And West is West

Graham Halstead's reserved narration places this book's shortcomings--clichéd characters chief among them--in sharp relief. Take Ethan, a Wall Street quant who chases the money until a seismic life event makes him realize . . . etc., etc. He and Jessica, a drone pilot cast out from her job for spilling secrets, are the main characters in the two stories that comprise this book, which are held loosely together through Jessica's jailbird father. Halstead's character work is fine. He does a good job differentiating between characters, but his delivery lacks the drive sorely needed to make this book compelling. G.S.D. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

August 10, 2015
This compelling debut novel, which won the PEN/Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, dramatically examines the insidious role unrestrained technology plays in the moral and ethical corruption of people, institutions, and government. This is a sobering story of two people who never meet but are connected in a corrupt world, futilely hoping the corruption won’t affect them. U.S. Air Force Sgt. Jessica Aldridge is a drone pilot flying missions over Afghanistan and Pakistan from 8,000 miles away. When she questions the order for a drone strike on suspected terrorists and later reveals her guilt when the missile hits the wrong people, she is disgraced and summarily discharged. To cover up the drone program and silence Jessica, the government sends the FBI after her, so she goes underground. In New York City, analyst Ethan Winter works for a large international bank creating currency trading algorithms that cash in on volatility related to terrorism. His number crunching makes millions of dollars for the bank with each car bomb and suicide attack. Then someone sabotages his algorithms, and the bank loses a fortune and fires him. The system crushes both Ethan and Jessica, but Ethan finally understands what else is happening at the bank, and Jessica discovers the truth about the botched drone strike, both connected cleverly. This is an excellent story, well told, suspenseful, and tragic.