Ground Zero: The Locked Room at the End of the World
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Author: Bonnie Ramthun
Title: Ground Zero Genre: mystery Beginning writers get the same piece of advice time after time: "Write about what you know." It's good advice for a couple of reasons: it lends authenticity to your work, and - let's face it - it's easier to write when the foundation of your story is something you know in your sleep. You need not invent everything anew, since you already have a basic structure in your own life. First-time mystery writers who follow this advice have given us "reluctant detectives" across a wide range of professions: lawyers, teachers, clergy, even a geologist. Those are pretty prosaic occupations, though (except maybe the geologist). What happens when someone with a truly Odd Job decides to write a mystery about his work? And what if that occupation just happens to be the ultimate video game? Sounds like the germ for one heck of a plot... The Game to End All Games Terry Guzman's job was playing games - not just any games, though. Her job was to play one side in an all-out nuclear war; computer-based simulations of how the world will end. No matter what the scenario, though, it always ends with a BANG! Terry's life didn't end with a bang, though - it ended messily in a locked room in the midst of an all-out nuclear attack. Lucky for us, it wasn't a real attack. Unlucky for Terry, she was still dead. Colorado Springs homicide cop Eileen Reed drew the case, 'cause she was the department's liaison with the several military bases around town. It was by no means an open-and-shut case, though: the body was discovered in a locked room, and the door to the room was in full view of a video camera the whole time. Unless Eileen believed in ghosts, it didn't seem possible for Guzman to have been murdered - barring the unfortunate fact that she was dead. And then, just a couple of days later, so was one of Eileen's suspects... Reed's investigation quickly zeroed in on Guzman's fellow war gamers, for only they had the means to enter Terry's room unseen by the others in the gaming center. But which one? And more to the point, why were these war-gamers - not to mention a dozen or so scientists and engineers in the ultra-high-tech weapons field - dying like flies? While Reed was doing the legwork in Colorado, a feisty (and pregnant) CIA analyst in DC was tracking down the spy who had been buying sensitive information from one of the gamers, a spy who had suddenly disappeared from the Springs. Was his contact Guzman? Whatever the case, he didn't disappear before he'd sold his explosive information to a US-hating Islamic fundamentalist with plans of his own; plans that just might mean Eileen and her teammates were standing right on top of Ground Zero. The Good, the Bad... Bonnie Ramthun (also author of Earthquake Games brings to Ground Zero first-hand knowledge of the fascinating (and highly classified) world of war gaming, having herself been a gamer in a top-secret Colorado facility. The aspects of gaming that she reveals are downright fascinating, albeit a bit on the macabre side. Slaying dragons and evil warlocks in a video game is one thing, but slagging 75% of the earth's landmass in a "game" has always seemed a little over the top - though I suppose you'd get used to it. It's all in the name of preparedness, so more power to 'em. It's when Ramthun leaves her gamer comfort zone that the novel's realism tends to dissolve. When writing about "what she knows," observations are crisp and clear; when writing about subjects peripheral to her experience, they become muddied; when writing about topics outside her realm of expertise any old statement appears to suffice. For example: polarized glass isn't necessarily reflective, and natives of Uzbekistan are "Uzbeks," not "Usbekistanis. A critical plot point (the means for access to the locked room) hinges on Reed's failure to notice something about the gaming room that is obvious to fifth-graders entering similar spaces (I know - I've seen their reactions). This "skilled" detective's lack of common sense and observational skills leaves a police procedural short on realism, investigative technique and... well, police procedure. As a writer, Ramthun's style tends to choppiness, featuring long strings of short sentences. Whole paragraphs pass with almost no punctuation except for periods, and it gets a bit old after a while: The tape was in pre-Game stage. Eileen was watching Lowell Guzman, who casually took a sprinkle donut and ate it. Weren't the sprinkle donuts reserved for the memory of Sully? Eileen knew they were. An eccentric memorial like that was unforgettable. Yet there was Lowell, eating the Holy Donuts. Odd. Long passages with nary a complex or compound sentence may lower the fog index, but develop an irritating sing-song rhythm after a while. Give me a mix any time. Overall Ramthun's given us a fascinating premise for a murder mystery in a setting very few people ever see in person. Were the rest of the plot up to the setting, this could be an exemplary first effort. Unfortunately, there are holes in its execution that are large enough for a Humvee (the original, not an H2). For instance, I found myself incredulous that the U S Air Force would take four days to get an official investigator out of Alabama when a murder occurs at its super-secret base. You'd think they'd want the local fuzz out of their hair as soon as possible, right? Too, I thought it odd that the military guards on that ultra-high-security base would allow someone to run through the doors to the most secure spot on the base just 'cause she claimed she was CIA (and are CIA analysts always armed?). An absorbing plot premise disintegrates under clunky plotting, choppy writing, and poor research. I give it two stars (one more than I gave the sequel, though - a sophomore slump, perhaps? all content copyright © 2001-present by scmrak
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