SKINS AND BONE

An SF financial thriller set in the near future focuses on a shady firm.

Rogers follows up his previous work, Fatal Score (2018), with this novel featuring the return of Louise “Weezy” Napolitani and Joe Mayfield. In the opening pages, Joe is at a job interview at the financial firm of Zhou, Cadwallon, and Gordon. Joe is famous in many circles for his computer trickery that garnered headlines. Still, the men in control of ZCG are not easy to impress. Most candidates possess Ivy League degrees and family connections; Joe has neither. Nevertheless, he gets hired and soon learns about the company’s main product known as “Skins.” The term refers to “a basket of financial derivatives designed to offset risk at the geographical source of a commodity.” What Joe doesn’t yet know are the lengths to which the company will go to make sure it controls the risks involved in its investments or how dastardly some of his superiors truly are. Good thing Joe has Weezy on his side. Weezy is both beautiful and has an IQ of 160+. She also has an important job with the government and the computer know-how to investigate ZCG. Of course, Joe and Weezy still find themselves buckled up for a bumpy ride. Communication implants, foldable electronic devices, and self-driving cars all play small but noticeable roles in this version of a not-too-distant world. Such technology is woven skillfully into Rogers’ narrative. The high-tech atmosphere never overshadows the timeless quality that fuels the action: human greed. And the main motivation of avarice and those willing to do anything for their own benefit produce some engaging friction. But the plethora of characters can at times be distracting. For instance, readers learn of Joe’s various co-workers early on. These players, despite their thinning ponytails or lengthy names, wind up being of little to no importance. In a similar vein, the late entry of a posse of hackers (with online handles like “Motormouth”) does not add much to the excitement. Yet all in all, Joe’s intriguing struggles prove just how violent, controlling, and downright dangerous even an advanced world can be.

This melding of SF and financial manipulation creates an appealing, if overcrowded, thriller.