GIGA TROUBLE

A modern tech thriller about a secretive company and its malicious intentions from author Pyle.

The year is 2020. Michele Morales works for an international company called Giga-BATS. Rather unexpectedly, when Michele and her colleagues show up for work one day, they are told they are having a company meeting offsite; the meeting is to take place on the company yacht Giga Blue. This is Miami, so yachts are commonplace, but a surprise compulsory company meeting on a boat is unprecedented—Michele is concerned. As the yacht sets sail, she jumps ship and is picked up by a small speedboat. Soon, she is in contact with her father, an attorney named Franklin Morales. Franklin agrees that the whole thing is highly suspicious. Meanwhile, back on Giga Blue, Michele’s friends Kim and Tad are being forced to participate in nefarious internet schemes, “using private information that the company had acquired for inappropriate purposes.” It occurs to Tad that “All he could do was pray that” somehow, he’d “find a way out of this labyrinth of lies and corruption before it consumed him entirely.” The story’s premise is bizarre; a company kidnapping staff and forcing them to work on things like malware feels over-the-top. Nevertheless, readers will be intrigued to discover where this is all going, particularly as events move to Cuba and the technological aspects of the plot intensify. The narrative moves quickly and builds anticipation effectively; however, while the story itself is suspenseful, the dialogue sometimes fails to heighten tension. For instance, when an official blandly states, “There are many people in danger” regarding the kidnapping situation, or mentions that the victims may be forced to “perform acts that impose a serious threat to the safety of the United States,” this simply repeats information the reader already knows. Still, there are several compelling twists in store before the final page.

A swift, outlandish adventure both on and off the water that keeps the reader guessing.