Whole Wide World by Paul McAuley

 

This is more of a near-future murder mystery than SF as one might think of it more often.  There are a few things that are or may be new technologies.  There's a type of PC storage media referred to as "spikes" (I'm not sure, it may just the British term for USB flash drives.)  It takes place in London, which I believe already uses video cameras in public places to aid police.  However, I think the degree of computer control and analysis associated with the cameras is probably beyond what is done today.  England has enacted strict public decency / child protection laws which restrict imports of materials (that are legal in the US) to a degree greater than I believe is true today.  At least according to one e-mail in the book, the story takes place in 2010.

 

There are references to an "info war" in the past in which the computer infrastructure was attacked by viruses and "microwave bombs".  The viruses supposedly caused computers' cooling fans to stop working, resulting in many computers being destroyed and building fires.

 

It starts as a police story, with the main character being called in off-duty to collect computer-related evidence at a murder scene.  This main police character has personal issues, and drinks and smokes a lot.  He’s irreverent and has a messed up life.  In spite of his computer knowledge, he comes across more like a scruffy detective than a techie.  From the beginning, he bends the rules a bit.  By the end, he's been suspended pending an inquiry and is continuing to look into things on his own.  In this way it acquires some of the feel of a private eye story.

 

The murder case involves a woman college student who apparently was tortured to death while it was broadcast over the internet.  The woman had been putting some erotic images of herself on her web site.  But she's also made some videos with some special effects that play a role in the story.

 

This story becomes braided together with a sub-plot about computers, the internet and the technology used to control the police surveillance cameras.  Her uncle is a computer businessman who developed technology for the computers handling the video camera system.

 

The story has the kind of tangle of suspects, clues, motives, misdirection, etc. one would expect from a mystery.

 

The book has a lot of seamy stuff - characters involved in pornography and murders committed in rather nasty ways.  And it's a London with a variety of social ills - of the sort you'd expect from a country on the decline.  If you’re not in England, you might get some sense of another place and culture, but not in the way of a place you want to vacation.  If you are in England, you might get the feeling of your country slipping towards dystopia.

 

The book has numerous references to music and events from the period between the late 1970s and mid 1980s.  That and the ages of the main characters may make readers in their 40s or 50s better able to identify with the book.