Customer Reviews

Dot Dead (The Silicon Valley Mysteries)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Having grown up in Palo Alto, I recognized so many places mentioned in it. It also brought back memories of my younger years when they were mentioning the "Palo Alto Times", a local newspaper, which sadly, no longer exists. I have passed this book along to my son and daughter. It was recommended to my by my mother, who had just read it, but passed it along to my sister.
I was interested in it because of the local, but soon became engrossed in the storyline. I would recommend it to any fan of mystery novels, no matter where they grew up.

I don't usually post reviews of fiction, especially mysteries. But this one caught my eye. You see, author Keith Raffel founded the SaaS CRM provider, UpShot. I was a big fan of UpShot, giving them one of our Willy awards, and was disappointed when they were later sold to Siebel. So now this Renaissance man has turned his attention to the writer's craft.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable read. Totally believable. Well paced - good chapter lengths. I spent some time in Silicon Valley and this book brought back quite a few memories, not all of them pleasant. Anyone in high-tech will love this book. The rest of you probably will too! Check it out now!

This title caught my eye at the local library and I'm so glad I picked it up. I finished it in 2 days in the middle of a busy week. I do hope Raffel writes again and often.

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

No gun battles? No bizarre death scenes? No serial killers? Oh My! No recipes either. So what kind of a mystery can Dot.Dead be without those standard formulas? Answer: A very good mystery - a mystery written and carried out through intellect and believable actions.

It all starts when Ian Michaels, a hotshot Silicon Valley executive, is excused from jury duty and arrives home unexpectedly only to be clobbered from behind. That's bad enough, but when his beautiful cleaning lady is found dead in his home the next day, Ian's life as he knows it is set upon a slippery slope only he can make right.

Kudos to Keith Raffel for such an entertaining, interesting, and well-crafted novel. I look forward to reading more from him.

As a mystery buff, the story plot alone would have been a fun read, but add to that the silicon valley setting and the story takes on even more character for those of us who have fought the start-up wars in the high tech space.

Great first effort for Keith Raffel, I hope he continues down the writing path.

Ian Michaels feels he owes his meteoric rise in the business community to his boss and best friend Paul Berk. Ian wants to be the CEO of Accelenet a high speed networking company. He also wants to develop Bonds, a way of extracting data six times faster over any medium but he is frustrated when Paul vetoes his project and doesn't give him the COO position. His life becomes more than frustrated when he is knocked out in his home and finds his maid dead on his bed.

Ian has never met his part-time late maid Gwendolyn Goldberg as they conversed through notes and he thought of her as a motherly person, not realizing she was in her twenties. He goes to her funeral to pay his last respects and is immediately attracted to her sister Rowena who soon returns his affection. Never once does she believe he killed her sister even though evidence is piling up that they not only knew each other, they had an affair. Ian takes matters into his own hands and starts to investigate Gwendolyn's death because he is the police's number one suspect.

Keith Raffel has written an exciting and believable amateur sleuth murder mystery that doesn't strain the bounds of credibility like the flaw of so many books in the sub-genre. Ian questions witnesses and because he knows some of the players in the ways the police can never do, he is able to make connections that lead away from him to other viable suspects. The protagonist is a very likeable and believable character who inspires positive emotions in everyone around him including readers because he comes across as an "everyman"

Harriet Klausner

There are things that one never wants one's maid to do - such as being dead in one's bed. "Dot.Dead: A Silicon Valley Mystery" follows Ian Michaels as he happens upon this situation and immediately finds himself the top suspect in the investigation. With the help of his maid's sister, he tries to clear his name, find out who framed him for it all, and glean the answer to the most important question of all - why? "Dot.Dead: A Silicon Valley Mystery" is a top pick for mystery fans and community library collections catering to them.

This is a fast-paced mystery set in Silicon Valley with a little of it taking place in Del Mar outside of San Diego. The characters are well developed, mostly likable, with the author doing a great job in making them believable. The plot was carefully thought out with many surprises and twists. As an ex-Silicon-Valley exec, the best and worst of the area comes through accurately. The hero, a likable Silicon Valley executive shows his brilliance as he tries to solve a crime. Highly recommended. Once I got into it I couldn't put it down. It would make a great movie.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The mystery itself is gripping and the information about Silicon Valley adds to the texture of the book. Palo Alto and the people who live there seem real. I don't usually read mysteries, but this one is worth it.