Okay, I will admit. Have never read anything by Simon Scarrow before. So I did not know what to expect. Bloody hell, what a dark serial killer thrilling read. It was really a very very good read, had me gripped from the beginning to the end. The technical part of the book was interesting and really, this was a great read. It will not be the last book by Simon I will read!

Playing With Death starts out as a time-honoured, cat and mouse style thriller, featuring a police special agent and the prolific serial killer who escaped her trap and now feels it’s personal.
On the whole, I found the book adequately written, but never particularly inspiring or inventive. All descriptions seemed quite pedestrian and would have benefited from the occasional imaginative simile.
Towards the latter stages of the book, the technology-run-wild sub-plot comes very much to
Playing With Death was certainly readable, but I never found it that exciting or inspiring and honestly cannot award anything better than three stars.

Playing with death, by Simon Scarrow, Lee Francis.

This is a crime thriller based upon a quite interesting premise around computer games, the dark web and the potential for AI to overtake human beings. However, although parts of it were really well written, overall I found it lacklustre and flimsy. Not a good read.

Sorry but I just couldn't get into this book at all, and I'm a serial killer thriller fan! The writing felt disjointed and the characters wooden. I felt very little connection whasoever with Rose.

Much prefer his historical fiction.

Thank you Netgalley and the Publisher. this was a fast paced thriller of the highest quality, centering round Rose an FBI agent and the hunt for a serial killer.
The pace of the story is relentless, its one of those you don't want to put down once started, a thriller for the modern technological age.
Would highly recommend

A new direction for Simon Scarrow with a dark tale of serial killing laced with an intriguing vision of AI. Based around the hunt for a serial killer the tale involves an F.B.I agent,her family and sundry colleagues who all mesh in an entertaining yarn with a dark frightening vision of the future (?). Cleverly paced as one would expect from this author and co-writer this is well recommended!

Ill split this review into 2 parts; the good and the bad. Starting with the good.

Its a very quick read. Hard to put down and gripping enough that you keep ploughing on. The chapters are nice and short which propel the story on at a pace, and there's a decent cast of characters, both good and evil that add to the book, and leaves me looking forward to their development in further books.

The story itself is interest, focusing on cyber crime and the impact of developing AI in human society. We also have killings and murders that help set a dark tone. All in all a good story, and if written by a debut author, i would be full of more praise.

HOWEVER, this isn't written by a debut author, and if the front cover had not told me, I would never have believed this was written by Simon Scarrow. He's one of my favourite authors, and his Roman novels rank among the very best. His prose normally flows so flawlessly, and his novels always hit home on more than one level. This book was written completely differently. I don't know if its the hindrance of having a co-author, but I really hope the next book in the series sees more of Simon's natural writing style show through.

This is an edgy, pacy, futuristic and oh so very polished cyber thriller. At its centre is the author's idea of what life could be like beyond "Second Life" (virtual world for the sad and lonely geeks!) The skin suit: a totally immersive online experience from software giants Wadesoft....."where the person wearing the suit can be made to feel the physical sensations of whatever software simulation the program is running...." Once the user enhances his body by wearing the skin he can enter the Streamplex where all his needs and wants can be realized in a virtual environment.

FBI agent Rose Blake has failed in her mission to capture and incarcerate Shane Koenig, a killer who performs the most heinous deaths on this victims before uploading the video to his KKillKam site which is viewed by those who troll the shadowy side of the internet...the darknet. She has no time to dwell on past mistakes and must now use all her energy to investigate a suspected arson. However when a body is discovered Rose will commence a journey that will see her become engrossed in a world of online fantasy and video games, a world without rules or regulation and a world where she will encounter unexpected help in the form of project DIVA (an intelligence that can think for itself and make decisions) amidst "an orgy of virtual massacre and destruction."

Having not read Simon Scarrow's historical novels ( a mistake I plan to rectify) I was intrigued by his latest offering an almost futuristic crime thriller which goes beyond the virtual world giving a glimpse of what might be possible and how those possibilities create a frightening but not unreasonable scenario. I felt a certain warmth towards agent Blake her love for her son Robbie and her worry about husband Jeff who held lustful thoughts for the lovely Pandora and when not reciprocated purchases his own skin suit, enters Streamplex there hoping to realize his dark inner self. This novel is filled with intelligent, perceptive thought and analysis, a compassionate hero and a deadly foe who will stop at nothing to damage and destroy. Will Shane Koenig by finally stopped? Will Rose successfully navigate the virtual world of Streamplex? Will Jeff be saved from his overworked labido? All will become clear in an exciting and very fulfilling conclusion that leaves open the possibility of further novels in the series. Thanks to netgalley for this gratis copy in exchange for an honest review and that is what I have written.