Shadowed

Susan McQueen lives a quiet life as an artist on a remote Canadian island in Quebec. But she is not all she seems – Susan is really Nicole Jones, a computer hacker. And someone from her past knows where she is.

Nicole has been unable to kick her computer habit, even if her hacking activities were some time ago. But she knows her machine has been compromised when she’s in an online chatroom and realises someone is watching her.

Cue Nicole dropping everything and running, which sets the tone for the book as she zig-zags across Canada and the US, trying to find out if it’s the FBI on her tail, or her criminal past returning to haunt her. Whichever, she needs to rustle up bitcoins pretty damn quickly if her old friends are to stay safe. And with a nosy cop on her tale and a supposed online Good Samaritan lurking in the background, she isn’t sure who she can trust.

Shadowed is a decent read, but it suffers from a lack of pace – it’s all rather one speed as Nicole tootles around North America. It could have done, too, with a hefty dose of tension, given we’re told and not shown that her old friends are in danger. I’m no hacking expert, but Nicole struck me as rather naïve when it came to computers – again, we’re told and not shown her hacking skills. Maybe she’s grown rusty after 16 years on the run …

This is apparently the second book in the series, in which case some backstory for those new to the party would have helped. Sixteen years previously Nicole apparently stole serious amounts of dosh from a mobster, then legged it to Paris with an FBI agent, who she subsequently shot.

And here’s another problem. Nicole has committed at least two serious crimes, but there’s next to no examination of these and of the long-term affects on her, apart from the fact she’s always on the run. And sadly, the ending screams ‘cop out!’