A Review by Ruth Hunter of Bertrams

Set in the world of cyberspace, where no one is who they seem to be, this is a tense and mindboggling thriller. The eponymous hero is one of three brothers, and purports to be a murderer, posting ‘fics’ online to a small group of followers on his domain, ‘badguysrock’. At 42, he’s still living with his violent, domineering mother, and, through his fiction and that of another poster, ‘Albertine’, his past is revealed. But how true are his postings – he calls them fiction whilst heavily hinting that they are autobiography – and can either he or Albertine be trusted? This novel has so many twists and turns it’s impossible to see what’s coming next. Using the internet as a device to explore the idea of deception and impersonation is original and intriguing.