Review 135: Null_Pointer by Ken McConnell

Null_Pointer
by Ken McConnell
ISBN: 978-0-578-02613-8
GB Press
Copyright ©2009
218 Pages
$12.96 Paperback
$4.00 E-Book

Having been impressed with Ken McConnell’s first book, Starstrikers, I was more inclined to give his next book, Null_Pointer, a look.  But after reading the blurb and the preview, I was immediately impressed with the subject matter and anxious to read it regardless of how much I enjoyed his first work.

The subtitle of Null_Pointer is “A Joshua Jones Mystery.”  I have to admit I’m leery of  any book that is any character’s mystery.  For self-publishing, that often means this is part of a never ending series, will be too long, or too cliché.  Most often we are about to follow a detective, ex-cop, vampire, or professor on some big save-the-world-save-the-country-save-the-white house-or save human kind adventure that’s already been done by some other Dan Brown copy cat, and NOT done better.  Mr. McConnell, fortunately, did NOT fall into that stereotype.

Joshua Jones is actually a programmer stuck in a cubicle.  When his co-worker drops dead in the cube next to him, authorities brush it off as a heart attack, but Jones thinks its something much more complex, like a serial hacker reaching his victims through the internet. Jones’s programming skills are about to be put to the test as he steps up to solve the true technical mystery before someone else, possibly even Joshua, dies.

As in Starstrikers, McConnell has a true talent for utterly confusing the heck out of a reader by filling the page with elaborate technical jargon thanks to his brilliant imagination, but it all  just somehow begins to make sense to even the most computer illiterate person once you are drawn into the storyline.  I’m not a genuine fan of science fiction, space odysseys, or electronic mysteries, but I actually wouldn’t force Mr. McConnell’s work into any of those genres. So, don’t let the setting or subject matter of this book scare you.

McConnell’s prose are oddly quite simple and not a word seems wasted.  Although it sounds a bit bland (forgive me), his characters are very approachable and his writing his matter-of-fact. He is to be commended for giving his characters a definite voice without drowning them in needless back story or detail.  Case in point, the introduction of Jones and the facts that shape him.  Here’s a bit of description from early on in the story:

He had the kind of likable face that women called cute and immature men liked to beat up. He wore a brown jacket with a hooded dark blue sweatshirt underneath. The dress standard was pretty lax at the tech company and he wore the same faded blue jeans and black Cons that got him through his college years.

Joshua’s mind was not on the music. He was thinking about how to handle a tricky array construct and the music helped him to concentrate, and keep out the bad dreams. His father used to say he was part of Generation Multi-task, and always gave him a hard time about it. Joshua just shrugged it off, a body does what a body needs and his body needed music to concentrate.

Like a good mystery should, this story moves along at a nicely quipped pace and definitely keeps you guessing.  The book actually starts with Chapter 0 (zero) which I thought was a nice touch. At 218 pages, I found it to be a quick read.  The manuscript itself is polished and formatted quite nicely, and although I read the e-version, I think the cover of the book is perfect and really accents the book’s style.  The only true qualm that stuck out at me was in the first chapter when McConnell kept referring to the first victim as “the programmer” over and over again.  It was almost a bit too third party and very repetitive for me but a lot of this book and its secrets is based on identity.  So, intentional or not,  repeating this character’s position in the story over and over again instead of using pronouns actually “codes” a bit of mystery into the writing itself.  Well done!

There’s lots of programming and amateur radio language that technical junkies will find very appealing.  McConnell is either well versed in this community or definitely did his homework, or like a good writer should be cable of, he fooled me into thinking he knew what he was talking about!

Null_Pointer is another tight, concise, attractive, appealing, and enjoyable read for me that new authors considering self-publishing should buy and use as a reference!  This is how it’s done!  Congrats to Ken on such a near perfect book!