"Another great mystery starring an artificial intelligence"

Turing Hopper is a great protagonist. Because she is an Artificial Intelligence Personality (AIP) who is sentient, she gets help from her friends Tim Pincoski and Maude Graham.

Their employee Ray Santiago is killed. They begin to investigate. Unfortunately they end up with more questions than answers. They soon discover that Ray wasn't exactly who he presented himself to be. Plus they can't find his laptop and are concerned that if it fell into the wrong hands, their entire computer security system could be breached. Many things begin to happen and they discover that Ray was deeply involved in role playing games. They log in to play the computer game only to find it more sinister than they would expect him to be involved with. Then they become aware of the live-action role playing game that goes along with the computer game. It seems that Ray played that too, possibly even the night he was killed. Could this have anything to do with his murder?

Can they find the missing laptop and discover who killed Ray and why before someone else is killed or their computer system is breached?

This is a terrific series. What a unique protagonist there is in this book. Ms. Andrews has written it so well that you truly believe a computer could do this. The way she uses Tim and Maude to assist her seems so natural. The many things that happen and the way the story twists and turns keeps your interest to the point of finding it hard to put down the book.

Ms. Andrews also does a great job of telling the story without using a lot of unrecognizable technical jargon. Computer enthusiast or not, I believe you will enjoy this book.

This is the second in the series and I can't wait to read the third. I highly recommend this book and its predecessor YOU'VE GOT MURDER. They are fast reads with stories that will keep you guessing.

Reviewed by Dawn Dowdle
Posted March 31, 2004