Saskia van Essen consults to large financial institutions, helping them secure their systems against hackers. She's very familiar with the dark net and she hunts those who abuse its concealments. At the request of Interpol, she takes an assignment on the island of Si'Empra and negotiates complex cultures and irascible leaders to track down the criminals running an international operation to sell images of abused children. Some of the children she can save. All she can do others is stop the suffering.
Semi Finalist
Assessment:
Plot: In this stellar addition to the Songs of Si’Empra saga, readers come to know detective Saskia van Essen as she investigates a dark web operation marketing images of abused children.
Prose: Verbeek's prose is deeply immersive and reads very much like a well-plotted police procedural. The more unique elements will spellbind readers and expand their expectations for the genre.
Originality: Verbeek's The Website is strikingly original in concept and scope. While the topic of sex-trafficked children is a familiar one, the author integrates fantasy elements into the story, beginning with the fictional island of Si'Empra, which is featured in her other titles.
Character/Execution: Essen's characterizations are vivid and immediately intriguing. Saskia more than carries the story, but side characters and the stirring setting also allow the work to shine.
Date Submitted: August 21, 2022
I throughly enjoyed reading this story. It's hard to believe that a society of people could live in such different places and still be United. This society is something of a fantasy. Some people live above ground, some people live below ground, their is a whole group of healers, then there's a sub species that live and thrive on a poison gas, add to that a website that is selling child porn and skin on skin contact with children. I'm glad to say that in the end those who hated what was going were able to stop those who were exploiting the children. It was a wild ride I recommend you hold on tight when you read this story.
Since the main character is working with government officials, the author provides details about Si’Empra infrastructure, societies, history, and cultures. She has many nuances to interpret before she can truly understand what to look for and how.
Bureaucracy and turf wars are no different “down under”!
‘I think we should leave Lianthem politics to the Lians.’
Trafficking is a horrendous crime and technology only makes it easier for perpetrators to find their victims and to research methods of (fill in the blank). Fitting this cozy crime story into a fantasy world was a great way to heighten awareness.
It’s everybody’s job to protect the world’s children.
Feisty pocket-rocket Saskia van Essen, a financial security geek by day and a hunter of paedophiles by night, is a new heroine to cheer for in the genre of fantasy crime. Saskia tracks an elusive paedophile ring to Si’Empra, an intriguing island nudging the Antarctic Circle. The action in The Website takes place within the timeframe of the third book of the Songs of Si’Empra series, but this is a fast-paced, stand-alone story that will captivate readers both new and returning.
