"Rule 34" is a popular online meme, which holds that "if you can imagine it, there's pornography about it on the Internet,” as author Charles Stross puts it. Stross uses that line as the inspiration for the "Rule 34 Squad" or, as it's officially known, the Innovative Crime Investigation Unit--a division of tomorrow's Edinburgh police department that tracks down pockets of this kind of imagination, as people try to replicate the disturbing things they find online in their own homes and neighborhoods.
The ICIU is run by 38-year-old detective inspector Liz Kavanagh, but it's not her only responsibility in the department--as Rule 34 begins she's assigned to a bizarre homicide case involving a former spammer and an enema machine once owned by Nicolae Ceausescu. Stross interweaves her story with that of Anwar Hussein, an ex-con who's been recruited to run the Scottish consulate for Issyk-Kulistan (a new nation splintering off from the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan), and the Toymaker, a "neurodiverse" (i.e., sociopathic) foot soldier in an international criminal enterprise that's run like a venture capital fund. Stross does an excellent job of shifting among multiple second-person narrators as he maneuvers them into position, and when things start to unfurl, the premises are grounded in fascinating economic and technological speculations, but remain accessible to readers who don't consider themselves science fiction fans.
One of the novel's best aspects, though, is its look at a police force of the future. Although Liz's experience is overlaid by an "augmented-reality interface" known as CopSpace," it's about trying to fight crime while dealing with departmental bureaucracy and tense office politics. Even with the shiny techno-flourishes, it's an instantly recognizable work environment. --Ron Hogan