The White Tower by Dorothy Johnston

Publisher's Synopsis

'Jumpers', McCallum was saying. 'Jumpers are - well, in my experience jumpers are always badly disturbed. They choose to jump because it's so violent.'

A mild young man's addiction to a role-playing internet game has led to his death. Disturbingly, his suicide is a bizarre echo of his chilling execution in the game; his only note a digital mirror image of his own death.

But where do blame and responsibility lie, in a world where powerful men are as seductive as they are unscrupulous? Sandra Mahoney finds that the threads of truth and illusion can easily wind into a choking scarf of manipulation and deceit.

My Review of The White Tower by Dorothy Johnston

Sandra Mahoney's life has progressed significantly since she was introduced as a contracted government department clerk in The Trojan Dog. The sequel The White Tower finds her running a computer security consultancy with her husband Ivan. She also has a new baby daughter named Katya to ensure that every moment of her life is hectic.
When Niall Howley is found dead at the base of Canberra's Telstra Tower on Black Mountain it is apparent that the young man had committed suicide. Niall's mother asks Sandra to do some investigation for her so that she might gain some understanding about why he would do such a thing. Niall's addiction to playing role-playing computer games over the internet is the link necessary to bring Sandra into the picture.

The police are happy with the explanation that Niall committed suicide, hurling himself off the tower in despair after he was banned from the game he had come to love. Sandra has her doubts.

When Sandra begins poking into Niall's computer and the now defunct website that he used to access the role-playing game he loved, she stumbles upon the image of a crumpled and broken man who has clearly fallen from a castle wall. The computer image mirrors almost exactly the placement of Niall's broken body when it was found at the base of the Telstra Tower. Could it be that Niall's death was staged and a message boasting about it was sent to his own computer, or did Niall set up his own death to match the image, Sandra is determined to find out.

Visiting the scene where Niall's body was found, Sandra is not satisfied with the scenario that has already been accepted by the police. The story told by the security guards seems implausible and the layout of the tower itself means that it's almost impossible for Niall to have jumped and landed where he did.

Putting together the physical scene and the virtual world that influenced Niall so much has raised all sorts of questions about the mental state he was in. She decides to track down the virtual path first given that this looks to have had the greatest emotional influence on him. Her decision leads her to Ireland and the UK where she meets the owner of the game and one of the game players. Such is their secretive nature and the obvious power that the game owner has to manipulate people, she heads home again feeling that just about anything could be possible, could the power of suggestion have driven Niall to suicide?

This is a well organised story that carefully pieces together a ragged series of clues that eventually forms a picture of what might have happened. It's one for the mystery readers who like to have a chance at solving it themselves. Johnston also does a nice job of developing her characters, carrying forward those who appeared in The Trojan Dog until she builds a strong network of people around her protagonist.

The pacing is controlled, progressing at a fairly steady rate beginning with a methodical investigation that mainly consists of interviews with very unwilling participants. Information is hard to come by and even harder to interpret, but Mahoney's perseverance is to be commended as it starts to pay off. Punctuated between the intense moments of her investigation is a warm family life that not only grounds her and Ivan, but also ensures that all of the main characters are strongly defined.

I found The White Tower to be a strong sequel to The Trojan Dog with an involving plot that rewards as it unfolds. It's a multi-dimensioned story with plenty of information coming in that requires close attention else critical plot points will be missed.