Virtually Dead »

Peter May won the Scottish Young Journalist of the Year Award at 21 and had his first novel published at 26. He went on to become a successful Scottish television dramatist. He lives in France with his wife Janice Halley.

Crime-scene photographer Michael Kapinsky is a man whose first life is in a mess. But his second life is about to get a whole lot messier. Staggering under the financial burden left by his recently deceased wife, Michael struggles to come to terms with her death - until his psychologist persuades him to enter a virtual world called Second Life to participate in a new kind of group therapy. Once there, his persona, Chas Chesnokov, discovers that victims whose crime scenes Michael has attended in the wealthy Southern California resort of Newport Beach have had their avatars clinically executed in the virtual world. Co-opted into the Twist of Fate Detective Agency, Chas embarks on an investigation with an exotic dancer and escort girl. They uncover a series of killings and a financial scam that is netting the murderer millions of dollars. And when Michael is tempted by money that mysteriously appears in Chas's Second Life account, both his real and his virtual lives are in danger.

Publishers Weekly

Real life and the virtual world bleed into one another with dangerous results in this well-plotted mystery from May (Blacklight Blue). Michael Kapinsky, a photographer for the Orange County (Calif.) Forensic Science Service, is fighting depression after losing his wife to cancer as well as facing a $3 million financial hole. Given his troubles, Michael decides to accept his therapist's suggestion to join an experimental group therapy session conducted in Second Life, an online world with 14 million members. A colleague of Michael's, crime scene investigator Janey Amat, already belongs to SL, where she runs the Twist of Fate Detective Agency. Janey welcomes Michael as her partner, and the pair soon discover that someone is killing avatars in SL as well as their RL (real-life) counterparts. May keeps the reader guessing while also providing an intriguing glimpse into the pleasures and pitfalls of SL. (Jan.)