The Darkest Web

Drugs, Death and Destroyed Lives...the Inside Story of the Internet's Evil Twin

By: Eileen Ormsby

Narrated by: Cat Gould

Length: 10 hrs and 48 mins

Publisher's summary

Dark... A kingpin willing to murder to protect his dark web drug empire. A corrupt government official determined to avoid exposure.

Darker... A death in Minnesota leads detectives into the world of dark web murder-for-hire, where hundreds of thousands of dollars in Bitcoin is paid to arrange killings, beatings, and rapes.

Darkest... A video circulates, and the pursuit of the monsters responsible for "Daisy's Destruction" leads detectives into the unimaginable horror of the world of hurtcore.

There's the world wide web - the internet we all know that connects us via news, email, forums, shopping, and social media. Then there's the dark web - the parallel internet accessed by only a select few.

Eileen Ormsby has spent the past five years exploring every corner of the dark web. She has shopped on darknet markets, contributed to forums, waited in red rooms, and been threatened by hitmen on murder-for-hire sites. On occasions, her dark web activities have poured out into the real world, and she has attended trials, met with criminals and the law enforcement who tracked them down, interviewed dark web identities and visited them in prison.

Contains mature themes.

©2018 Eileen Ormsby (P)2021 Tantor

It reads like a crime thriller but it's all real

The book is split into three sections and focus on one major crime story in each section. The rise and fall of the Silk Road drug black market was incredibly fascinating, the author has made a book all about it, but sadly it isn't on Audible. It's a story that makes me want to read more.

The 2nd section is about the deep web sites that claim murder for hire and focus on a true crime story that sounds like something our of the Fargo TV series. The the last couple hours go from the urban myth of Snuff films and the fabled red rooms, and goes into a child abuse empire that was the worst of the worst. To hear about the people involved, and their prison sentencing, it's very revealing that the monsters in this world aren't always what you're expecting.

The author is an Australian journalist and the narration is done by an Aussie woman, who reads with a very clear accent. She is a professional after all. It's all very top notch from the very compelling writing style, taking you as close to the darkness as possible without being too "not safe for life" despite the bleak crimes, and it's perfectly recorded as an audiobook. Highly recommend for anyone curious about modern cyber crime and the depths of humanity.

Not what I expected, but happy about that

Home toy the trailer makes it seem like this is going to be a creepypasta book (not what I want) but was the complete opposite with real stores. Couldn’t recommend it enough

Dark but important subject

Very interesting and disturbing. Lots of detailed information provided that will educate you on the history of the dark web.

Just wow

The research was through and gut wrenching. It really put a lot of things into perspective.

Terrifying

If even a fraction of what’s in this book is true, which I’m sure it is, the Darkest Web is a truly evil place for truly evil people to meet. The book is well-written and narrated but certainly not for sensitive readers.

Wow scary and informative

A very revealing look into the lies, theft, murders and deceit behind the “Dark Web” and the crimes strangers are willing to commit to become their own masters and take “control” of their lives.

This Book is the complete guide to Tor, Silk Road

Eileen is one of the most dialed in and well informed resources on the darkweb out there. this book is fantastic.

interesting stuff however...

interesting book about a subject I knew about but was curious about however the as the author explains that the illegal business was transacted on chat board 'forums' and the narrators pronunciation became more and more irritating and when it progressed to "Frrumms" I gave up. there were other pronouncing irradiation which spoilt a otherwise well written book, so I'll probably read the book on kindle as the audio version is disappointing.

Confused and disoriented...

Not sure how to rate this one... Performance is horrible and the book is not properly structured. As for the stories in the book there are no words that could describe the feelings...

Interesting topic ruined by awful narration

This book covers some fascinating topics with a lot of interesting detail. Third section is a tough listen. Problem is, narration was absolutely terrible. I forced myself to finish listening just because the topic was interesting, but it sounds like it is being read by a robot. Weird pauses, pronunciations & inflection, I can’t believe this is a human being. Worst narration I’ve ever heard.

Is you want a gruesome listen...

Loved part one. So interesting. Part two is great too... No spoiler alerts here. Part three, well... Don't eat before listening. Narration was too robotic and no need to read out Btc and full Web addresses is there? Sometimes had to listen a couple of times to get the who is who.. Due to the narration

Stick to the stories

When this was documenting the dark web in the context of real life stories and things that actually happened, it was interesting and engaging. However these parts were interspersed with more theoretical “this is what you could perhaps do on the dark web” parts which I found somewhat less compelling. Narration also wasn’t great with repetitive weird pronunciations, e.g. the way she’d pronounce “forum”.

Informative but poor narration

This is a decent book but it sounds like the narration was done by a text to speech program.

Informative

An interesting book to listen too. I have to say though the last few chapters were a difficult listen

You should know what you're getting into

This is disturbing content. If you think it's going to be an easy listen, you're wrong. However, this is an interesting and detailed overview of the Dark Web with many real examples. It's very sad for those victims detailed here but eye opening for listeners.

Very good story but narration difficult to follow

The book is very informative and well written. I found the narration difficult to hear and follow.

Sad

“Audible hopes you have enjoyed this program”! Seriously? There’s nothing enjoyable about reading about the disturbing things uncovered in this book. Very sad for those who have suffered