This book’s title hearks back to the famous hacker-lit The Blue Nowhere by Jeffrey Deaver, meaning cyber-space. But cyber-crime has stepped up since the early days of Silicon Valley. Loosely based on the real-life Silk Road website on the Dark Net, the powerful BLACK NOWHERE takes us down some of the net’s deepest crevices to an online marketplace selling drugs, guns, and murder.
The FBI learns of the amount of bitcoin passing through the site called Kyte and Special Agent Lisa Tanchik, who came across the trading, is tasked with joining the team of agents hoping to identify the people responsible. Lisa is determined to do the best work of anyone, because she’s a coder too, and knows how people can hide identities or make slip-ups behind the shiny face of the site.
Nate Fallon just wanted to be the owner of an internet startup, something big and exciting and trendy. Unfortunately his hankering for illegal highs leads the college student to create the Dark Net site Kyte, and this takes off out of all proportion to his expectations. He drops out of classes, breaks up with his charming girlfriend, ditches his longtime friends and never sees his mom. Because Kyte is taking all his time, and it’s going to make him a bitcoin billionaire, if only he can figure out how to spend the money in real life. And if he can stay ahead of law enforcement, and of more sinister figures. The drug cartels don’t like anyone interfering with their profits.
As the ambitious and talented student gets more obsessed, I admired the way the author gets under the skin of such a person – someone who quotes libertarian philosophers as an excuse while they are selling goods that cause overdoses. Reece Hirsch previously wrote the excellent technothrillers Surveillance and Intrusion in the ‘Chris Bruen’ series, which followed a male tech security consultant, at times showing the point of view of a female hacker or a Chinese dissident. This time he has changed viewpoints to begin a new series ‘Lisa Tanchik’, giving us plenty of chance to understand the new breed of agent the FBI requires. Lisa is smaller, skinnier and smarter than many of her colleagues, with skills for the keyboard, not judo. This doesn’t stop her getting involved in close surveillance or firefights if the job requires them. BLACK NOWHERE ticks all the regular spy thriller boxes and pleases the geeks as well – a bravura performance from Reece Hirsch.
Chasing a cybercriminal into the pitch-black heart of the Dark Web.
Special Agent Lisa Tanchik is the best at taking down cybercriminals. So when the FBI discovers a multibillion-dollar black market online, she’s tasked with finding the creator and bringing him to justice. Donning one of her many digital disguises, Tanchik goes undercover into the network.
Brilliant college student Nate Fallon started his site as an idealistic experiment. But his platform has made illegal trade not only more efficient—but also more dangerous. Now the FBI aren’t the only ones out to get him. As profits soar, a criminal organization casts its monstrous gaze on Fallon, and danger leaps from cyberspace into reality.
Feeling pressure from both sides of the law, Fallon is forced to make a decision with shattering consequences. Can Agent Tanchik find Fallon before his dangerous infrastructure falls into the wrong hands?
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