The Room: A Tale of Murder in the Social Networking Age

By Gavin Bell

He had two problems: a broken leg and terminal boredom.

The long days and nights alone in his flat after an accident lead an incapactitated young student to renounce his aversion to the internet and take his first tentative steps into the world wide web.

Before long, he finds himself entering a new kind of social network: an online self-help community called simply 'The Room'. The experience of eavesdropping on the lives of others quickly becomes addictive, and the members of The Room seem welcoming enough.

But then something changes: a man called Bryan confesses to a murder. It could be a fantasy, or a sick joke, but it's not. And the terror doesn't stay online for long...

The Room is a tale of murder in the age of social networking. A dark psychological thriller of curiosity and killing that has been called a Rear Window for the Facebook generation.

Short story length: 4000 words approx.

Also includes as a bonus feature the first chapter of Gavin Bell's full-length thriller: Halfway to Hell.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gavin Bell
• Release date: Sep 18, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301380152

Gavin Bell

Gavin Bell was born in Glasgow in 1979. He studied English at the University of Stirling and has been writing stories all his life. To pay the bills, he's also put in the hours in various occupations including taxman, researcher, project manager and pizza delivery boy. His short story 'A Living' was shortlisted for the Quick Reads Get Britain Reading award, and published in the Sun Book of Short Stories. His crime and mystery stories have appeared in Scribble magazine, First Edition and Thrillers, Killers and Chillers. He also writes screenplays and comic books. Halfway to Hell is Gavin Bell's first novel: a neo-noir action thriller and the first in a series starring Johnny Park. Johnny isn't your run-of-the-mill thriller hero, in fact he isn't exactly a hero. He isn't exactly one of the bad guys, either. By his own estimation, he's just bad enough.

Book preview

The Room

Gavin Bell

Copyright 2012 by Gavin Bell

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © Gavin Bell 2012

The right of Gavin Bell to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead is entirely coincidental.

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Contents

The Room

Halfway to Hell (exclusive free sample)

Also by this author

The Room

I STARED AT the screen for a while, listening to the pulse thudding in my head over the hypnotic hum of the hard disk. I was alone, but I wanted to get away from these people. No words had been spoken, yet what had been said echoed around my head like approaching thunder. I was perfectly safe in this room, but still I felt a primal urge to escape. Maybe this was what it felt like to be insane.

Distance. That’s the thing about the internet: the distance renders all communication slightly off-kilter. In one sense, that distance allows you to open up more; the act of typing creates a chance to organise your thoughts more clearly. In a way, it frees you to truly be yourself. But you will always be inescapably less than yourself as well: thoughts without a voice, communication without contact.

I