Posted by Mystery Reader, a resident of another community, on Oct 3, 2007 at 12:10 pm

I've noticed the lack of mysteries set in sili valley, too. I think a lot of it is because the landscape is physically boring & unromantic, compared to Napa, Marin, SF, Sonoma. While some of what goes on in the buildings may be interesting to mystery lovers at times, there'd have to be lifestyle, travel, romance, murder or some other requisite titillation.

There also seems to be, compared to other major metropolitan areas, a lack of interest from people here in unfurling mystery itself. People here are driven, busy, self-involved & their curiosity doesn't seem to be of the sleuthing type.

Of course, successful author Lora Smith is different, & there have been a few other local writers. But in truth, they don't compare to Denise Hamilton, of the Eve Diamond series, for example, set in LA, or Marcia Muller, of the Sharon McCone mysteries, set mostly in SF. But even to keep McCone interesting all these years, she's traveled well beyond SF.

It'd be great to see a local writer get details accurate, paint a thrilling picture of something nasty in sili valley and make a name for themselves.

Posted by Resident, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Oct 3, 2007 at 12:24 pm

Great idea.

I think Palo Alto has a great fictional bed of murder motivation, just look at the real life dramas of MI, and other hot topics.

Serioiusly though, I would love to read a crime series set here. One of my own personal favorites is the Sue Grafton A is for ... series which is set in familiar sounding turf not so far away from here.

Yes, Silicon valley could be a hot bed of intrigue.

Posted by Mandy, a resident of Mountain View, on Oct 3, 2007 at 12:46 pm

How about Palo Alto's own Keith Raffel and his recent mystery, dot.dead?

Posted by What about it?, a resident of the Charleston Gardens neighborhood, on Oct 3, 2007 at 12:55 pm

Is it any good? Even if it is, one book doesn't make a trend, unfortunately.

Posted by DotDead Is Good, a resident of another community, on Oct 10, 2007 at 1:16 pm

I got it out of the library. I enjoyed the character & plot development, the local scenes, too. It did have a bit of the now seemingly requisite Palo Alto smugness, w/out seeming to know it was smug. Oh, well, worth a read.