What if all your secrets were put online?
Sam Morpeth is growing up way too fast, left to fend for a younger sister with learning difficulties when their mother goes to prison and watching her dreams of university evaporate. But Sam learns what it is to be truly powerless when a stranger begins to blackmail her online, drawing her into a trap she may not escape alive.
Who would you turn to?
Meanwhile, reporter Jack Parlabane has finally got his career back on track, but his success has left him indebted to a volatile source on the wrong side of the law. Now that debt is being called in, and it could cost him everything.
What would you be capable of?
Thrown together by a common enemy, Sam and Jack about to discover they have
Review
Welcome to my stop of the Want You Gone blog tour!
This is the second book that I have read by Chris Brookmyre. The first one was Black Widow which I reviewed here. I loved Black Widow so I had really high expectations with Want You Gone. In addition, I was curious about how the author would handle the cyber-crime angle mentioned in the blurb. I have to admit, this book totally impressed me. It surpassed all my expectations. Let me try and explain why.
The story begins with Chris trying to get a new job. He has made a few mistakes in the past but as usual, he is determined to rise above it and re-invent himself. On the other hand, there is something dark going down online. A group of hackers are committing an industrial espionage. We don’t know who these hackers are since they work with code names but I couldn’t help but admire how flawlessly they executed the first crime. Everything comes together and I was left wondering about the people behind the online masks. Two seemingly separate stories, right? However, the two become tangled at some point.
Sam is a young woman in a tough situation. Struggling to make ends meet and taking care of her little sister while her mother is in jail is a lot to handle for a nineteen year old. As Sam tries to survive, Chris seems to have found a way back into journalism. Opposite worlds collide when Sam is blackmailed online. I can’t say more about the plot because I don’t want to ruin it for those who haven’t read the book yet but I let me just say this, it was quite a crazy ride.
The action is non-stop. A very unlikely team is forced to work together and do what seems like the impossible. What is worse, they don’t have a choice in the matter. The story is told through Jack and Sam’s perspectives. There were so many tense moments in the book. I didn’t even know that I was holding my breath at some point until things worked out for the MCs. The twists are many and unpredictable. The anonymity of the internet means that it is even harder to guess the people behind the online identities.
Want You Gone by Chris Brookymre had me at the edge of my seat turning pages up to the end. Hackers, cyber crimes, industrial espionage and high tension, this was a fantastic read. It made me think about all the risks that we take when we share our personal information online. How safe are those photos backed up online? The idea of hackers is scary though a bit intriguing (in books only… I don’t want to meet hackers in real life lol) and in this book, it made this quite a page-turner. I like how the author went into detail explaining how hacking takes place. It’s crazy. For instance, if you found a flash-disk on your desk, would you be tempted to plug it in to check what it contains? Is your facebook profile visible to people outside your friends’ list? This book had me thinking about my online safety. It was realistic in portraying current situations especially surrounding cyber security and this added to its appeal.
Although this is the 8th book in the series, it can be read as a standalone. I have read two books in the series so far and the each one tackles different issues hence it is easy to follow the stories. Highly recommended.
About the Book
- Hardcover, 1st Edition, 432 pages
- Published February 2nd 2017 by Little, Brown and Company
Genre: Crime Fiction – Jack Parlabane Series
Amazon UK
Amazon US
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