Review by Fazzier -- The Dark Web Murders by Brian O'Hare

[Fazzier]

[Following is a volunteer review of "The Dark Web Murders" by Brian O'Hare.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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The Dark Web Murders is an investigative crime story written by Brian O’Hare. Judge Trevor Neeson, a key figure at the Appellate Court, has been mysteriously and brutally murdered. This happened later in the night after a party the judge had organized in his house where only his closest elite allies were to attend. Sooner, an investigation spearheaded by the Chief Inspector, Jim Sheehan, was launched to unearth any incriminating evidence pertaining to the judge's cause of death. The judge's friends became the principal suspects.

Even though the detective team already had the chief suspects who were to ideally make the entire process faster and simpler, more obstacles presented themselves. Some other three people –a barrister, an affluent retired schoolteacher, and a hardcore criminal– were also gruesomely murdered in a row and in the same fashion Judge Neeson was killed. Going by what the scene of crime officers was able to deduce, these killings seemed to have been carried out by the same perpetrator. Who was this person? And what interest did he have on people who seemingly had nothing in common among them?

The Dark Web Murders was well-written not only in terms of its mechanics but also its contents. At the beginning of the book was a preface that contains a list of principal characters together with a glossary of North Ireland police terms and acronyms. This acted as my source of reference whenever I came across certain acronyms or needed to refer to certain principal characters. Consequently, this enabled me to follow the story easily. The setting was also vividly described making me visualize and have a long-lasting mental picture of the plot. Besides, the author skillfully created suspense throughout the book in such an engrossing manner that kept me glued in this page-turner even as I waited to discover the results of the investigation. All those attributes made me like this book, and I'm looking forward to reading more works by the author.

What I liked the most in this book was how well the characters were depicted and described. The author, just as I had mentioned, includes a piece of introductory information in which readers are given a general overview of the characters' descriptions. For instance, the Chief Inspector, Jim Sheehan, is described as a team leader, charismatic, clever, independent, and married. This approach is also applied to the other characters in the novel, both primary and secondary. Sure enough, the characters were behaving so naturally and with such consistency that they seemed more relatable to the people in the real world. I also realized how the characters had a much-heightened sense of social skills as they were able to read and react accordingly to various paralinguistic cues and emotions. Their partners did not have to necessarily speak in order to communicate and be understood. This is one of the strengths of the book that readers will instantly recognize and appreciate.

All in all, I didn't find anything to dislike about this book except for the absence of page numbers. I would have liked it if the page numbers were inserted although that is also subject to an individual's predilection, and other readers may just be okay without them. On the other hand, this book was well-edited overall. I identified only a few errors which, also, could not detract from the overall enjoyment of this novel. I'm, therefore, glad to rate The Dark Web Murders by Brian O’Hare 4 out of 4 stars. Based on the fact that I really enjoyed reading it, I could not give this book a rating below the perfect score. I highly recommend it to fans of investigative crime stories. However, due to graphic descriptions of murder scenes, I do not encourage minors to pick this or any other person who may be affected by such.

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The Dark Web Murders
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[allbooked+]

Describing the characters in this author's fashion is very different but seems to be very impactful in this case! Thanks for the insightful review!

[rumik]

I've read and reviewed this book and I really enjoyed it! Completely agree with all your points. Thanks for the great review

[Brendan Donaghy]

I would find the absence of page numbers a bit irritating. Not as irritating, mind you, as the book of poems I reviewed recently which included page numbers, but they weren't sequential - that's even worse! Other than that, this sounds like an excellent book, one which I would like to read at some point. Thanks for a great review!