preying on society. Two of the characters are 'into' gay porn and the most graphic of the murders involves homosexual rape.
