Dark Minds

by Philip Palmer

A dangerous obsession with immersive virtual reality games has deadly consequences.

In the near future Harry is obsessed with totally immersive virtual reality gaming. Then one day he wakes up with a dead body lying next to him in bed. All evidence points to the fact that Harry is the killer. Harry even remembers doing it. But why? Did the violence of the games give him his gruesome blood lust? Or is something far more sinister going on?

Slowly Harry uncovers a conspiracy that has its roots in the illicit underbelly of the Internet.

Sex, violence and virtual reality combine in this futuristic thriller.

Audiobook

First published June 24, 2014

About the author

Philip Palmer is a British science fiction and fantasy novelist and an award-winning screenwriter and radio dramatist whose credits include productions for the BBC starring Iain McDiarmid and Simon Russell Beale.

His novels blend dark humour, genre-bending world-building, and relentless plot momentum. Hell on Earth, his alternate-London crime thriller set in a world where Hell is literally a borough, was named a Finalist in the 2026 American Book Fest Legacy Book Awards. Lavie Tidhar (World Fantasy Award winner) calls his work 'magical madness', and agent and editor John Jarrold calls Hell on Earth 'brilliant: horrific, gripping and darkly humorous'.

His other books include the SF thriller Version 43, the space opera Hell Ship, the novella Morpho, the horror novella Murder of the Heart, and the magical realist thriller The Great West Wood.

Readers who love China Mieville, Ben Aaronovitch, or dark British urban fantasy will find a new favourite here.

Reviews

[Steven]

Black Mirror style episode about the dangers of hacking and virtual reality.