Adam Colclough lives and works in the West Midlands, he writes regularly for a number of websites, one day he will get round to writing a book for someone else to review.
A terrorist attack on a launch event at the British Museum ends in carnage and the theft of an AI system so powerful it could change every game in town and then some.
Getting it back is just the sort of job the intelligence services keep Michael North off the official books to do. Two things make this mission even more challenging than usual; the system is about to become self-aware, linking up with every computer on the planet in the process, and rogue elements of the British establishment want to harness its power for their own ends. They are willing to do anything to protect their position.
O'Reilly has delivered a fast paced and action-packed thriller that will have been eagerly anticipated by readers who enjoyed Killing State. Anyone new to North and the world of chaos he inhabits is in for a treat too.
She keeps things going at a break-neck pace from the first page, throwing her characters into situations they can barely escape from by the skin of their teeth,. At the hands of Judith O'Reilly London becomes the track in a race against time that could see humanity come off as the loser if the wrong people win.
The hot topic of just how much the devices in our pockets know about us and what might happen if they started thinking for themselves gives the book a decidedly unnerving edge. As does her use of Cold War legends about secret bunkers under the streets of the capital.
There are times, like the ones we're living through, when what our leaders tell us is alarming. It is what they don't tell us though that really scares us. This is something Judith O'Reilly understands implicitly and used to brilliant effect.
