Review: Cipher by Allison Boley

 

Genre: Espionage/Thriller

Description:

“A burned out young scientist. An unbreakable code. Time counts down to an impossible choice.

Forget computers. How do you break a code based on human expertise?

Patrick’s life is upended when he’s recruited to decipher messages between two experts in his niche field, messages encrypted with a code they made up. But as he works undercover, he rediscovers the joy of curiosity and friendship, and the cipher reveals the bad guys may not be who he originally thought. Can Patrick reconnect with himself in time to know what to do when he finally breaks the code?”

Author:

A resident of Arizona, Allison Boley worked for a time in Los Angeles in various jobs relating to movie making before returning to Arizona and school, eventually earning a PhD in Physics. This is her first novel. For more, check out her website.

Appraisal:

This was an interesting read that while a thriller and a bit of a spy novel also gets into scientific issues that are pertinent in our current world and for nerds like me will really get you thinking and possibly learning a bit as well. Even for those just looking for a good spy thriller it will stretch your mind trying to figure out what is going on and how our hero protagonist can figure it out. For those who finish reading and have an urge to know more about the details of what happens in the story, there is an appendix that can help you go down that rabbit hole, but if you’re not interested, you’ll still get a good read and can move on to the next book.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

Some adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues

Rating: **** Four Stars

Review: A Bad Deal in Mormon Land by T.I.M. Wirkus

Genre: Historical Fiction

Description:

“It’s 1908, and itinerant spirit medium Madame Ilsa von Hoffmann is at the end of her professional rope, facing down two unappealing options: join an ill-conceived commune founded by some fellow trans ex-vaudevillians, or take on a high-paying but mysterious job offered by a religious extremist in Salt Lake City. Madame Ilsa opts for Utah and the employ of one Roger Marsh who, it turns out, wants her to summon the ghost of Joseph Smith, Mormonism’s founder, to give his blessing to Marsh’s fledgling offshoot of the mainstream church.

Unsure how she’ll pull off this near-impossible task, Ilsa finds an ally in Francie Bream, an East Coast journalist in town to profile Mormon women at the dawn of the twentieth century. Bream’s motives remain obscure to Ilsa, though she begins to suspect the journalist has an agenda far more sinister than she could have imagined. Complicating the situation further are an inept and volatile henchman, a relentlessly orthodox Mormon apostle, a copper magnate with a fetish for polygamists, Marsh's rogue third wife, and a vengeful private investigator from Ilsa's past. As dead bodies accumulate around her, Madame Ilsa worries less and less about saving her career, and more about making it out of Salt Lake City alive.”

Author:

T.I.M. Wirkus (they/them) is an award-winning author with several novels and novellas available as well as some short stories that have appeared in various publications.

Appraisal:

This story takes an interesting blend of historical reality (the early 1900s in Salt Lake City, a growing town, and the Mormon culture that permeated it) with some interesting twists and scams being perpetrated by Roger Marsh and others, like our main protagonist, Madame Ilsa von Hoffmann. Those familiar with Utah history and Mormonism will be amused in spotting the clever mashup of reality (some of which many would assume wasn’t true) with things that really are fictional. Sometimes the truth really is stranger than the fiction. I was never sure where the story was going to go or how it would resolve in the end which is what I’d expect from a story of this type. A fun and interesting read that isn’t quite like anything I can remember having read before.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

FYI:

I’m sure some devout members of the Mormon aka LDS Church would be triggered reading this if they’re bothered by mixing things not so true (aka fictional) into a story about their church. They might also be triggered by some things that are true. The author has some references to articles at the end of the book that point to those.

Format/Typo Issues:

Review is based on an advance reviewer copy, so I can’t gauge the final product in this area.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: BigAl

Approximate word count: 70-75,000 words