Level 26: Dark Origins (Level 26 Series #1) »

Anthony E. Zuiker is the creator and executive producer of the most-watched television show in the world, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, as well as CSI: Miami and CSI: New York. Zuiker is a visionary business leader who speaks professionally about the future of entertainment and storytelling on multiple platforms. A mystery aficionado since childhood, Zuiker's lifelong dream has been to write a crime novel.

Duane Swierczynski is the author of several thrillers, including Severance Package, which he's currently adapting for the screen. He writes the monthly X-Men series Cable for Marvel Comics, and has written other titles featuring Iron Fist, Punisher, and Wolverine.

A revolutionary, cross-platform, immersive storytelling experience centered on a series of crime thrillers from the visionary creator of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Level 26 is a series of crime thrillers centered on a rogue serial killer hunter. Steve Dark is head of a highly secret and incredibly skilled black-ops element within the U.S. government, which is tasked with finding and bringing to justice the most brutal and horrific serial murderers in the world -- especially those whose existence world governments would prefer not to admit.

Adept at suppressing his own personality and conjuring the mind and the world of an unknown killer based on the signature elements of the crimes, Steve Dark possesses the unique ability to mimic and virtually inhabit a killer's profile and killing landscape based on the smallest details. Dark's methods require an existence off the grid and underground, pushing him ever closer to his targets even as the psychic toll of losing his own identity comes dangerously close to irreversible. Under the direct control of the U.S. government, the reluctant investigator and his team are on call 24/7, ready to immerse themselves in a new operation at any time, at any point on the globe.

Storytelling 2.0
Readers of Level 26 will have access to a Web-based portal where they can access digital content, including twenty book-specific "cyber-bridges" for each entry in the series. These cyber-bridges will be called out in the text of each novel-approximately every five chapters by a graphic icon and a code-which, when entered into the digital portal, will unlock a video, audio, or interactive element that enhances the story.

The Web portal -- designed by EQAL, of lonelygirl15 fame -- will also feature an interactive social networking component where readers can congregate to interact with one another and with the story-ensuring the community has a significant and direct impact on the evolution of the storylines and characters in Steve Dark's world -- as Anthony and his team monitor and participate in the discourse and craft future entries in the series.

About the Author
ANTHONY E. ZUIKER is the creator and executive producer of the most-watched television show in the world, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and a visionary business leader who speaks regularly about the future of entertainment. Zuiker lives in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

Publishers Weekly

Law enforcement categorizes killers on a scale of one to 25, with 25 being the sadistic psychopath. However, one brutal serial killer, code-named “Sqweegel,” has earned his own special designation of Level 26. Only one man—federal agent Steve Dark—has ever gotten close to catching him, but the effort cost Dark the lives of his foster family and drove him into self-imposed retirement. Now the agency wants him back on the case and, it would seem, so does Sqweegel. John Glover has a wonderful time narrating Zuiker's debut thriller; his committed delivery runs the gambit from serious to lighthearted, maniacal to deadly serious. Even if the story leans toward the cliché and the breaks directing listeners to webisodes are intrusive and irritating, the delivery is engrossing. It should be noted that some sections of the book are disturbing, and Glover's performance only makes them doubly so. Not for the fainthearted. A Dutton hardcover. (Sept.)