The Intrusions Stav Sherez Faber $29.99

There’s a distinctly dystopian quality to a thriller that travels to the darker reaches of cyberspace. A hysterical young Australian rushes into a London police station and says her friend has been kidnapped. Her story is dismissed as a drug-induced hallucination, although DS Geneva Miller is not so sure. When the friend’s body turns up, the police investigate the hostel where they were both staying, one frequented by foreigners on working holidays. Easy targets, in other words, and made easier by the prevailing lack of privacy displayed by internet users. No one is who they seem, bemoans Geneva’s boss in the face of his Sisyphean task. But, as the computer geek cop wryly puts it, on the internet no one knows you’re a pig either. A better class of writing keeps the plot ticking along. Strongly recommended for social media addicts.

Verdict: dystopian