Malicious - James Raven

★★

Read : March 2014

"He calls himself the Slave Master. He spies on women through their computer webcams. Then he blackmails those who unknowingly reveal their secrets to him. His last victim was brutally murdered. Now he's targeting the cop in charge of the investigation. To him she's the perfect prey - because she has secrets of her own.


He hacks into women's computers and laptops, has a snoop around and then uses their own webcam against them to watch and record the things they do in the privacy of their own homes. Some of his 'slaves' he just watches, but when he finds the 'right' woman he blackmails her to do as he wishes using the embarrassing evidence he's gathered. He thinks he has found the perfect 'slave' in Robyn Tate, the Officer currently in charge of investigating the circumstances behind his previous victims brutal murder. She is in a position of authority with a lot to loose and a lot of secrets she doesn't want revealed. But has he met his match this time?

'Malicious' was an okay, reasonably easy read but it didn't jump out and scare me as I had expected it to. It unnerved me slightly but, for me, the pages didn't quite pack the punch that they could have. I wasn't overly keen on the writing style but I found the subject matter interesting and the story moved along well. I did feel, however, that the plot of the book was laid out far too quickly...it felt a little 'obvious.' Within the first 10 pages Raven revealed a lot of the plot and I could see how the majority of the book would pan out, and it did. Whilst saying that, the identity of the hacker aka the Slave Master was hidden reasonably well throughout the story and the police investigation held it's own mysteries.

I didn't find the main characters within Raven's novel very believable, which became an issue for me as I made my way through the chapters. Robyn was rather unlikeable at times, which isn't a problem in itself, but she also didn't come across as a rounded and relateable character and although I felt for her and her predicament I didn't connect with her character well enough to care too much about what happened to her throughout the story.

Overall, Malicious was an okay read; the story rolled along well and read easily. The subject was interesting and not like anything I had read before but it just wasn't my cup of tea.

Disclaimer: A copy of this book was kindly sent to me via Goodreads First Reads in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions on the book are my own.