Diary of a Dead Man: 01/20/09

I apologize if tonight's review comes out a little incoherent. I am watching one of the many wonderful news specials about today's inauguration of President Barack Obama and I'm getting swept away in the excitement. I've been grinning ear to ear since I woke up this morning. Despite our current problems, I am more hopeful than I have been in nearly a decade. We actually began celebrating early with a pizza party this weekend (Hawaiian pizza for his ties to Hawaii).

Diary of a Dead Man by Walter Krumm over the weekend as a way to escape from the monotony of having a cold and having not slept well. It was the perfect entertainment for a weekend lie in.

Cameron "Cam" Taylor gets an unsolicited instant message and after many weeks of chatting and exchanging photographs decides to meet his online paramour for an in person for an affair. What he finds instead is the body of his would-be lover lying on the bed of their hotel room. How Cam reacts sets in play a spiral of events that drives the breakneck pace of this thriller.

What sets Diary of a Dead Man apart from other "cyber-thrillers" I've read or even more traditional frame-ups, is Cam's honesty. Throughout the novel he admits to the reader (and himself) his failings and better yet, comes clean early on with his wife. So often thrillers depend on the main characters not talking to each other to keep the plot plodding along. The antagonists: Emily the femme fatale and Dexter her foil do fall into the "no talking" trap.

The one thing that kept me guessing throughout was the relevance of the title. Each chapter starts with an excerpt from Cam's diary and his transformation into a fugitive. There are so many ways for him to become the dead man of the title and frankly the one Krumm chooses for Cam Taylor took me by surprise. I'm not going to tell you because I don't want to spoil it for you.

To learn more about the book and the Walter Krumm, the author, check out his website.

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