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Andersson Dexter #2
Act of Will
Andersson Dexter is a new man, still living his old life. Part vigilante, part private eye, part cop, Dex is muddling his way through his day job as a faceless customer service rep for a giant firm, while solving routine cases in his off hours. But when a gruesomely mutilated corpse is found, things heat up for Dex and the underground organization he calls the Cubicle Men. Soon, Dex finds himself racing against the clock to find a killer who seems to be determined to strike him close to home. In a grim future where people live and work in crowded, utilitarian cities but escape to an online virtual world, Act of Will explores the capacity we have to choose the directions our lives will take, and the consequences of those choices.
- GenresScience FictionCrime
244 pages, Paperback
First published February 14, 2011
2 people are currently reading
25 people want to read
About the author
M. Darusha Wehm
36 books67 followersM. Darusha Wehm is a Nebula Award winner and Sir Julius Vogel Award winner, the author of Hamlet, Prince of Robots, the game The Martian Job, and over a dozen other novels. Their short fiction has been published widely and their poetry has been a finalist for the Rhysling Award.
Writing as Darusha Wehm, their mainstream books include the Devi Jones’ Locker YA series and the humorous coming-of-age novel The Home for Wayward Parrots.
Darusha is a member of the Many Worlds writing collective and they are a fifth of the writing team Darkly Lem, the author of The Formation Saga which starts with Transmentation | Transience.
Originally from Canada, Darusha lives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand after several years sailing the Pacific.
Writing as Darusha Wehm, their mainstream books include the Devi Jones’ Locker YA series and the humorous coming-of-age novel The Home for Wayward Parrots.
Darusha is a member of the Many Worlds writing collective and they are a fifth of the writing team Darkly Lem, the author of The Formation Saga which starts with Transmentation | Transience.
Originally from Canada, Darusha lives in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand after several years sailing the Pacific.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 16, 2011
Act of Will by is the second book in the author’s Andersson Dexter novels and is as wonderful if not better than the first book, Self Made. It is a cyber-tech sci-fi novel rich in fascinating characters living in a world where the virtual and real have melded.
The book continues the story of detective Andersson Dexter (Dex) of the Cubicle Men, now in the middle of a complicated relationship with fellow squad member Annabelle Lewis. A missing co-worker leads him into an investigation and puts him on the trail of a serial killer.
The crime plotline of the book is fairly standard serial murderer story, but the author brings a fresh angle to it by tying both the killer and the crimes into her sci-fi world. She keeps the cat-and-mouse perspective creepy and suspenseful and the killer walks in the nameless shadows until the very end.
But as brilliantly as Ms. Wehm weaves her thriller, it is the characters and the society of her virtually integrated world that make this novel truly shine. Her characters breathe and feel, are flawed, and have sticky, messy problems in a world where lines of gender, law and reality have blurred and often disappeared. It is a future world you can see evolving from our own, but one in which people are still seeking love and escape.
This is the second novel starring the character Andersson Dexter, but it can be easily read as a standalone novel (though I recommend reading both just for the delight of it). Act of Will it is a stellar book.
The book continues the story of detective Andersson Dexter (Dex) of the Cubicle Men, now in the middle of a complicated relationship with fellow squad member Annabelle Lewis. A missing co-worker leads him into an investigation and puts him on the trail of a serial killer.
The crime plotline of the book is fairly standard serial murderer story, but the author brings a fresh angle to it by tying both the killer and the crimes into her sci-fi world. She keeps the cat-and-mouse perspective creepy and suspenseful and the killer walks in the nameless shadows until the very end.
But as brilliantly as Ms. Wehm weaves her thriller, it is the characters and the society of her virtually integrated world that make this novel truly shine. Her characters breathe and feel, are flawed, and have sticky, messy problems in a world where lines of gender, law and reality have blurred and often disappeared. It is a future world you can see evolving from our own, but one in which people are still seeking love and escape.
This is the second novel starring the character Andersson Dexter, but it can be easily read as a standalone novel (though I recommend reading both just for the delight of it). Act of Will it is a stellar book.
March 6, 2011
While I'm not unbiased, I do really like the Dex novels. This one is well plotted and well paced. As always, good, old-fashioned policing tracks down the futuristic criminal, but not before the battle changes everyones' lives.
February 2, 2012
The Anderson Dexter sereies really is wonderful. Dex keeps evolving and growing in this world of Darusha's. The dark concept of this story really sets a great stage for the main characters to move through. And this time there is plenty of "physical" action.
February 12, 2015
I kept wanting to like this story, this type of story is usually my catnip and I did get hooked into finishing the book. But, I had trouble believing in it. And then there was the just silly things like overuse of the nickname kiddo and way too many he said she saids.
November 5, 2015
Found on podiobooks.com. Not sure if it was the reader, or just the general storyline, but this book took me an astronomically long time to finish.
August 27, 2016
I can't remember ever before thinking that I should stop reading a book because I was afraid for a character in it. I kept reading, and I'm glad I did.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews