Strictly Analog

Fans of William Gibson, Jonathan Letham, and Richard K. Morgan will enjoy Strictly Analog by Richard Levesque. What's a private detective to do in a future where nothing is private any more? For Ted Lomax, the answer is to find clients who need their info kept off the grid, and that's what Ted has done for years, skirting the high tech that runs the new California and living on the fringes of society. But when his daughter is accused of murdering her boyfriend-an agent in the Secret Police-Ted has to dig himself out of the hole he's been in for years in order to save her. Before long, he's pulled into a shadow world of underground hackers, high-end programmers, and renegade gear-heads, all of whom sebuyem to have a stake in California's future. The further he digs into the case, the clearer it becomes that it's about more than one dead agent. Solving it might save his daughter. And it might get him killed. And it just might open the door to secrets that reach back to the attack that almost killed him eighteen years before. At any rate, Ted Lomax will never be the same. ..".fast-paced futuristic thriller..."-Publishers Weekly* "The main character, Ted Lomax, is strong and believable while the writing style, brisk and no-nonsense fits perfectly with the premise."-Amazon Expert Reviewer *This review was of the manuscript version submitted to Amazon's Breakout Novel Awards competition in 2012. Because of injuries sustained during California's border war, Ted is locked out of the technological culture that surrounds him. But that's his edge: his business card reads "Strictly Analog," and he markets himself as a man able to skirt the technological landscape without leaving a trail. It works nicely for him until he gets the most important case of his life. When his daughter Amy is accused of killing her boyfriend, Ted knows he has to do whatever he can to help her. It won't be easy. The bullet in the boyfriend's head matches Amy's gun. To make matters worse, the dead boyfriend was an agent with California's secret police. Now Ted has to dig himself out of the hole he's been buried in since the war. Before long, he's pulled into a shadow world of underground hackers, high-end programmers, and renegade gear-heads, all of whom seem to have a stake in California's future. The further he digs into the case, the clearer it becomes that it's about more than one dead agent. Solving it might save his daughter. And it might get him killed. And it just might open the door to secrets that reach back to the attack that almost killed him eighteen years before. At any rate, Ted Lomax will never be the same.