"Go and have a look - Bet you'll be as hooked as I was." - Sharon Wheeler, Reviewing The Evidence
REVIEWING THE EVIDENCEby Sharon Wheeler
Those of you who are regular visitors to the site will know that we keep a beady eye open for unusual developments in the crime fiction world. And an email mystery that plops straight into your inbox certainly fits the bill.
THE DAUGHTERS OF FREYA is the brainchild of Toronto writer and filmmaker Michael Betcherman, and David Diamond, a journalist and author living in California. Readers sign up for the mystery online and receive a few emails a day for the three weeks it takes for the mystery to unfold. THE DAUGHTERS OF FREYA was launched this October at Bouchercon.
"We agreed that the 'e-pistolary' concept was tailor-made for a mystery. It would allow us to exploit one of the more insidious features of the internet -- you never really know who is on the other end of an email," says Michael.
"As an added feature, the emails link to websites we've created especially for the project, with newspaper and magazine articles, photographs, and other items that contain clues to the mystery."
The story begins when journalist Samantha Dempsey receives an email from a desperate friend whose daughter has dropped out of school and joined a sex cult in California. Dempsey pitches the story, by email of course, to an old college friend who runs a magazine in San Francisco and is soon headed to Marin County, where she finds out there is more to the cult than meets the eye.
I can confirm that it's a neat idea and one that becomes extremely addictive. I was soon logging on and looking forward to the next installment -- and feeling most miffed if it wasn't there! The authors build up clear voices for their characters -- Samantha is tenacious and with a nose for a story -- and it never seems to matter that there isn't screeds of narrative to hold the story together. In fact, you'll probably view the over-blown efforts from some of the genre's big names with a decidedly intolerant eye after reading THE DAUGHTERS OF FREYA! The only shortcoming of the format is towards the end when, by necessity, the reader has to hear about the denouement second-hand.
THE DAUGHTERS OF FREYA can be purchased at www.emailmystery.com for $4.99US/ $5.99Cdn. Go and have a look -- bet you'll be as hooked as I was!
Reviewing The Evidence - www.reviewingtheevidence.com
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