|
The Watcher In The Wall by Owen Laukkanen is a novel with a very dark
subject matter. Known for his powerful and suspenseful stories
Laukkanen continues this pattern with his latest book. He
has dealt with Internet targeted killings that prey on young
veteran’s emotions, human trafficking of teenage girls,
and now this, a predator that encourages teenagers to commit
suicide on a web-cam.
Early in the book readers understand that a stalker of sorts
attempts to find teenagers who are depressed and want to end
their life. In fact, the book cover and title play into this
scenario. Kirk Stevens and Carla Windermere, partners in a
joint BCA-FBI violent crimes task force stumble on this person.
Stevens’ daughter is devastated when a classmate commits
suicide. She asks them to investigate this voice of death
and doom. What they find is an online suicide club of unhappy
teenagers, presided over by an anonymous presence that seems
to be encouraging them. Stevens and Windermere are driven
to find this person and prevent him from convincing others
to act on their feelings.
Laukkanen based the book on “the real-life case of online
predator William Melchert-Dinkel. He is a Minnesota man whose
has counseled someone online and encouraged them to commit
suicide. He is suspected of entering into fake suicide pacts
with at least five other victims. All killed themselves at
his instruction. At the time I started to write this story
the case was working its way through the courts. I was stunned
and frustrated with the justice system in that it appeared
he would get away with it so I wrote this book about a similar
predator. On appeal it was found that he could be retried
for actively assisting in a victim’s suicide. Ultimately
he was convicted last fall and served just 360 days in jail.
Writing this story was therapeutic for me because I was so
upset with the sentence of this real-life guy, so I decided
to administer my own justice, which was more fitting.”
What makes the story more relatable are the backstories on
Windermere and the Internet killer. After being brutally abused
by his alcoholic stepfather as a young man he decides to turn
the tables on his stepsister, giving her constant emotional
abuse. She decides to take her life, and as she hangs herself
she notices him watching her. Unfortunately he gets a high
from this and decides to set up a website where he can encourage
others to die at their own hands as he watches.
Windermere also has dealt with suicide from bullying. As a
teenager, she watched as someone she knew was taunted and
bullied until they took their life. She did nothing to intervene
and this has haunted her. This is probably one of the most
potent parts of the book: the description of how so many students
laugh along with the bullies, not because they want to be
mean to the victim, but to fit in themselves, or out of a
desire to not become a target of the bully themselves.
The author noted, “We need to pay attention to what
our friends/students/family members are feeling, whom they
are talking to online, and what is bothering them. Parents
need to play a role on monitoring what their children do on
the Internet. This story was very personal to me. I hope the
story brought some awareness. I was always someone who was
an outsider. There were times where I felt the whole world
is against me. Depression does things to you mentally that
could be really paralyzing. While writing this book I was
dealing with some mental health issues, mainly depression
and suicidal thoughts of my own. When depressed you feel so
alone. I channeled this by writing the book. It became a release
for me. The mixture of talking to professionals, friends,
and family as well as finding the right medication helped
me.”
The book is also very informative in that it describes the
debate between calling coercion a crime versus freedom of
speech. A quote from the story explains, “State law
says it’s a felony to coerce or counsel someone into
committing suicide,” but there is no federal law because
of “his right to free speech to do what he’s doing.”
Readers might be shocked to learn that predators like this
fictional character may not even be breaking the law.
The Watcher In The Wall is an informative mystery.
This chilling story is gut wrenching. A word of warning make
sure you have the time to read it because you will not want
to put it down.
|
