A sharp, globe-trotting cyberthriller that blends technical realism with grounded drama.
In Izmalkov’s thriller, a dark web criminal mastermind discovers that disappearing is more dangerous than being found.
As the story opens, Mike Romano, a New York City cybersecurity expert with a lucrative side-business in online narcotics, suddenly finds himself hunted by both the Italian Mafia and federal agents. Forced to shed his penthouse-dwelling life, he slips into Europe with a backpack and plenty of cash, eventually purchasing a crumbling home in a Sicilian village where crumbling houses are sold for a single euro. The promise of anonymity quickly unravels as his pursuers track him down; meanwhile, an intelligent Sicilian woman named Maria may be an ally, or she may be setting a trap. Izmalkov builds suspense in this thriller while intriguingly eschewing the typical nonstop action of the genre, instead offering steady increasing paranoia that will resonate with modern readers—especially those who are already aware of how cybercrime operates. The novel excels in its depiction of digital warfare in which flight manifests are rewritten in seconds, laptops are dismantled into trash bags, and cryptocurrency trades are funneled through the shadowy dark web. These details lend the story authenticity and distinguish it from more formulaic thrillers, while also giving it a distinctly timely feel. The Sicilian setting further sharpens the tension, shifting the narrative from sleek New York towers to cobblestone alleys and a decaying village that hides criminal machinery. Although some passages linger too long on descriptions of streets, hotels, or daily routines, they reinforce the protagonist’s claustrophobic isolation and make the narrative feel more immersive. Mike himself is neither a hero nor an antihero, but a figure caught between arrogance and desperation who can erase his digital footprints, but not his conscience. The romantic subplot adds intrigue, rather than sentimentality, while also underscoring a theme of mistrust. The book may put readers in mind of the methodical intrigue of Daniel Silva’s spy fiction, or the techno-anxieties of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series.
A sharp, globe-trotting cyberthriller that blends technical realism with grounded drama.Pub Date: Feb. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9788397089334
Page Count: 282
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2025
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
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.
A woman accused of shooting her husband six times in the face refuses to speak.
"Alicia Berenson was thirty-three years old when she killed her husband. They had been married for seven years. They were both artists—Alicia was a painter, and Gabriel was a well-known fashion photographer." Michaelides' debut is narrated in the voice of psychotherapist Theo Faber, who applies for a job at the institution where Alicia is incarcerated because he's fascinated with her case and believes he will be able to get her to talk. The narration of the increasingly unrealistic events that follow is interwoven with excerpts from Alicia's diary. Ah, yes, the old interwoven diary trick. When you read Alicia's diary you'll conclude the woman could well have been a novelist instead of a painter because it contains page after page of detailed dialogue, scenes, and conversations quite unlike those in any journal you've ever seen. " 'What's the matter?' 'I can't talk about it on the phone, I need to see you.' 'It's just—I'm not sure I can make it up to Cambridge at the minute.' 'I'll come to you. This afternoon. Okay?' Something in Paul's voice made me agree without thinking about it. He sounded desperate. 'Okay. Are you sure you can't tell me about it now?' 'I'll see you later.' Paul hung up." Wouldn't all this appear in a diary as "Paul wouldn't tell me what was wrong"? An even more improbable entry is the one that pins the tail on the killer. While much of the book is clumsy, contrived, and silly, it is while reading passages of the diary that one may actually find oneself laughing out loud.
Amateurish, with a twist savvy readers will see coming from a mile away.Pub Date: Feb. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-30169-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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