My Review (4 stars out of 5)
Edinburgh journalist Frankie becomes embroiled in a dark online world when she is assigned a high-profile crime story. Focusing on women’s safety and how attitudes have hardly changed since the era of the Yorkshire Ripper, Frankie enlists the help of her partner, but things soon get out of hand…
This is the second book I’ve read by this author and this time she tackles a topic some writers would not feel confident in taking on. The characters are a mixed lot, though few of them are what I’d call pleasant, making them difficult to like. Journalist Frankie is the most appealing, but even she comes over as a tad irritating at times. This sort of thing doesn’t matter so much when everyone is expected to hate the bad guy, but there has to be something readers can identify with, especially in the protagonist. That said, Frankie’s aims are laudable and her progress on the story she’s trying to write highlights some of the more dangerous online groups in our society, such as incels, and the manosphere, as well as issues around equality and bullying and, specifically, what such things can lead to.
A thought provoking and well-written tale.
Colin Garrow 