Red Screen

by Daniel Burke

Overview

"A cool thriller with well-blended elements of crime, suspense, and gaming culture." - Kirkus Reviews

"Eminently likeable characters face parallel dangers from both real and virtual worlds in Daniel Burke's RED SCREEN, a delightful, often funny, always compelling thriller, even for readers unfamiliar with VR or gaming." – IndieReader

The real terror begins when the game is over.

Parker Reid is the FBI's top profiler, and he's been dispatched to hunt another monster. A serial killer is slaughtering people in their beds. The manner in which he kills, the trophies he takes, and the way he poses the bodies indicate the killer is acting out a cruel fantasy. The murders are real, but the clues have led Parker to the computer-simulated worlds of the Metaverse.

Shea Britton is hunting a killer too. The top player in an elaborate fantasy simulation game called the Land of Might and Magic, Shea's character, Darshana, is on a quest to rid the Land of an evil player known only as The Gray Warrior, who is killing the game's best players.

What neither of them know is they are hunting the same person, and soon the game will become a lot more real for Shea.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781951122720
Publisher:	Artemesia Publishing, LLC NC
Publication date:	12/05/2023
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Daniel Burke lives outside Atlanta, Georgia where he devotes time to writing, travel, and grandchildren. When not pecking away on a writing project, his favorite place to be is on the back of his Triumph motorcycle winding through the north Georgia mountains. He has had a lifelong addiction to great fiction and hopes his stories touch others with the same need.

Editorial Reviews

"You’ll be riveted to the edge of your seat in this high-energy page-turner. Outstanding!" —Lawrence Kelter, bestselling author of the Stephanie Chalice Mystery Series

"Silence of the Lambs meets Ready Player One. Red Screen has all the gripping suspense of a thriller with the sci-fi spin of a videogame gone darkly wrong." —Brent A. Harris, author of Alyx: An AI’s Guide to Love and Murder 

"4.7 IR Rating, IR Approved Eminently likeable characters face parallel dangers from both real and virtual worlds in Daniel Burke’s Red Screen, a delightful, often funny, always compelling thriller, even for readers unfamiliar with VR or gaming." —Anne Welsbacher, Indie Reader 

"Eminently likeable characters face parallel dangers from both real and virtual worlds in Daniel Burke’s Red Screen, a delightful, often funny, always compelling thriller, even for readers unfamiliar with VR or gaming." —Indie Reader

"Red Screen by Daniel Burke is a gripping thriller, with edge-of-the-seat action from cover to cover...This was a book I simply could not put down until the final and satisfying conclusion."—Readers Favorite

"A cool thriller with well-blended elements of crime, suspense, and gaming culture." —Kirkus Reviews 

From the Publisher

2023-11-21
In Burke’s immersive thriller, real and virtual lives interweave in the metaverse.

“You haven’t lived until you’ve died in the Land of Might and Magic.” Xperion’s tagline for its most popular virtual-reality multiplayer fantasy game takes on an ominous cast when a player hacks into the game to bypass its leveling rules and starts “killing” the top players. The hacker’s character, now known as “gray warrior,” proves to be invisible to the developers and impossible to beat by the other players, causing an avalanche of issues for Xperion’s senior staff, who commission their own hacker to find the culprit. Shea Britton, an avid gamer and a top player in the Land of Might and Magic, starts her own investigation from within the game. In the real world, Parker Reid, the preeminent profiler at the FBI, is on the trail of a potential new serial killer. The violent manner of execution, the chilling trophies, and the macabre poses the victims are left in all point to a maniac who needs to be stopped, and soon. Initial victim profiling fails to reveal a common thread until the investigators uncover the victims’ connection to the famous virtual-reality game, and the convergence of Shea’s and Parker’s investigations becomes inevitable. In this engaging, page-turning thriller, the author seamlessly weaves two seemingly disparate threads: Parker Reid’s story has a sense of real-life authenticity to the investigation, while Shea’s pursuit in the fantasy realm of theLand of Might and Magic, complete with character-building and rules of the game, brings a unique and refreshing dynamic to the plot. The narrative incorporates elements of corporate greed and dysfunctional families along with compelling character development for both Shea and Parker, making for a well-rounded read. While there’s a degree of predictability when it comes to the culprit, the journey is a reward in itself.

A cool thriller with well-blended elements of crime, suspense, and gaming culture.

Kirkus Reviews