Jerrica West is a skilled hacker with a grudge against the US government. She works for a hacker crew called Dreadworm in a small office in New York. As CODE CONSPIRACY begins Jerrica is convinced she has been followed… then she gets attacked, proving that just because you are paranoid it does not mean they’re not out to get you.

Gray Prescott is Jerrica’s ex-boyfriend, a well-off man who is some kind of Armed Forces type. I confess an American will get more out of this book than I did, as I have no idea what a Delta Force is. No explanation is provided and I don’t like having to Google things that should be clear, like the hero’s job. Anyway I was only here for the technothriller. Gray shows up to question Jerrica about matters relating to her employer, the shadowy Olaf. But the lady’s co-worker, the hapless Amit Malhotra, gets seriously assaulted and Gray and Jerrica have to shelter him. Jerrica discovers that she still has feelings for her ex – even though their lives have been very different.

Mixed feelings about this romantic suspense story. I’m pleased to see a female cybersleuth, especially one who has relatively normal personal skills and relationships. Since Jerrica is the heroine, of course she is in pursuit of transparency and exposing sleaze, rather than cyber crime. But as we know, governments take a stern view of anyone meddling in their mainframes. Jerrica is something of a stereotype but maybe that’s because there are a lot of people like her? She’s well off in her own right, but the fact that Gray happens to have family wealth (and a family jet) just makes part of the story so, so much easier. We don’t learn much about how to hack (unless you know how to code a worm) but we see how such people can communicate under the radar, using message boards and casual-seeming coded chat. The action is fast-paced, the adult relationship also swift to develop and violence arrives with strong impact on the reader.

This series has the lengthy title of ‘Red, White and Built – Delta Force Deliverance’ with CODE CONSPIRACY the third book. Apparently there is a background issue about Gray’s commander having been unjustly accused of something and disappearing. The issue runs through the series so we don’t get the full story in this instalment. You may be delighted to see how author Carol Ericson progresses the series, or like me, you can just pick up the technothriller and see if you want to read the others.