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Month: October 2022

Prague Fatale, Raylan, and The Hunt for the Ransomware Hackers

Prague Fatale, Raylan, and The Hunt for the Ransomware Hackers

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The new KD Thorne thriller, The Hunt for the Ransomware Hackers, should come out in the next few weeks. When it officially launches, there will be discount pricing on the series. I’ll have more on that as the release approaches. 

In the meantime, two books you might be interested in–

Recently read Prague Fatale: A Bernie Gunther Novel #8 (2012) by Philip Kerr. Takes place during WWII. Bernie Gunther is a Berlin police detective. The police are also part of the German army SS, so Gunther gets roped into investigating a murder in Prague, Czechoslovakia, for a high-ranking SS officer. This is an excellent, gritty WWII crime thriller. Gunther hates Nazis, hates authority figures in general, and has the mother of all bad attitudes. Plus he’s an excellent detective. But even he doesn’t know what he’s gotten himself into by the time he finds out who committed the murder and why. Lots of fun!

Also read Raylan, Raylan Givens Book 3, (2012) by Elmore Leonard. (I included a link at the beginning of the month when it was discounted.) This was, I think, the last novel he wrote. It’s more episodic than a typical Leonard book, concerning four cases that US Marshal Raylan Givens is tasked with: a body parts theft case, a coal country murder, a bank robbery, and a fugitive hunt, all of which take place in eastern Kentucky. Though the novel covers four cases, it’s the usual action-packed, suspense-filled romp filled with the local color and regional dialogue that you expect from Leonard. It’s a shame there won’t be more of these. 

That’s all for now. Happy reading!

The Comedians; Bruno, Chief of Police; and The Hunt for the Ransomware Hackers

The Comedians; Bruno, Chief of Police; and The Hunt for the Ransomware Hackers

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Still finishing up the new KD Thorne thriller, The Hunt for the Ransomware Hackers. Here’s how the description is shaping up:

Ransomware attacks on hydroelectric dams in the US. The power grid disrupted. Downstream communities flooded. Who are these mystery hackers?

The hackers operate in cyberspace, their messages and the ransom money bouncing between countries until their trail disappears off the grid in Eastern Europe.

As National Defense Agency operative KD Thorne and her partner Jeffery Blunt track the hackers from dam to dam, the hackers create a web of misinformation to conceal their identities and hide their stolen money.

Can KD and Blunt cut through the subterfuge and lay a trap to catch the hackers before they rob their last target and disappear with the ransom cash?

Two books you might be interested in–

Recently read The Comedians by Graham Greene (1966). Haiti in the 1960s— the regime of Papa Doc Duvalier and his secret police, the Tontons Macoute. Picture Syria or North Korea today. Citizens being disappeared, government scams, grifters hoping to make their fortune–this novel reads like a thriller, as we follow a British hotelier through his involvement with con artists, patriots, and innocents. He hopes to make a living at his hotel and stay out of prison, but he just can’t seem to mind his own business as everyone around him has their own agenda—some for good and some for pure selfishness. And is he one of the good guys, more or less, or just another selfish grifter taking advantage of those around him? A serious read and well worth the effort.

Graham Greene’s Collected Novels Volume 5, which includes The Comedians, is $2.99 (US) on Amazon today.

Also read Bruno, Chief of Police, by Martin Walker (2008). This is the first of a series of mystery novels that take place in the (fictional, I think?) town of St. Denis in southern France. Bruno is a decorated military veteran who’s taken on the easy job of a small-town cop, only to have the murder of a local WW II war hero fall into his lap. The local color and the scene setting here are excellent, as well as Walker’s ability to capture modern issues such as conflict around immigration and tourism. And I bet you won’t be able to figure out who the murderer is until the very end. I’ll definitely be reading more of these.

Finally, if you’re an Elmore Leonard fan (which I am), his novel Raylan, featuring US Marshal Raylan Givens, is $1.99 (US) on Amazon today.

That’s all for now. Happy reading!