Red Team Blues

Cory Doctorow wears so many hats—tech activist, anti-corporate theorist, pioneering blogger, tireless Tweeter—that you might forget that he's also a pretty great storyteller. His specialty has been in near-future science fiction like Little Brother, but his newest tale is a California noir set firmly in the world we live in now, in a Bay Area shared by homeless camps and crypto money launderers. Navigating between them is Martin Hench, a charming lone-wolf operator who has made a very good living as a swashbuckling forensic accountant (three words that may never have appeared together before) still on top of his game at age 67, whose latest job brings a giant windfall and a whole lot of trouble. Doctorow giddily weaves his tech expertise and strong opinions into a tight and twisty tale that will almost leave you thinking you know as much as he and his hero do.