Book Review: Buzz by Anders de la Motte – find out whether HP and Rebecca have truly escaped from the tentacles of The Game

This second novel in this trilogy catches up with HP and Rebecca after their escape from The Game at the end of the first book The Game.  HP is on the run, drifting from country to country in a haze of drugs, alcohol and increasing paranoia, whilst desperately homesick for Sweden.  Rebecca is as focussed as ever and after a surprise promotion heads up a close protection team and settling down into some semblance of domestic normality.

This equilibrium soon starts to unravel for HP after a trip to a Bedouin desert camp organised by his friend Vincent takes a strange turn and HP finds himself framed for the murder of a fellow Swede Anna Argos.  His detention turns nasty and after several waterboarding sessions, HP reveals his identity, uncertain if he is back in The Game again.   However, police colonel Aziz realised HP has been set up and frees him.  HP knows he is lucky, but feels some responsibility to find out who did murder Anna Argos.  He returns to Sweden and joins her company Argos Eye, a high tech information organisation, whose slogan is Knowledge - Security – Control, convinced the answer to her murder lies there.  Meanwhile Rebecca is accused of dereliction of duty after an assignment in Sudan goes wrong and is suspended whilst an inquiry takes place into her conduct.

We then see the twin track of Rebecca being hounded on the internet through the blog Pillars of Society, whilst HP is working at Argos Eye slowly learning about the way the company influences people’s perceptions through the internet, as well as what Anna Argos’ brother Philip is doing with the company.  As HP gets closer to understanding what’s at the heart of Argos Eye, Stockholm is rocked by a terrorist attack.  HP and Rebecca’s worlds collide and the action speeds up dramatically hurtling the reader to the book’s conclusion.

This is an excellent second book in this trilogy, continuing the themes of The Game into two parallel plots of using the internet to manipulate people’s views – the Buzz, and the impact of internet stalking and bullying experienced by Rebecca – so we see views of individuals as well as the impact on society as a whole.  The book starts briskly and then seems to slow down although with an underlying tension that builds as HP burrows into the workings of Argos Eye (reminded me of Adam Cassidy in Joseph Finder’s Paranoia) and how Rebecca copes with her internet stalker.  The pace picks up through a series of exciting chase scenes that culminate in HP…sorry, no plot spoilers.  

Suffice it to say that the immediate story in Buzz is resolved, although the door is left open for book 3 – Bubble, which I’m sure you’ve guessed is on my reading list, with a review to follow soon!

Romancrimeblogger