LIGHTS OUT IN ISTANBUL

In Keating and Heatly’s technothriller sequel, an author races against time with an unexpected ally to prevent a global catastrophe.

Henry Vanzant, a former journalist based in Breckenridge, Colorado, should be celebrating the success of his nonfiction book, an account of the criminal activity and arrest of cyberterrorist Sander Waldifrid, also known as Mr. S, who’s now in prison. However, memories of the experiences that inspired the book haunt him, including the murder of his lover, cybersecurity expert Alex Yolkova. One day, after Henry gives a radio-show interview, he’s kidnapped by Faheem El Hashem, a terrorist inspired by Bag of Tricks, who wants Henry’s former girlfriend, computer programmer Karyn Foxx, to use a program called the Master Key to hack into the root zone of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers as part of a plot to destroy the internet itself. It turns out Faheem isn’t working alone; Mr. S is very much involved, despite the fact that he’s still incarcerated. Henry is rescued by a surprising savior who’s working with a cybersecurity company called Black Code. Together with a group of Russian commandos, Henry and his rescuer travel to Istanbul to rescue Karyn and stop Faheem and Mr. S—a mission that becomes more urgent as small acts of sabotage threaten the security of the internet. This second installment of Keating and Heatly’s thriller series, following Bag of Tricks: Power of the Pen (2015), is a tightly paced and engaging actioner that’s anchored by well-drawn characters and a truly chilling what-if scenario. Henry is a complex protagonist whose guilt over what happened to Alex leads him to alcohol addiction; in one scene, he even steals a bottle of vodka out of desperation: “I shake my head when I realize I’m trembling. I need a drink.” The terrorist plot at the center of the narrative is similarly well-crafted, as seemingly unrelated events build to an attack of global proportions. As this is a direct sequel, readers may want to start with the first book for more background information, although the story does offer some recapping.

A suspenseful and often compelling novel.