Description

2024 LOCUS AWARD FINALIST, BEST SF NOVEL

Money-laundering, cyber-knavery and shell-company chicanery: Marty Hench is an expert in them all. He’s Silicon Valley’s most accomplished forensic accountant and well versed in the devious ways of Fortune 500s, divorcing oligarchs, and international drug cartels alike (and there’s more crossover than you might imagine).

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In cyber-security, RED TEAM plays attack. BLUE TEAM plays defence.

Marty Hench’s career in tech is almost as old as Silicon Valley. He’s the most accomplished forensic accountant in town, an expert on the international money-laundering and shell-company chicanery used by Fortune 500s, divorcing oligarchs, and international drug cartels alike (there’s more crossover than you might imagine).

Marty was born to play attack. If there’s a way to get under the walls and bring the castle down, he’s the one to do it. There’s no better financial Red Teamer in the Valley.

Now he’s on the trail of a stolen key, one that unlocks an illicit backdoor to billions in crypto. More than reputation and fortune is on the line – Marty’s adversaries are implacable criminal sadists who will spill oceans of blood to get what they want.

Finding the stolen key is going to be the least of Marty’s problems: now he has to save his skin. To do that, he’ll have to play defence. And Marty hates playing the Blue Team.

Publisher Review

'Doctorow keeps perfect pace . . . and he succeeds in maintaining maximum tension... Hench [is] a classic itinerant hero with a 21st-century skill-set' * Financial Times * 'A fast-paced, voraciously readable thriller that lays bare the financial rot at the core of Silicon Valley's high-minded rhetoric of innovation.' -- Roger McNamee, author of Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe 'I showed up for the high-tech ideas and stayed for the whodunit. You don't need to be a techie to love Red Team Blues - you just need to be fascinated about what the future might hold.' -- A. G. Riddle, author of Lost in Time A pacey tech thriller with a cynical but smart worldview * Perspective Magazine * The novel packs a lot of punch and delivers well above its paperweight . . . a good cyber-human thriller set in an all too possible real future * SF Crowsnest * 'Well, talk about timely. In the wake of the late-2022 collapse of cryptocurrency comes this novel about a forensic accountant who's hired to work a case involving electronic theft of cryptocurrency... Doctorow's novels are always feasts for the imagination and the intellect, and this one is no exception: it's jam-packed with cutting-edge ideas about cybersecurity and crypto, and its near-future world is lovingly detailed and completely believable.' * BookList * 'Cory Doctorow's fiction is a vector through which he offers incisive commentary on technology and society, and Red Team Blues is no exception. Through the eyes of a grizzled forensic accountant, we're forced to question preconceived ideas around benevolent billionaires, honorable state authorities, and impenetrable security. Red Team Blues earns its spot in the top echelon of thriller novels that give you no choice but to devour them in one sitting, but leave you thinking long after you turn the last page.' -- Molly White 'Docotrow's fiction always makes me think about the world in a different way... [Red Team Blues is] a great techno-thriller that will make you realize just how deep the world's money pit is' * Geekdad * I'm a big Cory Doctorow fan and his unique blend of engaging tech-savvy writing which has spanned non-fiction, fantasy and thriller. This latest book is squarely the latter * The Bookseller, Editor's Choice *