Book Review: Shoot to Thrill by P. J. Tracy

Shoot to Thrill
Author: P. J. Tracy
Series: Monkeewrench (Book 5)
Publication: G.P. Putnam's Sons; 1st edition (April 29, 2010)

Description: The Monkeewrench crew returns in a stunning new thriller.It's eighty-five degrees in the shade when Minneapolis detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth pull into the MPD parking garage. They're driving a tricked-out Caddy, repossessed from a low-level drug dealer. It's not a Beemer or a Mercedes, but it's got GPS, air-conditioning, and power seats with more positions than the Kama Sutra. Things are heating up inside the station-house, too. The bomb squad's off to investigate another suspicious package at the mall, and kids are beating the crap out of one another and posting it on YouTube. And before Magozzi and Rolseth can wish for a straight-on homicide, the call comes in: a floater.Soon they're humping it along a derelict stretch of the Mississippi River, beyond the green places where families picnic and admire the views. They can see her- she looks like a bride in her white formal gown- face down, dead in the water. And so it begins.

My Thoughts: Magozzi and Rolseth's most recent case is that of a transvestite dressed as a bride found face down in the Mississippi River. At first it looks like an accident, but that changes to murder when it is learned that someone videoed the murder and posted it on YouTube.

Meanwhile, Grace and the Monkeewrench gang are trying to write some software that can distinguish between videos that fake murders and those that are real. They are working with FBI Agent John Smith who is nearing his mandatory retirement date and wondering what he is going to do with the rest of his life.

When it is discovered that there is a chatroom where murderers and would-be murderers can go and brag about their kills, the case and the project come together. The Monkeewrench gang and the police work together to try to find the killers before they can kill again.

A side issue has to do with the disaffected using the internet to get their fifteen minutes of fame with a case of someone leaving packages with suspicious contents all over the Twin Cities. This story talks a lot about the negative side of the Web since it gives a forum for crazies of all kinds.

I thought it was a great story and a thought-provoking one too.

Favorite Quote:

"And by the way, the Web is really starting to piss me off. It's like a meet-and-greet for sociopaths all of a sudden."

"Access and anonymity. If you're a scumbag, it's the perfect storm. But in the end, it's the same old criminals, just a different venue.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.