Roadside Crosses, by Jeffery Deaver (2009)

This is a book I am going to bring to class today and recommend to teachers. Deaver is still exploring new literacies, the internet, and digital worlds. Roadside Crosses is a "Katherine Dance" book set in the Bay Area. It explores gaming culture and the dangers of the internet. Although Deaver portrays the dark side of the internet in this book and his most recent Lincoln Rhyme book I can't help but read a positive feeling about this new world we are all exploring as well.

There are some "contrived" plot twists and I considered the ultimate villain as a suspect from the beginning, but still the book was a compelling read. It also gave me some personal comfort in explorations of the difficulties of working within bureaucracies. Both this book and Michael Connely's recent novel The Scarecrow are going to stay in my home as reference sources.

The Broken Window, by Jeffery Deaver (2009)

Deaver is, indeed, one of America's most gripping detective fiction writers. Although I had lots of work I should have been doing, I ended up sitting in the backyard today finishing the book. The digital world is appearing more and more frequently in fiction and in this book Deaver has wound it together with data mining and homeland security. At the end of the book he offers a list of organizations that are attempting to preserve privacy rights. I will probably be visiting them in the next few days.

Other than the mention of rapes (no graphic details) this book could be used as a classroom recommendation. I doubt that it would serve as a whole group read, except perhaps in a technology or business course.