Rebecca Bradley is the author of the DI Hannah Robbins series, Shallow Waters, Made To Be Broken and Fighting Monsters. Her latest novel, Dead Blind, a standalone, was published on 8 May 2018.

Today Rebecca talks a little about the dark web which features in her novel.

Within the pages of my most recent standalone novel lies the dark net, or the dark web. The part of the internet that for the most part, for the average internet user, little is known other than the usual words that are trotted out when describing the dark net and they are that you can buy drugs, guns and assassins. It also has other illegal activities on there, but ones that can be found quite easily on our usual internet, and no one is really sure how realistic the claim is that you can hire an assassin.

It sounds like a lovely place, doesn’t it?

And for the purposes of my novel, it does play its usual nefarious role and plays it quite well. Though not for drugs, guns or assassins.

The dark web is not as totally dark as it at first look, appears.

It was created by the US naval intelligence service so their operatives could talk while they were away on assignments. In order for them to not stand out as operatives, they had to share the software to be able to hide amongst the other users, so the dark net became underground mainstream.

Now, as well as the dark and dastardly, it is also used for work, by people such as reporters, who want to keep their sources secure. You will find the major news outlets will have reporters with accounts on there where you can leave information.

And, in this world where people are more aware of state surveillance, it is being used more and more by everyday people to avoid it. Just look at what has happened in the world most recently. Could you have avoided it if you had been accessing Facebook from the dark net? I’m not sure. I don’t have the tech know-how to answer that question. But it’s just one example of why people are getting more and more anxious about their internet use and are turning to the TOR browser. The browser that is used to access the dark net.

The below video is a TED talk about how you, an average browser, could access and use the dark net if you so wished and what you will find there.

So, here is a peek into the world that is explored a little in Dead Blind.

Enjoy!

Youtube; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzN4WGPC4kc&t=21s

 

About the book

How do you identify a ruthless killer when you can’t even recognise your own face in a mirror?

Returning to work following an accident, Detective Inspector Ray Patrick refuses to disclose he now lives with face blindness – an inability to recognise faces.

As Ray deceives his team he is pulled into a police operation that targets an international trade in human organs. And when he attempts to bring the organisation down, Ray is witness to a savage murder.

But it’s a killer he will never remember.

The pressure mounts as Ray attempts to keep his secret and solve the case alone. With only his ex-wife as a confidant, he feels progressively isolated.

Can he escape with his career and his life intact?

About the author

Rebecca is the author of three novels in the DI Hannah Robbins series, SHALLOW WATERS, MADE TO BE BROKEN and FIGHTING MONSTERS.

She lives with my family in the UK with our two Cockapoos Alfie and Lola.