Paul Heingarten

Journey into the CyberDark ...

Yoshitomo Tagawa never leaves his room. He lives in reverse, sleeping during the day and staying up at night, connected to a technological world of online games, chat rooms and cybersex. Yoshi, like over one million of Japan's youth, is hikikomori, completely withdrawn from society. When a cunning predator uses the far-reaching tentacles of the Internet to compel the depressed and disillusioned into forming suicide pacts, Yoshi should be safe.

Lieutenant Carolyn Latham races to a hellish scene on a hill high above Cypress Village, Oregon. Four teenagers are dead, and Carolyn learns that together, they decided to "catch the bus," with a little inspiration from the Monitor, who claims to want to end their suffering.

The investigation leads Carolyn into a shadow world, where no one is what they seem and imposters lurk everywhere. She must unmask the Monitor before he unleashes more unspeakable evil, and she discovers that the deeply troubled Yoshi, now living in Cypress Village, may hold the key to the Monitor's identity. But Yoshi has disappeared, and the Monitor is closer than Carolyn thinks.