Monkeewrench, by P.J. Tracy

(0399149783)

I picked this up because it sounded weird and spooky. The plot essentially is that a new computer game has come out about forensic investigation. Now people in Minneapolis are dying just like the victims in the game, one victim per day. And then it turns out that the designers of the game have no identifiable background older than 10 years ago. And one of them admits that this same scenario unfolded in college, with acquaintances suddenly turning up dead in a rather macabre fashion.

There's a hermaphrodite involved, too.

Weirder and weirder.

But ultimately, it's a police procedural with some creative characters and plotlines set (partially) in an area of the world I know from experience. Not the greatest book I've ever read, but it was fun. And I wasn't sure until the very end who the murderer was/is. Which is good.

I just wish these police detectives would stop falling for the women around them. It's tedious; if there's a woman involved, she's beautiful and someone is going to be all la-la over her. Puh-leaze. Or she's a caricature (e.g., the Big Momma black police sergeant) and no one would dare or even think of falling for her. This is why I like Elizabeth George so much; Barbara Havers is just an average- (or not quite) looking woman doing her job.

So overall, this isn't a horrible book, but I think I can skip adding the author to my List.