I was drawn to this mystery by its setting (New Orleans) and its provocative title. It was interesting as a bit of a period piece: set in 1994, we are in a world that still used floppy disks, and where interacting via online bulletin board communities was perceived as a fascinating and intriguing new experience. A shy and lonely misfit, an adult who lives with his parents and escapes into such an online community called the TOWN, appears to have died accidently while rescuing his cat. Policewoman Skip Langdon, however, suspects more is going on, and uncovers evidence not only about this death and a few more to follow, but also a cold case perhaps connected in some way, from 27 years earlier. It was hard to keep interested in this novel. Lots of shallow characters are pulled in with rather careless abandon. The protagonist is inconsistent and sometimes rather selfish, and I was more interested in several secondary characters in her personal life much more than in her. Occasionally it is clear--like when she thinks to herself about works of literature she enjoys or furniture she'd get if she redid her interior design--she is channeling the author directly, but to no real useful purpose for the plot advancement or character believability. Sometimes we get detailed descriptions of everyone's outfits and menu selections that are also unnecessary. A coven is uncovered and tracked, which does make it more exciting for awhile, but only a while.
I've finally started to give up with books that just aren't for me. I haven't got time to waste reading books that I just cant get on with.I got to about 9% before packing this in. The premise seemed great and although the title here confuses me a little (the book I was reading was called Death Before Facebook which makes more sense), it failed to deliver.Glad I didn't come across many spelling or grammatical errors but the story is just far too slow for me and I can't get into it at all. Believe me, I tried. It could have been done so well.
