Turing Hopper gets a call in the middle of the night that Ray Santiago, her employee, has been murdered in Click Here for Murder by Donna Andrews. Since Turing is an artificial intelligence program (AIP), a real sentient person but a computer, not a human, she can’t investigate on her own, so she must rely on her friends, Maude and Tim. As the trio looks into Ray’s death, they are astonished to learn that he was not the real Ray Santiago, that his entire life, except for his most recent jobs in the Silicon Valley, was stolen from someone else. As they seek the truth, they find themselves immersed in the computer role playing game Beyond Paranoia, which Ray had been active in playing. Soon the team, including the new member, Claudia, gets involved in a LARP (live action role playing game) that turns out to involve much more than just a game.
This book becomes really exciting as it continues and gets listeners to continue examining questions raised in You’ve Got Murderof what it takes to be a person vs. a human. Further, in this book, we explore the world of role playing games and their live-action counterparts. When do actions within these games cross the line into being dangerous? How can we offer such games and keep out the criminal element, especially pedophiles? How much influence does the violence on the screen have on players to play out the violence in real life?
Click Here for Murder was recently released on audio, for which I am very happy. Bernadette Dunne performs the narration, and though I have always loved her work, especially her work on Donna Andrew’s more well-known Meg Langslow series, I believe she truly surpasses all the previous audiobooks I’ve heard of hers in bringing this book to life. The book’s narration switches back and forth between third person omniscient, where the narrator knows all that is going on and recounts it, and the first person narrative of Turing, the computer. In You’ve Got Murder, Turing works hard on learning how to talk like a human, but even now she still has a slightly mechanical sound to her voice. It’s obvious enough that Maude is afraid Claudia will notice during their “conference calls” with Turing, since Claudia doesn’t know the truth about Turing. Dunne brilliantly provides a credible voice for Turing, with just a hint of a mechanical tone that still is clearly different from the other voices.
I really enjoyed getting to listen to Click Here for Murder. Though this book was written almost 20 years ago, it still holds up well in its depictions of technology, and the questions it raises about the way we approach technology are just as pertinent today as they were when the book was written. If you haven’t read the first book in the series, You’ve Got Murder, I recommend starting with that first, but it’s possible to jump in with Click Here for Murder first. I give this book five stars.
