ReWire

A California man with extrasensory perception suspects his sister’s place of employment is somehow responsible for her brutal assault in this debut thriller.

Jack McDonald, a senior partner at the investment banking company DealMaker, rushes to his younger sister’s place when friend and security guy Bob White tells Jack he’s lost connection to her alarm. Evidently, Jack’s sibling, Meghan, and her wife, Dvora Schacter, interrupted a burglary in progress and were beaten by the robber, Meghan so severely she’s in a coma. Jack’s a “reader,” an ability he equates with ESP, and this intuition already had him uneasy about biotech firm ReWire, Inc., where Meghan is the chief scientist. Sure that ReWire and President Donald O’Hare are dirty, Jack has colleagues look into the company’s stocks, and, as it turns out, there’s a strong possibility of insider trading. Someone, undoubtedly anxious, taps Jack’s phone line and later tries to kill him as well as his maybe-girlfriend Hong Lee. He’s more determined than ever to find the man who attacked Meghan and Dvora, while culpability may lie with a mysterious church led by “Her Grace,” an ailing but formidable woman who’s brewing something sinister. Soon Jack will have to track down the church to put a stop to dubious goings-on, with the newly added task of proving himself innocent of a murder frame-up. The novel incorporates supernatural elements pragmatically, with Jack’s ESP as just another skill set. He, for example, can only sometimes predict the future, and his telepathic link to comatose Meghan is more sensation than straightforward conversation. The protagonist, meanwhile, is surrounded by grounded characters, like smart investigating cop Alvin Yan and Bob and Jack’s other pal, DealMaker CTO Alice Stewart-White. Jack and Alice’s mutual loathing gradually develops into quite the opposite. There’s definite mystery, particularly with regard to Her Grace’s ultimate goal, but the latter half’s more invigorating once Jack’s on the run and able to utilize his Special Forces training in a memorable snowy setting. Cameron teases the chance of a sequel near the end, for both the good guys and the bad, including one character who seems to be keeping mum about telekinetic potential.

An absorbing espionage tale with surges of action and a sci-fi undertone.