Mary Grant's husband, Joe, an FBI agent, leaves Mary a voice mail containing their secret mayday code right before he is shot in a remote location seemingly unrelated to his current assignment. Mary demands to know why steadfast Joe was frightened, especially after the FBI claims that Joe sloppily allowed an informant to get the drop on him. Joe's supervisor refuses to provide answers, and the voice mail mysteriously disappears, leaving behind a trail of sophisticated code that even Mary's gifted hacker daughter, Jessie, can't decipher. When has-been local reporter Tank Potter questions the FBI's version of events, Mary finds an ally willing to overlook danger and investigate Joe's last case. At the same time, Jessie is determined to decipher the code that erased her father's final message and sneaks away to consult infamous hacker RudeBoy. As Mary gets closer to finding the target of Joe's secret investigation, she uncovers evidence pointing to the country's most powerful tech firm. Timely Big-Brother thrills combine with roller-coaster pacing and a satisfying conclusion.--Tran, Christine Copyright 2015 Booklist

Within hours of Austin-based FBI special agent Joe Grant's murder, his widow, Mary, and two daughters find themselves fighting for their own lives in this absorbing, though intensely creepy, cyber thriller from Thriller Award-winner Reich (The Prince of Risk). Troubled by the Bureau's stonewalling over the circumstances of Joe's death, as well as a red-flag final voice mail Joe left her that mysteriously vanished, Mary starts pressing for answers-making her a problem for the same powerful forces who silenced her husband, chief among them megalomaniac Internet magnate Ian Prince. It's anything but a fair fight, or a believable one. Furthermore, as much as readers will want to root for the feisty homemaker and her principal allies-her 15-year-old daughter, Jessie, a fierce hacker, and alcoholic (but hunky) reporter Tank Potter-some may not be game to spend so much time with the morally bereft Prince and his skin-crawling henchmen, including a pedophile with designs on Mary's cancer-stricken 11-year-old daughter, Grace. Agent: Richard Pine, Inkwell Management. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.