Two sides to a police procedural story

This slight tech inspired story has a nice flow and interesting details. The technology aspects don't feel off so didn't bother the story premise. ( )

Pretty good

The plot is a real page turner. My only real criticism is that the main character is introduced as flawed in a major way. Overcoming her problems in service of the plot is not really dealt with, to me it was more just hand waved away. Still an enjoyable read. ( )

The problem with writing novels based on current events is that, by the time the book is published, the events are no longer current. Black Nowhere features a Darknet site called Kyte. The author has clearly copied the real Silk Road Marketplace, a Darknet site launched in 2011 and shut down by the FBI in 2013. In this fictionalized story, the FBI is clueless about this sort of site existing on the Darknet, and so everything that happens in the story feels dated. If you don't know anything about the Darknet, you might be interested in this loosely fictionalized version of Silk Road. I was mostly annoyed by the similarities of the sites and the ignorance of the FBI.

Still, I persevered, hoping the story would surprise me. But the characters are flat and dull and stereotypical. Our heroine is a young woman who suffers from clinical depression. She self-medicates with various drugs and large amounts of alcohol kept in her water bottle. She's treated like crap by the FBI because she's young and female, but she somehow manages to put them all to shame while battling depression and addiction. The male lead is a college student based on Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road Marketplace. His character is childish and wholly unlikable.

The dialogue doesn't sound at all like that of twentysomething tech nerds. The interactions are stilted and dull.

I gave up at 35% on my Kindle.

*I received a review copy from the publisher, via NetGalley.* ( )

Didn't finish. Bored ( )