Imagine you’ve been accused of a serious crime, of which you know you are entirely innocent. In times past, you’d go through the legal process, probably have the opportunity to face your accuser, the evidence weighed and a verdict reached.

Not anymore, however. In this age of instant communication, you can be accused by an anonymous party, and be tried and condemned in the court of public opinion before you even get to see a judge.

These issues are given full, horrifying play in Hollis resident Daniel Palmer’s new novel, “Helpless,” published by Kensington Publishing Company in New York. In it, former Navy Seal Tom Hawkins has just moved back to the town of Shilo, NH, with his daughter, Jill, nine years after the murder of his ex-wife, Kathy. It soon becomes clear that Tom is a primary suspect in his wife’s killing. The situation becomes steadily worse, as an anonymous blog post alleges that Tom, now a high school soccer coach, is sleeping with one of his players. The rumors begin to escalate, and incriminating evidence surfaces on Tom’s own computer and cell phone, bringing the FBI into the mix. It soon becomes apparent that Tom is being framed for a number of incriminating and unprecedented series of crimes.

“Becoming the prime suspect of his ex-wife’s murder is just the tip of the problem iceberg,” Palmer said. “It seems that someone is out to frame Tom, and destroy everything he loves.”

Palmer sees the issues raised in the novel to be particularly prescient in the present culture of instantly available information.

“Really, it’s about the vulnerability of our reputations to online attacks, and the dangers of what we do with cell phones and what we publish on the internet,” he said. “In this novel, I have Navy Seals, coaches, sexuality and online reputations. I caught as much as I could to address issues that are forefront in the news these days.”

Although the story is fictional, Palmer took great pains to set it in a real and recognizable small-town atmosphere.

“I wanted to deal with something set in my own community,” he said. “The name Shilo is really taken from Hollis itself, with the letters mixed up a little. I wanted to deal with a story that was set in my own community. I decided the story had to have a local flavor of New Hampshire and small-town living, so I tried to think of a story that would be big in scope, but also very relatable. I started thinking about the dangers of ‘sexting’ and I realized there could be a story here. In my research, I learned about the FBI’s Innocent Image Initiative and took it from there.”

The Innocent Images National Initiative is a component of the FBI’s Cyber Crimes Program, set up to combat child pornography on the Internet. By providing centralized coordination of available data, it can now facilitate improved investigation of child abuse cases conducted by state, local, and even international governments.

Throughout the writing process, Palmer said, he was determined to keep the narrative as realistic as possible – and that required help.

“I worked closely with some legal folks to make sure I got it all right,” he said. “It was important that the book depict the situation of someone accused of these kinds of crimes accurately. I was also incredibly fortunate to get amazing access to the FBI’s Innocent Image Special Agent. She not only read my manuscript for grammatical errors, but also corrected any procedural issues that came up.”

Palmer also had help from his local school and police systems, to see how the situation would play out within these contexts.

“Susan Hodgdon, Superintendent of Schools SAU 41, was a huge help,” he said. “We talked about everything that could possibly happen to someone in this position, specifically with what disciplinary actions could come into play.

“Lieutenant, now Sergeant Rich Mello, of the Hollis Police, also brought up some interesting point. He said the situation would be incredibly terrifying for the coach in question” he said. “The police would have to confront the girls and see who wrote the post, and determine whether they thought it was a joke or a prank.

“For the coach, the damage is already done. His reputation is irreparably damaged; conversely, it’s incredibly easy to remain anonymous on the Internet.”

Just how easy it is to frame someone in this manner became increasingly obvious during research, as Palmer began corresponding on discussion board with individuals who had expertise in computer hacking.

“What these people said was accusing someone of child pornography is the easiest thing to do,” he said. “Also, there’s basically no recourse for the accused. What I found was that people who are actually involved in trading these images will claim as a defense that the presence of the data on their computer could be the result of a virus. In those cases, forensic professionals have to go through the device to disprove those claims. In the meantime, of course, you’ve already been convicted in the court of public opinion.”

While nobody disputes that many of these accusations are valid, there’s always the danger that innocent parties could find themselves in a dangerous and untenable situation, at the mercy of a malicious accuser.

“The second the words ‘coach’ and ‘sex’ appear in the same sentence, it’s over,” Palmer said.