The Astonishing Mistakes of Dahlia Moss

by Max Wirestone

Overview

Veronica Mars meets the World of Warcraft in The Astonishing Mistakes of Dahlia Moss, a mystery romp with a most unexpected heroine.

You'd think that after I took a bullet in my arm following my last case, that I'd be timid about going in guns blazing a second time. But you'd be wrong. I faced down death, and the only bad thing that happened was that I got a cool scar. Which is a like a tattoo, but with street cred.

I may have been a little overconfident this time. Like, Leeroy Jenkins overconfident. Some small, but confidently made, errors committed in this book include:

• Unwisely meeting up with an internet stalker in real life.
• Eating a large breakfast before discovering a corpse
• Kidnapping
• Standing uncomfortably close to the edge of a steamboat while musing that nothing bad could possibly happen
• Kidnapping, again

That's the thing about a sense of invulnerability — you usually get it right before things go terribly, terribly, wrong.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316386012
Publisher:	Orbit
Publication date:	03/14/2017
Series:	Dahlia Moss Mystery Series , #2
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Max Wirestone lives in Lawrence, Kansas with his husband, his son, a very old dog, and more books than a reasonable person should own. Find him @maxwires.

Editorial Reviews

01/16/2017
Those who like their mysteries garnished with a large dollop of quirkiness will welcome the return of gaming maven and detective wannabe Dahlia Moss (after 2015’s The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss). In her second lighthearted adventure, the geeky girl attends a computer games convention in St. Louis as the result of a request from the mysterious Doctor XXX, who follows Dahlia on Twitch. She assumes he wants to hire her for her detecting skills, but fears he might be a stalker. At the convention hotel, she finds a dead body in one room and, in another, a nearly nude man handcuffed to a chair. From these she draws a number of conclusions—all wrong. News of the murder scares off some competitors, allowing Dahlia and her partner to advance in the games. She gets some assistance from her roommate’s boyfriend, who’s busy practicing his Australian accent. Readers should be prepared for lengthy, plot-slowing passages devoted to what can charitably be called Dahlia’s thought processes. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"Revel in the geekery of The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss... Dahlia Moss is all of us."—B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog

"Wirestone's debut is a gem that can be summed up as 'geek chic.'"—Library Journal on The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss

"A clever mystery featuring a delightful amateur detective. Or, in online parlance: Dahlia Moss FTW!"—Kirkus on The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss

"This book is a barrel of fun."—Charlaine Harris, New York Times bestselling author on The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss

"A hilarious read sure to delight mystery lovers and gamers alike. With unforgettable characters and a stand-out heroine, Dahlia kept me guessing until the very end. A laugh-out-loud gem of a book."—N.K. Traver, author of Duplicity on The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss

"Dahlia's story is a zany, hilarious, laugh fest that made my inner geek girl sit up and search for a caper to solve! Take the clumsy sweetness of Bridget Jones, combine with the intriguing geekiness of Felicity Smoak, and you have Dahlia Moss in this delightful romp!"—Rebecca Zanetti, New York Times bestselling author on The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss

"At last, a 'geek mystery' ... entirely fresh."—New Hampshire Union Leader on The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss

From the Publisher

2016-12-19
A decidedly twitchy personality finds herself investigating the geek-gamer world of a video game tournament, with only her roommate's boyfriend and some highly questionable followers to give her support.Dahlia Moss is pretty sure the $500 tip she received via her Twitch feed isn't just a gesture of appreciation for her internet monologue. That's the kind of cash someone gives when they want something in return. So when the donor, whose screen name is Doctor XXX, asks to meet her in a private chat room, Dahlia is the opposite of surprised. Doctor XXX wants Dahlia to come to a tournament celebrating Dark Alleys, which he claims could benefit from some oversight by a budding investigator like Dahlia. In spite of her adventures in her last case (The Unfortunate Decisions of Dahlia Moss, 2015), including taking a bullet, Dahlia resolves to fulfill this installment's title by agreeing to meet this internet stranger at the video game contest. Though she wishes she could bring her roommate, Charice, a manic pixie she thinks would be a perfect dream girl for the video game world, she's instead saddled with a wholly inadequate substitute: Daniel Simone, Charice's man of the month. Daniel's mainly interested in practicing his Australian accent for auditions, but Charice seems determined to foster a friendship between Daniel and Dahlia. Does that mean Daniel might last longer than the month? On arriving at the tournament, Dahlia and Daniel find that the man behind the meetup may have been murdered. The two search the tournament's wacky range of geeky gamer-testants for answers and the identity of the mysterious Doctor XXX, all the time wondering if the $20,000 in prize money is enough to motivate a killer. Endorsed by Charlaine Harris, another author in love with her feisty female lead, Wirestone's franchise will appeal to those willing to fall for his heroine as hard as he has.

Kirkus Reviews