Click Here For Murder

Turing Hopper #2

by Donna Andrews

When her human colleague, Ray Santiago, is found murdered, Turing Hopper, an Artificial Intelligence Personality and ingenious sleuth, joins her human assistants, Maude and Tim, on a search for the killer and turns up dark secrets from Ray's past that could threaten them all. By the author of You've Got Murder.

Genres: Mystery, Science Fiction, Fiction, Cozy Mystery, Cozy, Audiobook, Contemporary

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Donna Andrews was born in Yorktown, Virginia, the setting of Murder with Peacocks and Revenge of the Wrought Iron Flamingos, and now lives and works in Reston, Virginia. When not writing fiction, Andrews is a self-confessed nerd, rarely found away from her computer, unless she's messing in the garden

http://us.macmillan.com/author/donnaa...

Reviews

[LibraryCin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Turing is an Artificial Intelligence Personality (AIP) and has been working hard to figure out how humans work. One of the guys at her company, Ray, has been murdered. Ray has only been with the company for 6 months. Turning helps her (and Ray’s) human friends, Tim and Maude, try to figure out what happened after the police assume Ray was involved in drugs and his murder had something to do with that. Turing and friends don’t think this is the case, but they quickly learn that Ray isn’t really who he says he is. What else might Ray have been hiding? And why did Ray want Tim to play this online role-playing game – unfortunately, it kept Tim from meeting Ray the night Ray died.

I really liked this. I think the role playing game upped my interest a bit. I do see I’ve rated it higher than the first in the series (this is the 2nd). Although the game wasn’t everything I was interested in. Finding out who Ray really is, and why he was hiding his identity was also of interest. I just really enjoyed this one, and am glad I continued the series. (I’m sad to see many other ratings are not as high as mine.)

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another cute addition to this series! Turing Hopper, computer sleuth, is at it again. It's really interesting to have crafted a unique cozy mystery that hasn't been done before.

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed the first book I read by this author, so I thought it would be fun to try out her other mystery series. This book was okay, but nowhere near as good as "Murder with Peacocks." I guess if I were more interested in techno-stuff, I'd have liked it more. The human characters were very one-dimensional, almost cardboard, while the computer characters seemed more alive. I won't be reading any more in this series, but I will go back to her others to see if they're any better.

[Tony Hisgett · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read and enjoyed the first Turing Hopper book half-a-dozen years ago, but it was quite difficult to find a copy of this book.
The fact there is an AI involved makes this a bit different from the usual run of the mill ‘mystery’ and I found ‘Turing’ an interesting character.
There were a few flat spots in the story where they took a long time to get nowhere and they missed numerous clues, also given Tim was meant to be a trained PI, he was really just incompetent. At times it made it quite a frustrating read.
There is an interesting twist at the end, although I’m not sure it works for me.

[Jennifer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found Tim extremely difficult to tolerate in this book - he primarily seems to exist in order to screw up in ridiculous ways. I definitely do not believe he is cut out to be a private investigator, at least not until he gets some life experience and stops being too timid to ask questions (he reminds me of Meg’s brother Rob). Claudia can take his place as the competent investigator.

As much as I usually enjoy Donna Andrews’ books, this one had too many threads and not enough clues for the reader to satisfactorily follow. The game was a particularly awkward plot line, and I was skeptical of the amount of info that the villain ended up with, the villain himself, and the “other Turing.” This may make the following books a bit irritating.

[Kyrie · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a 16 year old book about artificial intelligence, computers, and online gaming, it holds up fairly well. (Although I'm far from knowing a lot about any of those topics.) I found the beginning slow and difficult to get into. The middle is fast paced and intriguing, and the end just sets up another Turing story, I'm sure.

Trying to find out who killed Ray and why is the basic story line. He made up his backstory, he's apparently trying to keep child predators away from children in an online game (as well as real life) and no one knows who Ray really was or what he was really doing.

These series is just interesting enough to keep me reading, but not thrilling me.

[A. Lieberson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once again AIP Turning Hopper and her two partners Maude and Tim are faced with the murder of a colleague, Ray Santiago, who was helping to set up their new company called Alan Grace, Inc. But the case gets more difficult when Ray turns out to be an imposter. Turning Hopper needs help from all his friends including KingFischer to solve this one.

[Ann Becker · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just couldn't get into these characters.

[Marla · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars.. Several interesting parallel mysteries. I don't like private investigators as much as police detectives, but I enjoy this series. Turing is an intriguing character and her human helpers, Tim and Maude are loyal and resourceful.

Likes:
* (Artificial Intelligence Personality) AIP Turing Hopper
* Maude Graham ~ administrative assistant extraordinaire

* Tim has his PI license and is trying to establish his company
* Actor playing Maude's UL boss
* Claudia Diaz - Miami PI that Tim meets & hires
* Nanosecond delay filter, self-inflicted on Turing, to stop her from pestering Kingfisher
* LARP ~ Live Action Role Playing
* Paint ball game training


Dislikes:
* Turing's POV was in difficult to read italics, different font or bold would've been better
* Cliffhanger

* Ray's murder
* Ray's deception
* Tim not meeting Ray because he got caught up in Beyond Paranoia
* Homicide is now Violent Crimes Division
* Kingfisher leading on 7 cybergirlfriends & giving them Ray's picture
* Kingfisher has infinite patience with logical problems but none for human foibles
* Maude meeting one of Kingfisher's cybergirlfriends
* Tim finds Rey Santiago, Ray's alter ego (educational background)
* Claudia says Ray's Spanish accent was Central American not Cuban-American
* Deadends in the investigation
* Tim being such a wuss
* Beyond Paranoia teaching unprovoked violence, disregard for human life & morals
* Addictive nature of Beyond Paranoia
* Beyond Paranoia LARP front for crime and pedophiles
* Alan Grace's employee Grant is Beyond Paranoia groupie
* Grant disclosed security info about previous employer, bank to Beyond Paranoia ring leaders
* Maude doesn't seem very upset about her encounter with Nameless
* No mention of Tim's injury at the end of the book
* Tim was third person asking about Ray ~ FBI & Nestor?


Beyond Paranoia ~ Think of it as a cross between a noir detective story and the kind of science fiction you might seen written on a manual typewriter by a right-wing-conspiracy theorist whose girlfriend just dumped him for an up-and-coming young IBM sales rep.

Kingfisher summarized ending ~ Either we need to rescue a kidnapped AIP or we have to track down a mentally unstable AIP who may feel she has reason for revenge. Possibly both.

With-reservations:
violence, murder, lies, secrets, illegal activity for good purposes

Story:
* Turing is sentient (Artificial Intelligence Personality) AIP
* Zack is Turing's creator/programmer
* Zack sad after best friend David dies (1)
* Zack was murdered, UL management wanted to sell off successful AIPs & delete the rest (1)
* Zack created John Dow, a very successful investment AIP to manage his money (1)
* Tim Pincoski, Xeroxist, wants to date assumed human Turing, likes old mysteries & jazz (1)
* Turing learns to talk (1)
* Turing is like Nero Wolfe and realizes that Maude and Tim could be her "legs" or Archie Goodwin (1)
* Turing figures out scheme, builds robot to see Zack, uses her human friends, secretary Maude & copy guy, Tim to help her. Turing pares down to essential self. (1)
* Turing left subset of herself on UL computer & downloaded essentials to robot (1)
* David is alive, faked his death & kills Zack
* UL Security Chief James Smith kills David. Turing detonates bomb & stops Smith. (1)
* Maude & Turing use actor as Maude's boss, VP of Prod Dev. (1)
* Turing setup Alan Grace Corp with Maude's help for financial dabbling (1)
* Setting up Maude & Tim as Alan Grace employees & getting cell phones and laptops (1)
* Tim becomes PI (1)
* Alfred the Lesser (math AIP) and Kingfisher (chess AIP) are closest to sentience (1)
* KingFisher absorbs some of Zack (1)
* Tim has his PI license and is trying to establish his PI company (2)
* Turing setting Tim's office up until he starts making enough money to afford his expenses (2)
* Ray was helping to setup Alan Grace system to house Turing & remove her from UL (2)

[David]

A central character in the book is Turing, an AI in a computer system. Turing is referred to as "she."

The story is essentially a murder mystery. Turing and human employees are working to make a more secure facility for Turing. Ray, a computer professional working on the project, is killed in what the police believe was a drug deal. This seems unlikely to Turing and people who worked with him. So, Turing and her people start looking into it and discover Ray had used a fake name and personal history. One of Ray's friends, Tim, is licensed as a private investigator, but isn't very talented at it. Along the way, Tim brings a more experienced PI in to help them. However, neither of the Pi's are central to the investigation. They find Ray had been playing a computer role playing game, and some of the players of that game had begun also doing Live Action Role Playing games - and one is planned for the area in which Turing's system is housed.

The story didn't feel like mystery stories I'm used to. Not really Private Eye. Doesn't feel like a super amateur sleuth. Not noir. Not an "action book." The investigation efforts are more along the lines of "who was Ray, really?" and "What's really going on in the role playing game?" Not examining the body and murder scene, not looking for similar murders, etc. The writing style isn't bad, but it doesn't add to the story.

At the end of the book, Turing and her people learn in general what happened to Ray, but not some details. If you're the kind of person who will think through the details, you may find some aspects are not fully explained. Meanwhile, at the end, the reader is left with a cliffhanger (probably addressed in sequels.) The book can be read by itself, although it may help to know the general idea of the first book in the series (and to be willing to ignore the cliffhanger.)

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Book #: 10
Title: Click Here for Murder
Author: Donna Andrews
Series: Turing Hopper #2
Format: 304 pages, Hardcover, own
Pub Date: First published January 1, 2003
Started: 1/17/25 Finished: 1/19/25
Awards: Dilys Award Nominee (2003), Agatha Award for Best Novel (2002)
Categories: PS10 A book you got for free (Christmas present!); GR32 A mystery or true crime book; GR36 A book with a common household object on the cover (keyboard); GR45 A book by an author whose publishing career spans at least ten years; GR2023 A book whose author has published more than 7 books; GR2024 A book that has been on your TBR for over a year;
Goodreads Rating: 3.75; 1,238 ratings; 78 reviews
My Rating: ***** five out of five stars

Ray Santiago is a brilliant computer engineer at Universal Library, and one of the few humans who knows that Turing Hopper is not a human but an AI program that's achieved sentience. He's killed at 1AM possibly while playing a LARP called Beyond Paranoia. Turing and her human friends start investigating to see if this was possibly an attempt to infiltrate UL because his laptop was not found with his body. They discover that Ray wasn't even Ray, it's a false identity he's been cultivating for years. The plot thickens.

[Eleanor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I swear this has to have been written by someone else entirely. The pace, voice and tone of this book is radically different from Murder with Peacocks or whatever the other drivel was that I gave up on circa page 197. But here's the thing: I wasn't drawn to Turing or AI. I will say absolutely hands down that this is a much better written book than Peacocks, but I also did not finish this one. Call me arbitrary and just plain mean, but my down time is so precious to me that I didn't want to plow through a light novel just to gauge how much better the author handled the material. Yes, that is the level I was at because the plot did not engage me. I really didn't care how or by whom whatever his name was was murdered. But, IF you are going to read a mystery by Donna Andrews, I suggest you start here (or with its predecessor, title forgotten by me, but supposedly Part 1 of this or at least tangentially connected to it). Every book has its reader, and apparently she has lots. To each his own.

[Bridget Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love the Meg Lawson series. This one? Not so much.
The technology is not terribly out of date in 2021.
This book is second in a series. The first book was a nice light distraction. This one basically a prequel for book 3.
Too bad.
I will probably come back for the third book in this series when I am looking for a light cozy. Only because I really enjoyed all the Meg Larsen books.
From #1 Murder With Peacocks to #28 The Gift of the Magpie

[Heather L · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had difficulty getting into this one, more so than book one, though it followed the same format. By format I mean lack of traditional chapters and switching between first person POV of Turing and third person POV when talking about other characters. I also found the open ending a bit dissatisfying, though it does set you up for the next book in the series. One the up side, the editing/grammar is clean—a bit too liberal with the “just thens,” though, which gets annoying—but the plot is fairly plausible.

[Road Worrier · Rating 2 out of 5]

My least favorite of the four Turing books, although there were definitely interesting parts and it was fun to see a LARP appear in fiction. The middle of the book kind of lost my interest and it took me a few months to get back to it. I found the wrap up somewhat unsatisfying; there was a lot of build up but then not that much explanation, and a number of unanswered questions. I do still enjoy all of the main characters. And as I do technology for work, all of the technology plot elements are fun as they are usually very accurate.

[Carol Farrington · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. When I picked it up I wasn’t sure about a story based around a computer as one of the main characters. I did understand what was going on, which had been one of my concerns. I think it’s very relevant at this point in time as it’s not just a computer but an AI personality who seems to have developed sentience and can think and plan. There were twists and turns and red herrings. It ended as a cliff hanger, just like a season finale of a tv show, so now I have to have the next book in the series.

[Sandra Strange · Rating 2 out of 5]

This premise, a sentient AI who solves murders of those near her with the help of two human "friends" and another AI computer, makes it a bit difficult for readers to identify with this "sleuth." The puzzle is well plotted, but sets up the next book, solving the murder and ending the perpetrator, but with no real ending to the villainy that caused the death.

[Melody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better than the first in series. Less of Turings thinking, more from the other characters who have started to become more “alive”. I good story with a firm resolution yet leading us to the next book in the series.

[Kevin Barnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel a little bit cheated. The story never answers the question of "Who was Ray"? The story was hard to get into at first, but picked up speed in the middle and finished good, but it never answered the main question of the story line in my mind. It was a good over all puzzle and I liked it.

[Jesse L · Rating 4 out of 5]

That was really good! I really enjoyed the way the mystery unfolds, it balances a few core mysteries with a lot of potential answers in a fun and engaging way and it all results in a pretty cool and enjoyable ending that makes me excited for the next book.

[Donna Mazzucco]

It was a slow start. I really wasn't very excited about it. But I finished the book. The ending left me hanging so I will have to read the next book "Access Denined" #3. I really like Her bird series better.

[Danielle Mccoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting look at ai and what it could be. It's also an interesting look at how far we've come and what futures didn't pan out. I will continue this series with a half hearted view of the past.

[Debbie Stanley · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a strange read. Computer geeks might like it. I wasn't a big fan.

[Marsha Valance · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this sequel to YOU'VE GOT MURDER, the sentient computer’s doppelganger AI is kidnapped for misuse by a master criminal.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful concept. And beautifully written.

[Michaela Tayir Tetteh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was surprised by the main character; didn't know that she was an AI until I read the story. Anyway, I think it was fun and interesting. Looking forward for more.

[Katharyn Baker · Rating 3 out of 5]

In which we abandon chapters and an Artificial Intelligence Personality is more real than most of the people you meet in social media.

[Lu Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a definite keeper! It's as riveting now as when I first read it.

It's somewhat ironic, though, that a book about a digital library does not have a digital edition.

[Meredith Powell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really liked the premise, the ending was a let down. Wish I could give a 3.5 on Goodreads. Solid cozy

[Sheryl]

Zzzzzz