Weekly Reader: Murder on the Dark Web (Belfast Murder Mystery Book 4) by Brian O'Hare; Dark and Sinister Murder Mystery Plays On Notions of Innocent and Guilty

 

Weekly Reader: Murder on the Dark Web (A Belfast Murder Mystery Book 4) by Brian O'Hare; Dark and Sinister Murder Mystery Plays On Notions of Innocent and Guilty

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: I will try not to reveal too much about this book, but one of the things that I like the most about it is somewhat tied to a huge spoiler so I will just say this review contains SOME MAJOR HEAVY DUTY SPOILERS!!!!

Murder on the Dark Web by Brian O'Hare is one of those types of murder mystery novels that completely subverts and flip flops the ideas of innocent and guilty and right and wrong. Not in some time have I detested a group of murder and blackmail victims more. Not in some time have I empathized, understood, and almost completely sided with the murderer more. It is only when the murderer takes things a step too far that the empathy ends.

Detective Chief Inspector Jim Sheehan and his team are called in when Judge Trevor Neeson is found murdered in his study. Sheehan's team are the usual brave good-hearted characters that you would find in most police procedural novels. 

Sheehan is the wise leader and father to his men (and woman) and has a happy home life. Sergeant Denise Stewart, Sheehan's partner, is the only woman on the team. She is dating one of the other detectives and has to deal with the other team members trying to protect her so-called "delicate femininity" and dismissing her because she's a woman. Detective Declan Connors and Malachy McBride are an odd pairk (Connors is middle aged, street smart, and surly, McBride is young, educated, and enthusiastic). The two care for each other and may be partners, more than just on the force. Sheehan's team are a great well-written bunch that help provide light in the darkness by protecting those in trouble and punishing the truly guilty.

At first Neeson's murder investigation seems routine. On the night that he died, he had a gathering of wealthy guests. While investigating the guests, each one insists that they were just talking about Brexit. Well, okay rich folks talking politics nothing wrong with that. Except every time that the group says the reason behind their meeting, they use the exact same words as though they were reciting them. They seem like they are covering up their real conversation.

The book alternates between Sheehan's team's investigation, the murderer, and Neeson's colleagues. The Reader is one step ahead of Sheehan's team through the entire book, so it becomes not so much a Whodunnit, but more of a when will they find out?

What the Reader learns is that Neeson's gathering had nothing to do with Brexit. Instead he was part of a secret organization called The Fulfillment for the Enlightened Club, a group of wealthy elites who meet to fulfill their sexual pleasures. The club consists of high society members such as judges, professors, stockholders, property moguls, socialites, and millionaires. One member even flies in from South Africa to fulfill their sexual pleasure.

It is the activities of this club that are detestable. The club meets and pays for various sadistic pleasures like items on a menu, literally. (Seriously, there is a menu that lists all the sexual escapades and how much the members can pay for them.) The sexual activities include making snuff films and having sex with children as young as three or four years old. (sickened yet?) Neeson and the others are a detestable decadent bunch that take delight in other victim's pain. Neeson and another judge, Adams, have acquired a reputation for bidding and fighting over the younger pretty boys and young men. 

The Club members are the sorts that are so comfortable with their wealth and status that they believe that they can get away with anything. This is probably why they make the same lame alibi. They play Sheehan's and his team just like their young victims. They have no shame, sorrow, remorse, and consider themselves above the law. The more the Reader gets to know these awful people, the more they want to see them taken down.

Sheehan and the other detectives aren't the only ones trailing the club. On the Dark Web, a character named Nemein has been leaving messages on his blog confessing to Neeson's murder and taking credit for other murders of club members. No one knows who he is except that he seems to be a well educated individual (he writes in the style of 19th century literature) and has a knowledge of the legal and judicial process. He claims that he is serving justice. This causes Sheehan and the other detectives to wonder who Nemein is and what is his connection to the Club. Is he a member or one of their victims?

What becomes clear is that Nemein has been hurt and is disgusted with the Club's actions. He is out for revenge about something personal and won't let the club's wealth and status be a barrier in his particular brand of justice. Much like other antagonists in other crime books that I read like Damien Linnane's Scarred or Karina Kantas' Lawless Justice, Nemein becomes understandable in his illegal activities. When Nemein reveals his connection to the club, his story is genuinely heartbreaking. The Reader can't help but feel for this character who once had love and showed kindness only to meet hurt and betrayal in the worst way.

What shifts our sympathies against Nemein is in the way he dispenses justice, especially against someone who was not a club member. He doesn't mind hurting innocent bystanders to make his point or forcing someone whose only crime was doing their job to make a sadistic choice. In his pursuit of justice, Nemein turns into the very monsters that he hated and upon whom he swore vengeance.

Murder on the Dark Web is a dark but gripping murder mystery. It shows us that sometimes the line between good and evil is not so defined. In fact, it can be quite blurry.

New Book Alert: Witness by Simon Maltman; Character Driven Suspense Thriller About Past Crimes and Sins

 

New Book Alert: Witness by Simon Maltman; Character Driven Suspense Thriller About Past Crimes and Sins

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Witness, Simon Maltman's suspense thriller, shows in graphic detail the proverbial Road to Hell along with the Good Intentions in which said road is paved.

Witness is a tense, edgy, but also character driven novel about Pastor Tom Carter, a Belfast-based minister with the International Church of Tertulian's Trinity (ICOTT). When he was a young man, he was a part of terrorist organizations. However, he has put that all behind him. He is a popular man of the cloth with a large following. He is happily married to Cherry and the father of an adorable daughter, Becky. He even has some far reaching plans to build a youth center that would help street kids, like he used to be, get a new start in life. He just needs some extra money to help build the center.

In a desperate attempt to get that money, Tom appeals to "Uncle" Paul, an old family friend and fellow former terrorist. Well Paul isn't as former as he appears. Even though he had been released from prison, he still has a toe in the old world as Tom learns. Paul says he will hand over the cash if Tom does him a favor.

Meanwhile, there is an extended kidnapping plot in which an unnamed family is abducted by two ruthless kidnappers. At first this subplot is suspenseful but appears unrelated to the main plot until we later learn who the players actually are and how they are linked to the rest of the story.

Maltman captures a Northern Ireland that is still struggling to recover from the violence that played into almost 100 years of their history. While on paper, tensions have cooled down and laws have been set to improve relations between Protestant and Catholic factions, the human heart corroded by decades of hatred is not always so easily swayed. Many of the characters are still caught up in their prejudices and lust for violence and people like Paul love to play into that. 

Paul is like a mob boss knowing others' weaknesses and using them against them. In his conversations with Tom, Paul is like a chess master playing against a new opponent. There are subtle suggestions that his allegiances to his former ways have less to do with national pride than they do with controlling his enemies and quenching a sadistic pleasure for blood. Tom is just one of many that he likes to control and force them to do exactly what he wants.

Tom is also a fascinating character. Unlike many religious figures in fiction, he sincerely practices his faith and wants to live a good life. He does everything that he can to repair the damage that he was instrumental in causing in his youth.

However, when Tom encounters Paul, he realizes that the more he tried to run from his past, the more it catches up to him. It is all too easy for him to be seduced back into that life because those feelings were still there. He tried to be a good faith driven person to hide what had been inside all along.

Once Tom follows Paul, his actions interfere with the rest of his life. He becomes a man easily swayed by darker impulses that were simply buried and just waiting to come out. He has an affair with a barmaid and the guilt eats away at his marriage to Cherry. He blackmails a fellow pastor with pederastic tendencies when he gets too close to the church's financial transactions and the sudden generous donation. While Tom still suffers from intense guilt, he goes along with these actions almost like an addict who can no longer stop himself.

The title Witness refers to a crime that Tom saw when he was a child that he had buried, but had changed his life forever. He is also a witness to his own self destruction as the good man that he tried to be is swallowed by the man he once was. He is helpless to stop his own transition into villainy until the end when he finds a way to stand up to Paul and go from the witness to the actor.