Jakob Kerr

I got an email from NetGalley two days ago recommending this book and being pre-approved to read it. For a genre I don't normally turn to, it seems I do enjoy them when I do. I would have read this in one sitting if it weren't for other things like life and all and it being really late (I finished the last 30 or so pages after sleep.) It's a page-turner and has more than a few clever twists. Astute readers will see some things coming a mile away... and then find that, while right, "but wait! there's more!"

Disclosure: I rarely summarize fiction plots, mainly because I think it unfair to the author - there are plenty of people who do for those on the hunt, and there is almost always an extra teaser blurb somewhere - and I think it unfair to the reader who, like me, dislikes spoilers.

So, we've got an engaging debut novel, reminding me a little of Crichton (but better). Recommended.

This made me laugh:
“How about you?”
“I started Black Swan but couldn’t get through it.”
“Why?” Mackenzie shrugged. “Taleb’s an insufferable prick.”
Brady’s face froze with surprise, then burst into an explosion of laughter.

I am not a fan of Taleb or Black Swan (I noted: "Some people have the skill to make a complicated topic understandable. Some have the talent of making a simple topic complicated. Some can convolute the hell out of simple or complex… and think highly of themselves. Talib is one of those some people.")

I found this an interesting perspective:
“It taught me something important. There’s no such thing as closure.”
Danner raised his eyebrows. “Closure?”
“It’s a bullshit concept,” Mackenzie said. “Invented by psychologists to indulge people who can’t move on. Everybody’s got shit in their past.”
“Isn’t that the point, though? To confront the past, so you can move on from it?”
“You can’t confront the past. It already happened. ‘Seeking closure’ is just an excuse to wallow in it.”

I am exposed:
He texted like a Boomer—sporadically, with unnecessary punctuation.
Huh. {raises hand when reading “Boomer”} When is punctuation not necessary?

And sometimes vernacular doesn't fit:
Punching the gas, she peeled a track across the desert, bearing for Yoo and Kovalev. Mackenzie had been in many Journy Buggies. They drove like any other golf cart: top heavy, jerky steering, electric motor.

Gas? electric motor?… (altro)