What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

In the book, several gamers are murdered irl while playing a virtual reality game. The game is basically another world that people escape to in a fantasy setting, and can make real world money there. I believe the game is the only one like it, or at least the most popular. The 2 detectives end up investigating in game to try to find clues, and at one point use a special insignia given to them to access areas they normally wouldn't be able to, I think in a tavern.

I read this book around 2010, give or take a year and I believe it was a shorter book. I think the detectives were also a male/female duo and the book took place a little, but not too much in the future. I remember the vr world had a single word name like a planet, but I can't remember it. Most people that played also more or less lived in the game.

The ironic thing is that I wish I’d get spammed on here, because it’s basically a free “bump!”

Not a particularly close fit, but Snapshot, by Brandon Sanderson features detectives in a virtual reality world:

"Anthony Davis and his partner Chaz are the only real people in a city of 20 million, sent there by court order to find out what happened in the real world 10 days ago so that hidden evidence can be brought to light and located in the real city today. Within the re-created Snapshot of May 1st, Davis and Chaz are the ultimate authorities. Flashing their badges will get them past any obstruction and overrule any civil right of the dupes around them. But the crimes the detectives are sent to investigate seem like drudgery - until they stumble upon the grisly results of a mass killing that the precinct headquarters orders them not to investigate. That's one order they have to refuse. The hunt is on. And though the dupes in the replica city have no future once the Snapshot is turned off, that doesn't mean that both Davis and Chaz will walk out of it alive tonight."

Close, but definitely not it Robert. I appreciate it though!

Also what Maddog?

Winry wrote: "Also what Maddog?"

Oh, you had a spammer comment (in the "Google paid me $500M last month working from home for five minutes a day" vein), and Maddog commented about how that gives you a "free bump." Spam comments disappear, though, as soon as the moderators find them and ban the posters, so it gets pretty confusing when people comment about them.

Oh, gotcha! I went to sleep before I ever saw it, so I didn't know what happened.

It doesn't quite sound like what you're looking for, but check Conor Kostick's Epic, Saga and something else I can't remember. The third one MIGHT be what you're looking for.

Conor Kostick

Edda is the third book Gillian mentions.

No, they're not teenagers, they are adults investigating from what I can remember.