Encryption by Bill Ward.

Chris Hammond, the Financial Director of a software company is murdered and his brother Peter tries to find out why.

I enjoyed reading this crime thriller that involved murder, betrayal, the work of the intelligence services and a hint of romance. This is a current day novel, set mostly in the UK. Although people nowadays love social media where they share their lives with the whole world through the internet, there is a demand to keep some data secret. This book taps into the wish for governments to be able to read all data and the lengths they will go to get their access.

I liked the plot of Encryption and loved the way Bill told his story. Slowly the story unfolded with dramatic revelations of the workings behind the scenes. This is a Spooks drama that shows how vulnerable society can be to attack from all corners. It was a pleasure to read and asked questions about how far you would go in your workplace.

I liked how Bill told his story on a strict need-to-know basis. Governments love keeping the public in the dark and Bill taps into this by making Peter’s quest awfully difficult. There is no freedom-of-information request here, just a case of work your contacts with the people you trust.

Bill leads you to suspect different bad guys as his story progresses and at the end you think “Oh dear, some people are just…”. Encryption has a good plot, asks lots of current day questions and is a pleasure to read. I found this novel to be a 5 star read and as good as another Brighton based author Peter James in delivering top product to his fans. Encryption is a great book for lovers of crime fiction and if I had to pick holes, it would be Peter’s problem with car rental. Through the course of this novel, Peter hires two cars but no mention is made of his return of these cars to the hire shop! The charges must be mounting and the cars either attracting parking tickets or spotted on the network of ANPR cameras that blight our road junctions. But will Peter give Jenny the Christmas present she really wants or will it be the one Jenny offered Grant? Ho! Ho! Ho!

Encryption is available as an Amazon Kindle eBook and was written in 2014.