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.

I had a lot of fun with this, mostly because, in addition to being a well-written techno-thriller with a complex plot and great action scenes, the protagonist is about my age and shares many of my opinions/prejudices about Silicon Valley and the Techbros and Venture Capitalists who infest it. 

The plot was grounded in an insider’s understanding of blockchain technology, cryptocurrency, and the insanity of the Palo Alto venture capital shark pool, seasoned with the sadistic violence that the drug traffickers who are the major beneficiaries of cryptocurrency mete out to people who cross them. 

Using larger-than-life but easy to believe in Tech billionaires and vicious international criminals to explore the darker uses of cryptocurrency, supported by the almost religious zeal of those who believe that any technology that makes money is good technology, regardless of what it does to the world, made this an engaging thriller.

For me, it was refreshing to read a book where the main character, a tech veteran of many decades, won’t buy a Tesla because he doesn’t like Musk and applauds someone who, after their company was bought by Oracle, resigned five minutes into their first face-to-face with Larry Ellison. I enjoyed having a protagonist of about my own age who shared not just my tech prejudices but my views on the obscenity inherent in the concept of anyone hoarding enough wealth to be a multi-billionaire.

Most of the story was tense and exciting, as well as insightful and well-informed. There was, perhaps, just a little too much wish fulfillment towards the end. Still, I felt our hero deserved a little luck because I liked the way he thought.

I’ll be reading more Cory Doctrow soon.

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Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He is the author of dozens of books, most recently ENSHITTIFICATION: WHY EVERYTHING SUDDENLY GOT WORSE AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT (nonfiction); and the novels PICKS AND SHOVELS and THE BEZZLE (followups to RED TEAM BLUES).

Other notable books include the solarpunk novels WALKAWAY and THE LOST CAUSE; the tech policy books THE INTERNET CON and CHOKEPOINT CAPITALISM; and the internationally bestselling YA LITTLE BROTHER series; and the picture book POESY THE MONSTER SLAYER.

In 2020, he was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.