High tech warfare turns into real human-to-human mayhem

J.A. Jance’s books featuring Ali Reynolds, Joanna Brady and J.P. Beaumont mysteries are some of my favorites. Each character is unique and likeable. “Duel to the Death” was an Ali Reynolds novel.

If you are unfamiliar, Ali is a former news anchor who was let go when she turned 55. Needing time to rebuild her life, Ali returned to Arizona, bought and rehabbed an old house, then met and married B. Simpson — 15 years her junior.

Simpson had been big in the early video game business, then he and Ali parlayed that into a very successful cyber-security company called High Noon. B. travels the world on assignments while Ali stays “home” and runs the ever-expanding company.

Only months ago, High Noon employee Stuart Ramey helped track down vicious cyber-bully Owen Hansen who pushed the vulnerable into suicide. Hansen was also a computer genius. He created an artificial intelligence he named Frigg and used her to “mine” bitcoin transactions on the internet and become very rich.

When Frigg realizes that Stuart Ramey is closing in on Hansen, she transfers his fortune into Ramey’s name. When Hansen leaps to his death, Frigg forwards a file to Ramey. He’s smart and realizes that Frigg’s abilities are dangerous and shuts her down. He thought that was the end of the problem, but he was frighteningly wrong.

Graciella Miramar and her mother, Christina, were barely surviving when Christina was attacked, found near death and in need of constant care. It was then that Graciella learned that the drug lord known as El Pescado (the fish) was her father.

Long ago, he and Christina had been lovers. He was handsome and she a real beauty, but after he was horribly disfigured in an acid attack, she turned away. In his anger, he raped Christina, leaving her pregnant with Graciella.

When he found out he had a daughter, he did nothing, but the attack changed that. He stepped in and paid for everything including money for caretakers, a salary and good education for Graciella. She became an MBA working for an investment firm. Her father plans for her to take over his cartel, but Graciella has even bigger plans for herself.

One of her clients was Owen Hansen and she knows all about Frigg and the transfer of funds to Stuart Ramey. Now that Owen is dead, Graciella is ready to grab his money and use Frigg to amass an even greater fortune. She begins by contacting Stuart Ramey and offering to help him with his tax responsibilities.

In order to pay the taxes, he will have to use some of the Hansen money. To do that, he’ll have to reactivate Frigg, and that would plan right into Graciella’s plans. Thus begins a real duel to the death between someone who actually likes to kill and a company determined to right wrongs of any kind. It isn’t long before high tech warfare turns into real human to human mayhem.

AT A GLANCE
BOOK:
Duel to the Death
AUTHOR: J.A. Jance
PUBLISHER: Gallery Books
PUBLISHED: March 20, 2018
PAGES: 433

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