Stross belongs to that subcategory of science fiction writers who actually know a hell of a lot about how computers work. This technological authenticity adds an extra edge of gritty reality to Stross' already thoroughly hard-boiled story about a detective in near-future Edinburgh who stumbles onto a series of linked murders. The victims are all Internet scammers, who died in a variety of elaborate and gruesome ways. It's a wildly entertaining mystery that slips you, under the table, a

—Lev Grossman