Virtual Suspects / Susanne O’Leary and Ola Zaltin

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Mystery/Suspense

Approximate word count: 65-70,000 words

Availability   

Kindle US: YES UK: YES Nook: YES Smashwords: YES Paper: NO

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

Born in Sweden and married to a now retired Irish diplomat, Susanne O’Leary has lived in France, Australia, and Belgium while following her husband from assignment to assignment. They’ve finally settled in Ireland with an occasional romantic holiday in France. O’Leary has several books available for your Kindle, some traditionally published initially and re-released in eBook form, and some that have gone direct to Kindle.

Co-author Ola Zaltin is also Swedish. He studied screenwriting at the National Film School of Denmark and has written several short films, one feature film, and many scripts for episodic TV shows.

Description:

A sequel to O’Leary and Zaltin’s previous book, Virtual Strangers, this book finds the estranged former lovers, Annika and Seabee, both back in their native Sweden, although neither realizes the other is there. Then they run into each other at the jail, where Seabee is locked up and Annika is leading a field trip of aspiring authors who are attending a workshop on writing crime fiction. Soon the bodies start to stack up and Annika is searching for the killer, dragging Seabee along.

Appraisal:

As with Virtual Strangers, the predecessor to this book with the same main characters, Virtual Suspects is a farce, with improbable, humorous situations. It is mildly satirical, gently making fun of Swedish crime novels, murder mysteries, authors, and the world of publishing. And let’s not forget the virtual part of the title. As with the predecessor, some of the action happens in cyberspace, not only adding to the plot, but also shining a light on how the internet has changed how we interact with each other. My favorite of the cyberspace scenes is when Annika takes to the bathtub with her laptop to Skype with an author friend from the US. Why can I never get anyone to do that? A fun read that I liked even more than Virtual Strangers.

FYI:

Some adult language. Uses UK spelling conventions.

Although a sequel to Virtual Strangers, this book is a stand-alone, and should be easy to follow without having read its predecessor.

Format/Typo Issues:

I evaluated based on a pre-release beta version of the book and am unable to evaluate in this area.

Rating: ***** Five stars