Creator and executive producer of the TV series CSI, a worldwide phenomenon with nearly two billion viewers in 200 countries and multiple Emmy and Golden Globe nominations, Anthony E. Zuiker innovates once again with a unique project that combines literature, cinema, and the internet.
In collaboration with Duane Swierczynski, Degree 26 is the world's first interactive digital novel. A raw, dark, and intense narrative experience that transports the reader from the pages of the book to videos and virtual interactive content. The first volume in the series, Degree 26: The Origin, introduces Steve Dark, a retired FBI agent who returns to work to stop a serial killer unlike anything the world has ever seen. Law enforcement officials know that killers are categorized on a 25-degree scale of depravity, from the most simple opportunists of Degree 1 to the methodical torturers of Degree 25. What almost no one knows is that a new category is about to be created.
Led by the talented detective Dark, a group of elite investigators follows the trail of a killer so horrific—responsible for killing, raping, mutilating, poisoning, and brutally torturing 35 people in six countries over 23 years—that he doesn't fit into any of the 25 known degrees of psychopathy, forcing the law to create a new classification of cruelty to fit him. His name is Sqweegel. His targets: Anyone. His methods: Unlimited. His classification: Degree 26. Degree 26 can be read like a traditional book, anywhere without digital access... but as the story progresses, a deeper level of immersion can be achieved on the grau26 website, exclusively for readers, who will have access to digital content with videos, audio, and interactive elements that complement the plot.
Every twenty pages of the book, readers will find codes that allow them to connect to a cyberbridge: a scene of up to three minutes, subtitled in Portuguese, featuring actors from famous films and award-winning TV series. Before their eyes, the characters will come to life, and the details of the crime scene will explode from the screen, taking the experience to a new level, immersing readers in the middle of the action and inside the minds of a crazed serial killer and the man sent to hunt him. The book's worldwide website also includes extras from the filming and a section where you can read posts about true crimes, blogs from real detectives and criminal investigators, and even venture into the minds of some of history's most terrifying serial killers. Read, watch, and connect.
