Let me admit this, I am a fan of Ravi Subramanian, and happy that he keeps technology at the heart of his plot.

As the cover says this is a first – a novel with Bitcoin at the heart of the things, and author has been successful in creating a parallel world in this financial universe which in itself is a multi-layered economy.

Starting with the Washington blast the story travels across to India with a few interesting characters. The background of the internet as a business proposition and also how the online is seeping in the banking industry and how the security is exposed on many counts is a documentation that needs special mention.

The story line is well inter-linked and with short chapters keeps the readers abreast of the happenings, and successfully keeps the interest alive till the end.

The events in the plot are easily identifiable and you will see them happening across the story and the best part is you will be there in the midst of all these. The author successfully makes easy work of even the so called technological jargons and makes you understand how it works.

Bitcoin with its anonymity and the scale with which it is expanding is a nice setting especially when you know it can be used for anything negative than positive reason. Perhaps that is the crux of all those things which are anonymous and makes for interesting followups.

The power struggles, the startup syndrome, the losing of a client, the head start in a gaming company and a love affair are all mixed in a heady cocktail for you to sip and taste and gives you a high of the tallest order.

A super fast paced with suspense intertwined at necessary breaks the story moves seamlessly across the continents to connect the dots. Be it the FBI sleuths or the Indian CBI, the art of not taking things as they seem is very well read into, but would they know they are also being led to a conclusion, you go to read the story to find that.

The way technology especially the apps ecosystem works and the vulnerabilities associated with it or even the lap top batteries getting exposed are all real to a great extent and these are just the way the master crooks work their way to con the consumers.

In a digital world which has everyone leaving trails its but quite natural that the criminals here who are white collared will love to see the trails being erased or use things that may not be visible. But then there is always the to err is human thing and that plays spoilsport.

The characters that will stay with you are Varun and Tanya perhaps there is a little trait you might want to analyse in them. All the other characters add to the story and author makes you believe every little word and he has drawn the human emotions subtly to take you to the point where he leads.

Overall a great read, and you will want to know more about Bitcoin in case you haven’t read enough of it.

One more you could even tag this book under internet and digital!

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