‘The Tempus Project’ by Antony Johnston

****

When a hacker targets politicians with a ransom-ware attack known as Tempus, MI6 officer Brigitte ‘Bridge’ Sharp is tasked with tracking down the source. While picking up a journalist in Paris, Bridge finds other agencies are hot on her tail and is forced into a crazy car chase across the city in a bid to escape. Back in London, and after a dressing-down by her boss for messing up, Brigitte struggles to track down a computer hacker who poses a new threat to political stability. Pulled into the world of crypto-currencies, Russian hackers and an African rebel militia, time is running out—can Bridge stop a potential global disaster?

This is the first of Antony Johnston’s Brigitte Sharp Thriller’s I’ve read, and it gets off to a great start. The world of crypto-currencies, Blockchain and ransomware is fairly new to me, but the author clearly knows what he’s talking about and the detail gives the plot a real sense of what goes on behind the doors of MI6 and the CIA.

However, the thing about including so much detail, is using it to its best advantage, and for me there’s way too much techno-jargon in this book. I got bored very quickly, and found myself skipping paragraphs, looking for the next interesting scene. While Bridge is a great character and I loved her relationships with her sister and Mum, I could happily have chopped fifty pages out of the book without feeling I’d missed anything important.

An interesting and clever book that didn’t quite hit the mark for me.

About Antony Johnston:
Antony Johnston is a New York Times bestselling writer. The Charlize Theron movie Atomic Blonde is based on his graphic novel; his Brigitte Sharp thriller novels are critically acclaimed; and his first videogame, Dead Space, redefined its genre.

Antony’s books, graphic novels, and videogames include The Exphoria Code, The Tempus Project, The Fuse, Daredevil, Shang-Chi, Shadow of Mordor, the Alex Rider graphic novels and the adaptation of Alan Moore‘s ‘lost screenplay’ Fashion Beast.

He also hosts the podcast Writing and Breathing.

He lives in Lancashire.

Social Media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AntonyJohnston
Facebook: http://antonyjohnston.com/
Website: https://www.antonyjohnston.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/AntonyJohnston/

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