At the start of Australian author Johnston's sequel to The Trojan Dog
(2005), Sandra Mahoney stares at a carefully composed scene on a computer screen—a young man dead on the rocks below a castle—and wonders if it represents murder or suicide. A somewhat disjointed plot unfolds from this intriguing opening, as Sandra, a computer crime consultant, and her partner, Ivan Semyonov, retrace the life of the victim, Niall Howley, both at the hospital where he worked in radiology and on the Internet, where he became the Irish hero Ferdia in an elaborate game called Castle of Heroes. The details about Internet game playing and the bits of Irish folklore lend interest, but too many unnecessary details such as Sandra's repeated mentions of her baby Katya's hair distract. Well-knit prose and concise descriptions keep the energy level up and the action moving along, but some readers may feel cheated that the story dribbles to an end. (Sept.)
