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With the use of social media so pervasive in modern society, it's inevitable that it would drift over into the literary realm as well. This book is an excellent, creative use of how the fascination with other people's lives as glimpsed through social media can be turned into a successful book. In this thriller, LG Fickel (obviously not the woman's real name) has a blog focusing on her love of noir books and films.
One day, she tells her readers that she has witnessed something in real life that has stunned her. A man on a Boston subway platform has brushed past her and is killed by an incoming train. She is the main witness to the event; badly shaken, she tells the police what she has seen. However, when the investigation gets under way, it turns out that there is a connection between the dead man and the blogger. Was it suicide or is she the murderer, or was LG simply in the wrong place at the wrong time?
Using the blogging format, LG Fickel tells her story. Not only she, but her readers as well move the story forward via their postings. For the reader, it's much like reading a blog themselves with many of the online personality types explored via reader comments on the blog. The readers comment and pose questions (and doubts) about the blogger. One Dutch blogger begins to see many of the noir literary references in the blogger's exposition. Others have their own unique frame of reference to bring to their questions about what has happened.
As the initial storyline moves from witnessing the event into the police investigation, things get murkier. It becomes clear that the blogger has put her own spin on the story and only, over time, reveals incriminating information about her very real role in the event, beyond witnessing the man's death.
Toward the end of the book, readers begin to get a sense of just how much catfishing the woman has done in her online tale. Other characters (her blog followers) begin to put things together and come up with a different story than what was originally posted by LG Fickel.
It's a fascinating way to put together a murder mystery, making it even more lifelike. One caveat is the tacked-on last chapter, which reveals what happens after the mystery is solved. Without this, it would have been a perfect book. With it, it becomes a little less powerful. That said, this is still a book worth exploring for its innovation and storytelling.
§ Christine Zibas is a freelance writer and former director of publications for a Chicago nonprofit.
Reviewed by Christine Zibas, October 2016
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