Hired by companies to break into buildings and hack security systems, Jack and her husband, Gabe, are the best penetration specialists in the business. But after a routine assignment goes horribly wrong, Jack arrives home to find her husband dead. To add to her horror, the police are closing in on their suspect—her. Suddenly on the run and quickly running out of options, Jack must decide who she can trust as she circles closer to the real killer.
It’s exciting to watch Jack do what she does best: inveigle her way into places she doesn’t belong, escape at the last moment in panic mixed with exhilaration. But her mission is jeopardized by her stubborn insistence to carry on despite dire injuries she refuses to get treated. Readers willing to follow tunnel-visioned Jack through near-suicidal lapses of common sense, though, will be rewarded with a satisfying and surprising denouement.
Ware has a knack for creating female protagonists worth rooting for and Jack... is no exception. It’s the plot that gets in the way ... There’s not enough interaction with other characters to make it feel more propulsive and up the sense of danger ... The best scenes are near the end, when Jack finally gives herself more than a moment to grieve.
Action-packed ... Ware creates escalating tension while immersing readers in Jack’s tumultuous emotions and instinctive decision-making. She layers her story with fascinating details about Jack’s unusual profession while offering an implicit (and clearly well-researched) warning about the vagaries of technology. The book’s focus on the impact of intense grief is balanced by glimmers of hope among the devastation.
