This razor-sharp, tech-laden tale proves both convincing and exhilarating.
Cyberharassment against a Hollywood businessman quickly evolves into coercion and physical attacks in this debut techno-thriller.
Someone has apparently targeted Dante Ellis, founder and CEO of a successful advertising company. Soon after he receives a vaguely intimidating text, a deepfake appears online—digitally altered footage showing him engaged in a vile sex act. There’s no shortage of people potentially harboring animosity against Dante: a fired employee, an industry rival, etc. But tracking down the anonymous aggressor isn’t easy even after this harassment turns into overt threats. Dark Messiah, which seems to be a group of hackers, soon takes credit. But Dante isn’t the only cybervictim in Hollywood. A SWAT team storms the home of information technology guy Gary Wexler on the basis of a false report. Aspiring singer Briana Warren learns that an unknown individual has a video of her that she’d like to remain private. Both Gary’s and Briana’s lives ultimately intersect with Dante’s in an elaborate scheme the CEO struggles to decipher. Dark Messiah’s reach is immeasurable, as it manages to hurt Dante professionally as well as physically. The onslaught escalates further when individuals kidnap Dante’s 9-year-old daughter, Abigail, and Dark Messiah gives him a harrowing choice in order to save her. Whitlock’s tale, with its contemporary dangers and tech, is frighteningly realistic. For example, cyberthreats include doxxing people—ruining them by posting their private information online. The author steeps his narrative in a foreboding atmosphere; omnipresent dragonfly drones seemingly spy on individuals, and it is clear Dark Messiah closely monitors its victims. Moreover, the prose seethes with menacing descriptions: A security door’s lock pops “like a gunshot,” and an “early morning sun knifed in under the blinds.” Brief scenes and chapters, along with copious twists, produce a swift pace. While necessary exposition in the final act decelerates the narrative, intrigue remains high all the way to the smashing conclusion.
This razor-sharp, tech-laden tale proves both convincing and exhilarating. (dedication, acknowledgements, author bio)Pub Date: April 6, 2021
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 351
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.
Stephanie Plum’s 31st adventure shows that Trenton’s preeminent fugitive-apprehension agent still has plenty of tricks up her sleeve, and needs every one of them.
The current caseload for Stephanie and Lula—the ex-prostitute file clerk at her cousin Vincent Plum’s bail bonds company, who serves as her unflappable sidekick—begins with two “failures to appear.” Eugene Fleck is suspected of being Robin Hoodie, who robs from the rich and, yes, distributes the proceeds to the poor. Racketeer Bruno Jug, who’s missed his court date on charges of tax evasion, is also suspected of drugging and raping a 14-year-old. But neither of these fugitives can hold a candle to Zoran Djordjevic, aka Fang, a self-proclaimed vampire wanted in connection with the gruesome fate of his late wife and three other missing women. As usual, Stephanie’s personal life is just as helter-skelter as her professional life as a bounty hunter. She’s managed to get herself engaged both to Det. Joe Morelli, of the Trenton PD, and Ranger, a former Special Forces agent who runs a private security firm; she thinks she may be pregnant; and she’s willing to marry the father, whichever of her fiances that turns out to be. On top of it all, her nothingburger schoolmate Herbert Slovinski suddenly pops up at one of the funerals she ferries her Grandma Mazur to, hitting on her relentlessly and gilding his importunities by cleaning and painting her shabby apartment and laying new carpet. Luckily, Lula’s on hand to offer cupcakes that stave off the worst disasters, and whenever this hodgepodge threatens to slow down, another FTA appears, or fails to appear.
As usual, Evanovich handles the funny stuff better (much better) than the mystery stuff.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2024
ISBN: 9781668003138
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Oct. 26, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2024
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