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Keith Raffel is a low-key genius. The founder of UpShot Corporation, he guided the development of a customer relations management system that set the standard for the industry. I wasn't sure how that background, impressive as it is, would translate into a readable mystery. I found out when I cracked the binding of DOT DEAD at 9:00 pm on a Wednesday night, intending to read a few pages before falling asleep. I wound up reading until midnight and then got up at 4:00 am to finish it. I simply could not wait to see how it would end, and why. The loss of sleep was well worth it.
DOT DEAD is told in the voice of Ian Michaels, a Silicon Valley wonderkid who works for one of the hottest tech firms on the planet and under one of its brightest lights, a Bill Gates-inspired figure named Paul Berk. Berk is more than a boss or a mentor to Michaels --- he is also his friend. Michaels is doing quite well until he returns home one afternoon and finds a lifeless Gwendolyn Goldberg on his bed. Goldberg was Michaels's part-time housekeeper, though he had never met her. More surprises await Michaels. Goldberg's family and ex-boyfriend insist that she spoke often of Michaels, and inferred that they were lovers. This puts Michaels at the top of the suspect list, a position that's solidified when additional evidence is found that seems to confirm that he and Goldberg had a relationship.
Michaels wants to prove his innocence, but he's driven even more so by a desire to see that justice is done for the victim. Goldberg's sister, Rowena, is there to help --- with the investigation, and maybe more --- as is, surprisingly enough, a policewoman investigating the case. Michaels has other difficulties, however. Berk's wife Cathy, a woman who Michaels silently admires from afar, has started to come on to him. Additionally, Michaels is approached with a business proposition that could benefit him but would be detrimental to Berk.
The main issue here though is the whodunit aspect of the novel, and it is one that Raffel handles as deftly as any you'll read this year. His narrative is resoundingly confident, with nary a misstep and never a wasted or boring word. He takes a classic plotline, injects it into a unique and unexpected setting --- it really shouldn't work, but it does and quite well --- and gives things a twist or two. DOT DEAD also deals, quietly but effectively, with spiritual and ethical concerns, infusing them into the narrative without overwhelming it. The end result is without question the most impressive mystery debut of the year.
DOT DEAD is subtitled "A Silicon Valley Mystery." I don't believe that this necessarily heralds a sequel with the same characters so much as the same setting. But whatever Raffel chooses to do will be most welcome.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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