A taut and exhilarating techno-thriller.
In Hancock’s thriller, a covert, military-trained American team fights to shut down an AI-related project brewing in Central Asia.
War veteran and widower “Voodoo” leads a group of hackers and “wrench-turners” for the United States Naval Special Warfareunit at the Directorate in San Diego. His skills earned him a spot in a rescue operation the previous year in Japan; now, the CIA station chief in Japan wants the same team for a mission in Central Asia, which, like the previous op, has ties to an escalating artificial intelligence Cold War. That’s not the only connection—the God Algorithm, a powerful AI that Voodoo and the others learned about last year, may still be trouble. For their newest assignment, the team must first recover an asset named Kobra Siddik, who, after escaping a reeducation camp in China, rushes to make it across the border to Kazakhstan. She has intel Voodoo’s team needs, but she will only supply it if the team helps her get someone else out of the camp. Do the Chinese have the God Algorithm? And for what diabolical purpose will they use the AI? In any case, soldiers (courtesy of China’s Ministry of State Security) are gunning for Kobra as well as Voodoo, and such team members as the burly, taciturn Stu Slater and Voodoo’s redheaded directorate co-worker Sparks. The team’s ultimate goal is thwarting “this AI network” that seems to be gathering force. But that’s easier planned than done, as protests devolve into riots that upset the Kazakh city of Almaty, surprising villains crop up, and double-crossings throw everything into disarray.
Hancock packs this brisk thriller with rousing action scenes and intriguing ideas (a scientist makes a specific type of diamond whose value isn’t monetary; China uses a “predictive algorithm” that warns officials of the enigmatic “Sentinel” that will trigger insurgency). The narrative’s complex concepts are made abundantly clear via the action or characters’ discourse. That’s also true for the military and tech terminology, in addition to a veritable alphabet soup of acronyms for various organizations and shorthand communications (RTB: Return To Base). The novel delivers action in an entertaining fashion as the team skydives, goes undercover, and finds itself engaged in frenzied gunfights and pursuits. They also employ impressive technology, the highlight being four-legged, heavily-armed robotic machines that the team can access remotely. Best of all, the author meticulously develops the cast: Voodoo shares a tension with team member Mason Gallegos that harkens back to their tour in Afghanistan, and there are memorable individuals throughout, including the resilient Kobra, who comes with a tragic backstory; the ever-inquisitive Inspector Chen Wei; and the highly-skilled CIA operative Sasha Zhakupova. This sophomore series installment seamlessly connects to the preceding book—new readers will easily follow along, but may want to check out the series opener to avoid spoilers.
A taut and exhilarating techno-thriller.Pub Date: today
ISBN: 9781640621718
Page Count: -
Publisher: Braveship Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 2, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.
Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan.
A week after the night she chases but fails to catch a mysterious trespasser outside her town house, some unknown party texts Tempe four images of a corpse that looks as if it’s been chewed by wild hogs, because it has been. Showboat Medical Examiner Margot Heavner makes it clear that, breaking with her department’s earlier practice (The Bone Collection, 2016, etc.), she has no intention of calling in Tempe as a consultant and promptly identifies the faceless body herself as that of a young Asian man. Nettled by several errors in Heavner’s analysis, and even more by her willingness to share the gory details at a press conference, Tempe launches her own investigation, which is not so much off the books as against the books. Heavner isn’t exactly mollified when Tempe, aided by retired police detective Skinny Slidell and a host of experts, puts a name to the dead man. But the hints of other crimes Tempe’s identification uncovers, particularly crimes against children, spur her on to redouble her efforts despite the new M.E.’s splenetic outbursts. Before he died, it seems, Felix Vodyanov was linked to a passenger ferry that sank in 1994, an even earlier U.S. government project to research biological agents that could control human behavior, the hinky spiritual retreat Sparkling Waters, the dark web site DeepUnder, and the disappearances of at least four schoolchildren, two of whom have also turned up dead. And why on earth was Vodyanov carrying Tempe’s own contact information? The mounting evidence of ever more and ever worse skulduggery will pull Tempe deeper and deeper down what even she sees as a rabbit hole before she confronts a ringleader implicated in “Drugs. Fraud. Breaking and entering. Arson. Kidnapping. How does attempted murder sound?”
Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival.Pub Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-3888-2
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
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