Duel to the Death

October 15, 2017

Former news anchor Ali Reynolds, now an amateur sleuth, enjoys her 13th title in the New York Times best-selling series.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 19, 2018
In bestseller Jance’s uneven 13th Ali Reynolds novel (after 2017’s Man Overboard), Frigg, an artificial intelligence, switches her allegiance from her creator, serial killer Owen Hansen, to Stuart Ramey, second-in-command at High Noon Enterprises, a cybersecurity company owned by former L.A. newscaster Ali, who plays a supporting role in this outing, and her husband in Cottonwood, Ariz. Ambitious Graciella Miramar, the daughter of Sinaloa drug lord Felix Duarte, wants to acquire Frigg—who has been deactivated after switching allegiance, possibly by Stuart—for her own nefarious purposes. As a ploy, Graciella offers Stuart $2.5 million, a supposed gift from Hansen (who first introduced her to Frigg) that he can’t claim without reactivating Frigg. When Stuart and the others at High Noon Enterprises become aware of Graciella’s connections to the drug trade and her scheme, they plot to bring down the Duarte cartel, with control of Frigg hanging in the balance. Frigg’s intriguing humanlike behavior compensates only in part for a plot that never generates much suspense. Agent: Alice Volpe, Northwest Literary.

March 15, 2018
A cybersecurity team is forced to cooperate with an omniscient-seeming AI who's either saving them from mortal danger or setting a diabolical trap.Having dispatched cyberbully/serial killer Owen Hansen (Man Overboard, 2017), the experts at the little cybersecurity firm High Noon Enterprises are only starting their journey through Hansen's legacy. Frigg, the apparently all-knowing AI Hansen created--imagine a morally neutral Siri with unlimited power--has somehow managed to blackmail Stuart Ramey into reactivating her. Though Stu is skeptical about Frigg at first, he quickly learns to appreciate what Hansen's creation can do even if he and his colleagues at High Noon may not approve of her methods. But Frigg's powers aren't the only thing that makes her a danger. Graciella Miramar, Hansen's former money manager, is determined to acquire Frigg whatever the cost and suspects Stu may be the key. In spite of her mild-mannered appearance, Graciella is as ruthless as her father, drug lord Felix Duarte, whose disfigured face has made him known as El Pescado. Graciella has spent her whole adult life waiting to rise above serving as a money-laundering front for El Pescado and come into her own power. As Graciella sets a trap, Frigg continuously updates threat risks to notify Stu of the increasing danger Graciella poses. With threat levels rising fast, Stu has no choice but to get High Noon colleagues Ali, B., and Cami to agree to stop Graciella from her hostile takeover.The introduction of an AI as a more substantive character will likely divide fans, though Jance sews early seeds about the questionable morality of her power that are likely to come to a head as her voice grows stronger.

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