It’s been a year since Gregory Norwood’s son overdosed and a photojournalist wants a picture of the famous philanthropist on the anniversary of the death. Instead, Norwood is found dead of an apparent suicide. Local cops are called in and soon determine this was no suicide, Norwood was murdered. But when they can’t turn up any leads using traditional police work, they call in Grace McBride, founder and owner of MonkeeWrench Software. Grace is a little busy preparing for the birth of her child, but she and her crew take the case to uncover a killer. Tracy continues to add to the wildly popular MonkeeWrench mystery series with character twists and ingenious plots

I would like to thank Netgalley and Crooked Lane Books for an advance copy of The Guilty Dead, the ninth novel to feature Minneapolis based detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth and the Monkeewrench computer programming crew.

Magozzi and Rolseth are called out to industrialist, Gregory Norwood's death. Nobody is sure if it is suicide or murder but his best friend, lawyer and gubernatorial candidate, Robert Zeller is sure that a recent cancer diagnosis and guilt over his son's overdose death a year ago to the day make suicide more likely. A wiped gun in the right hand of a left handed man make it murder. As the detectives investigate further a lot of family secrets come tumbling out of the closet. In the meantime Monkeewrench are beta testing a new program which makes keeping tabs on suspected terrorists easier and more labour efficient and inadvertently discover a focus on the town hall.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Guilty Dead which has a good plot and some unexpected twists. Initially I wondered if I would as it has a different voice in every chapter and an early identification of the killer so it didn't hold my attention but it soon settles down to mainly cover the investigation and becomes quite absorbing with well paced reveals and a good sense of building up to a crescendo. The reason behind the murder is slowly unraveled as the novel progresses and I found it quite addictive trying to piece it all together.

It's all change in the characters as Magozzi's partner and Monkeewrench member, Grace, is eight months pregnant. She is handling it well but some of Magozzi's reactions are a bit saccharine for my tastes. Otherwise the banter between the characters injects some humour into the serious business of murder and the warmth of the friendship between them makes for a pleasant read.

The Guilty Dead is a good read which I have no hesitation in recommending.

The Guilty Dead is a wonderful addition to the series, and I am thrilled to see it continuing. These characters are some of the most interesting being written today. Their growth is perfectly written and a joy to watch happen. I loved this.