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Dark Origins
by Anthony E. Zuiker and Duane Swierczynski
Level 26 is a series of crime thrillers centered on a rogue serial killer hunter. Steve Dark is head of a highly secret and incredibly skilled black-ops element within the U.S. government, which is tasked with finding and bringing to justice the most brutal and horrific serial murderers in the world -- especially those whose existence world governments would prefer not to admit.
Adept at suppressing his own personality and conjuring the mind and the world of an unknown killer based on the signature elements of the crimes, Steve Dark possesses the unique ability to mimic and virtually inhabit a killer's profile and killing landscape based on the smallest details. Dark's methods require an existence off the grid and underground, pushing him ever closer to his targets even as the psychic toll of losing his own identity comes dangerously close to irreversible. Under the direct control of the U.S. government, the reluctant investigator and his team are on call 24/7, ready to immerse themselves in a new operation at any time, at any point on the globe.
"There's nothing really new about the basic concept, but Swierczynski handles the writing with assurance and verve." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. Resembling the thrillers of Thomas Harris and Jeff Lindsay this experimental crossover novel... will attract a diverse following and could change the future of publishing with its interactive content." - Library Journal
This information about Level 26 was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Readers of Level 26 will have access to a Web-based portal where they can access digital content, including twenty book-specific "cyber-bridges" for each entry in the series. These cyber-bridges will be called out in the text of each novel-approximately every five chapters by a graphic icon and a code - which, when entered into the digital portal, will unlock a video, audio, or interactive element that enhances the story.
The Web portal - designed by EQAL, of lonelygirl15 fame - will also feature an interactive social networking component where readers can congregate to interact with one another and with the story.
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