Dark Origins

July 20, 2009
You get a movie with the book.
Level 26
Anthony Zuiker
with Duane Swierczynski. Dutton
, $26.95 (416p) ISBN 978-0-525-95125-4

CSI creator Zuiker teams with Swierczynski (Severance Package
) to create what's billed as the world's first “digi-novel,” involving a seriously weird serial killer and the tortured FBI investigator who's forced to hunt him down. There's nothing really new about the basic concept, but Swierczynski handles the writing with assurance and verve. The killer, known as Sqweegel, is “a psychopath who has shot, raped, maimed, poisoned, burned, strangled, and tortured upwards of fifty people in six countries over a span of more than twenty years.” The investigator, Steve Dark, lives a quiet life with his beloved, pregnant wife, in Malibu, Calif. The digital concept kicks in every 20 pages or so when the reader is referred to a Web site containing 20 two- to three-minute professionally made film clips that bridge the action from one section to another. It's a bit like watching the extras on a DVD—fun, but not really necessary to the main event. 200,000 first printing.

Starred review from August 15, 2009
Zuiker, the creator of the television crime drama "CSI", dubs this thrilling series debut the world's first "digi-novel." In an effort to inspire audiences not just to "read" the book but to "experience" it, the authors offer a unique, integrated mashup of both literary text and cinematic clips to tell the story of serial killer profiler and tracker Steve Dark. As the head of a highly classified governmental agency that hunts the world's most violent serial killers, Dark has the ability to assume the killers' mindset as he tracks them down and brings them to justice. Readers are encouraged to visit a web site (www.level26.com) where they can watch supplementary video clips. The three-minute clips, while not essential to the story line, are of high quality and designed to engage readers further in the novel. This forward-thinking blend of text and video risks coming off as gimmicky, but readers will find the meat of the story intriguing enough to stand alone without the online content. VERDICT Resembling the thrillers of Thomas Harris and Jeff Lindsay (see review on p. 69), this experimental crossover novel, coauthored with crime novelist Swierczynski ("The Wheel Man"), will attract a diverse following and could change the future of publishing with its interactive content. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 5/1/09.]Carolann Curry, Mercer Univ. Medical Lib., Macon, GA

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2009
Zuiker, creator of the mind-bogglingly successful CSI television franchise, offers a concept he touts as Storytelling 2.0: throughout the book, readers are prompted to go to a Web site to watch a cyber-bridge, basically, a short scene from the story. The story is about a serial killer, nicknamed Sqweegel by a traumatized victim, who is a Level 26that is, one degree worse than the world has ever seen. Unpredictable, untrackable, and unstoppable, hes destroyed the psyches of all the elite Special Circs agents who have come close to catching him. Steve Dark, who came closer than anyone, has retired and wants nothing to do with the case. But then Secretary of Defense Norman Wycoff tells Special Circs chief Tom Riggins to bring Dark or face termination. And then Sqweegel sends a terrifying message: he wants Dark back in action, too. Fans of cowriter Swierczynski (Severance Package, 2007) will recognize his trademark injections of adrenaline, and those who crave race-the-clock action will have no complaints. Sqweegel is a hauntingly horrific creation, too. And the cyber-bridges? Well, the good news, for readers who dont want to interrupt their page-turning with mouse-clicking, is that theyre not essential to the story. But thats also the bad news for Zuikers concept.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)

October 26, 2009
Law enforcement categorizes killers on a scale of one to 25, with 25 being the sadistic psychopath. However, one brutal serial killer, code-named “Sqweegel,” has earned his own special designation of Level 26. Only one man—federal agent Steve Dark—has ever gotten close to catching him, but the effort cost Dark the lives of his foster family and drove him into self-imposed retirement. Now the agency wants him back on the case and, it would seem, so does Sqweegel. John Glover has a wonderful time narrating Zuiker's debut thriller; his committed delivery runs the gambit from serious to lighthearted, maniacal to deadly serious. Even if the story leans toward the cliché and the breaks directing listeners to webisodes are intrusive and irritating, the delivery is engrossing. It should be noted that some sections of the book are disturbing, and Glover's performance only makes them doubly so. Not for the fainthearted. A Dutton hardcover.