Dot Dead: A Silicon Valley Thriller (Silicon Valley Mysteries) (Paperback)

by Keith Raffel (Author)
Key Phrases: Palo Alto, Ian Michaels, Paul Berk (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"...A fast-paced, truly witty mystery set in the maze and madness of Silicon Valley. ...A fun read." -- Stuart M. Kaminsky, Grand Master Award-winning mystery author

"...A spellbinding novel, with a protagonist you won't want to leave...." -- Who-Dunnit.com

"Keith Raffel, an entrepreneur who sold his CRM firm, UpShot, to Siebel Systems... publishes a surprisingly entertaining whodunit." -- Inc. magazine

"Raffel, founder of a software company, has written a well-plotted mystery with... action and plot twists... You can't go wrong." -- Library Journal, July 1, 2006

"The breakneck pace, intriguing characters, and snappy dialogue of the Silicon Valley world... hooked me." -- Cara Black, author of Murder in Montmartre and many other mystery titles

"This book is a pleasure, and especially fun to read about Palo Alto from a person who grew up there." -- San Jose Mercury, August 6, 2006

Product Description
When Ian Michaels, a Silicon Valley hotshot, discovers a young, beautiful woman stabbed to death in his house, it takes him a moment to realize that the still-warm corpse is his maid. Far from the gray-haired, cookie-baking grandmother he imagined her to be, Gwendolyn was a stranger to Ian, but her family, old boyfriend, and the Palo Alto police seem to think they were a couple. And despite his best efforts to prove otherwise, the evidence against Ian is growing. It looks like someone is framing Ian for murder, but who?

An executive at a tech firm, Ian is anxious to prove his innocence to his boss and mentor Paul Berk, a Silicon Valley legend. As the investigation heats up so does Ian's interest in Gwendolyn's sister, but can she be trusted?


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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: MIDNIGHT INK (July 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 073870833X
• ISBN-13: 978-0738708331
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #799,350 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars exciting and believable amateur sleuth murder mystery , July 3, 2006

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really Kept My Interest, November 9, 2006

By	Teresa M. Mckinsey (TM from PA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the most impressive mystery debut of the year, August 14, 2006

By	Bookreporter.com (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

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