Zero Day Ghost

by Scott Olson

In a Near Future World, Wired for Revenge and Redemption Emily Hernandez, a reformed hacker turned NSA analyst, is on a relentless mission. As a once rogue hacker, she's now determined to dismantle The Collective, a ruthless cybercriminal syndicate led by the cunning Zahra Kartal. Their deadliest creation, "APRIL," an AI botnet, lurks in the shadows of compromised computers. Caught between her duty to destroy The Collective and her personal connections within the enemy's ranks, Emily faces heart-wrenching decisions. Tragedy strikes, igniting a fiery fury within her soul. In an adrenaline-fueled quest through Hong Kong's neon-lit battleground, Emily battles ruthless adversaries and relentless authorities. "Zero Day Ghost" is an electrifying techno-thriller that plunges into emotions of revenge, redemption, and life-and-death choices. Will Emily triumph and weave her destiny from vengeance and forgiveness, or will she be ensnared in haunting shadows forever? Embark on a pulse-pounding journey now and experience a riveting tale of courage, sacrifice, and the fight for redemption. Fans of Dean Koontz and Lee Child will devour this gripping vigilante adventure. Get ready for the edge-of-your-seat ride with "Zero Day Ghost."

Genres: Thriller, Science Fiction

308 pages, Paperback

Published August 26, 2023

About the author

My work as an early leader in the Amazon Alexa project brought me close to the growing field of machine learning. I became certain that computers would mimic human intelligence to an astonishing degree, and though AI in fiction is a well-treaded territory, I found myself wanting to talk about technology that was closer to reality than the omnipotent Skynet. I imagined an imperfect, alien intelligence that wouldn’t have predictable motives or airtight reasoning. That’s what I saw in Amazon’s nascent electronic brain, and that’s what makes realistic AI so ripe for storytelling.

Reviews

[Jennyfer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Emily Hernandez is a former hacker, hired by the NSA to hunt down an neutralise a malicious botnet she had previously released to the world. But when she narrowly escapes an assassination attempt, she goes under cover - and rogue -into Hong Kong to confront the head of her former organisation and stop the botnet for good. But the deeper she digs, the more she uncovers in the corrupt world of organised crime and secret agencies.

This was a fast-paced, action packed thriller, right from the opening page,full of secret agents, crime bosses, intrigue, explosions, hit men and underground railroads. Emily, a reluctant hero, is trying to distance herself from her family's murky heritage - parents domestic terrorists, extended family part of the Chinese Triad - and become a respectable civilian, but the more she tries to escape, she is drawn further and further into the shadow world as both the agents and the AI set traps for her

While some of the pacing felt a little forced at times , the overall story was an enjoyable read. It was well written in a vividly descriptive style, with believable dialogue and lots of twists and turns to keep the reader guessing.

From the first car crash, all the way to the final scene, this becomes a non-stop rollercoaster of action that I could easily see this adapted for the silver screen.

In this age of the rise of artificial intelligence this is a very timely, sobering novel about the consequences if AI goes bad. How many internet connected devices are out there that have the potential to harbour a bot like APRIL? And when will the war between AI and the humans begin?

This was Scott Olsen's debut novel. Well worth the read for fans of thrillers, intrigue and fast paced spy novels.
An author to watch out for.

~Many thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review~

[Hungrypanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5 for me. For a debut novel its impressive, but my expectations were high as i just finished Blake crouch’s books back to back. At times its fast paced storytelling is gripping but it leaves you hanging, expecting something more to happen. The plot is very predictable and the tech words would not help the reader unless you did study computer science.

Emily Hernandez, the main protagonist works for NSA and offers her help in hacking the organisation called collective. An unfortunate event triggers a cascade of events that changes her life and makes her to search for answers to her burning questions.

Overall it was a decent read if you think of this book as action-spy-mystery-revenge story; calling it a scifi is a bit stretch. Some subplots could be edited out (that are unnecessary and adds nothing to the plot) to make it even more interesting.

I did enjoy the writing style. However I could not relate to any character as they feel disconnected. A bit more back story between the characters would have helped. The author has a lot of potential and i will be following his publications.

Thank you net gallery, for providing an advanced digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Shelley · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Source* The Book Whisperer
*Genre* Mystery & Thrillers | Sci Fi & Fantasy
*Rating* 3-3.5

*Thoughts*

Scott Olson's Zero Day Ghost is a techno-thriller that plunges into emotions of revenge, redemption, and life-and-death choices. Will Emily Hernandez triumph and weave her destiny from vengeance and forgiveness, or will she be ensnared in haunting shadows forever? Emily, who was one of the members of a group known as "The Collective," was previously arrested for computer fraud and abuse and convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison. She served only a few months before the NSA came knocking and Emily tried to find her own form of redemption.

*Full Review @ Gizmos Reviews*

https://gizmosreviews.blogspot.com/20...

[Kim Pelletier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in advance as an electronic arc (which I then finished on Amazon once the book released).

I’m rating this book as a 3/3.5 stars as I go back and forth on either rating. I enjoyed reading it, the twists and turns the story took, the characters, how the story kept you guessing what would happen next, the suspense the story took on in certain parts too, it was all well done for a first book from this author. At times I just wanted a little bit more from the story. This review, as marked, will have spoilers, nothing too too detailed, but still, spoilers, so continue to read at your own risk. This is also a lengthy review so I apologize for the wall of text that follows.

The characters were well-written and I enjoyed reading them, even when they annoyed me or disgusted me. Mac was an easy character for me to be disgusted by the more I read; the descriptions used in his POV’s made it really easy for me to hate him and be disgusted by him. Mac’s reveal in the middle of the story really drove home my hatred of him and my disgust towards him. “He had also hoped, stupidly in retrospect, that she [Emily] might identify with such a flawed person and love him all the more for being just as broken as she is. When he catches up with her, he’ll try again, prove that she can trust him now, and demonstrate once and for all that the lies are over.” The way that Mac views Emily, how he’s chronically lying to her and trying to manipulate her (and successfully has been manipulating her for a while now) just really made me hate him; he’s written as this almost broken character, and you almost want to sympathize with him, but his actions, what he’s done to Emily and how he’s lied to her, how he viewed her, just makes it so easy for me to hate him.

Emily as a character got annoying for me sometimes as well. Her drive to be good, to be different from what she is got frustrating sometimes to read. Like when (SPOILERS) her and Seymour get their hands on Zahra’s
laptop and she refuses to look into what’s on it even when that laptop could provide so much information that Emily is searching for, that her and Seymour have risked their lives to try and find, stressing, repeatedly, that she’ll be turning herself in the following day. It also annoyed me a bit that even by page 280, Emily was still naive, still willing to blindly trust the NSA even when Mac previously betrayed her and lied to her. Even by the end of the book, Emily still fights with herself if what she’s doing is good or bad, and while that shouldn’t be something that annoys me, since Emily has questioned it from the beginning, it’s frustrating to keep reading the same thoughts of the main character at the end of the story despite having gone through so much; the extra frustrating factor is that in the “epilogue,” only a month has passed and suddenly Emily comes to terms with her actions and is okay with it. The sudden jump from constantly questioning her actions and motives to being okay and at peace with them was jarring. Despite going through so much, it bothered me that Emily didn’t really change as the story progressed, until suddenly she did; it just seemed like a stagnant character progression and then suddenly she’s made all of the growth in the span of a one month time-skip. I do like that Emily isn’t described as like this wild beauty that most sci-fi female characters are described as. I love that she’s a POC and that she’s really just an average person, it makes it easier to relate to her. And I do enjoy that Emily has her flaws. While her character annoyed me on and off throughout the story, I enjoyed that she battles with herself, that she knows she’s not this perfect character and that she makes lots of mistakes throughout the book. I just wish that her character growth happened at a better pace and that the growth didn’t suddenly happen off-page.

Story-wise, I thought the story and plot was intriguing and interesting, and probably closer to possibly happening in our current time than most of us realize which added to the suspense/thriller aspect of the story. I thoroughly enjoyed that all the tech talk and computer talk was toned down and “dumbed” down so that it was easy to follow along and understand what exactly they were talking about in terms of hacking and whatnot, I really appreciated that as a reader with limited tech knowledge. There were twists and turns throughout the book that I wasn’t expecting, especially near the beginning/third of the way through. (MAJOR SPOILERS) The reveal of Zahra working with the NSA and with Mac was such a nice twist, one I definitely wasn’t expecting at all and the reveal of Director Chip and that plot line in the end was a nice twist as well; there were layers to the lies of the NSA with Emily and the pacing of each reveal was overall good. However, I was disappointed that we had this big reveal about Zahra being dead and then nothing really coming from it that left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth; we learn who did it and having APRIL be the one to do so was great, but it’s brushed over as so many other things are being revealed to Emily at the same time that it just falls flat. For the longest time Zahra is our main villain and her death should have been bigger and more impactful on Emily and I’m disappointed that it wasn’t, and that Emily isn’t more shocked or impacted by the fact that something she created in APRIL grew to be capable of killing Zahra in the first place.

There was a part that caught me off guard completely and actually left me feeling a little angry while reading it. There’s a scene where Emily is being interrogated by Pryce and it leads into a sexual assault scene; nothing graphic and it doesn’t go far, but it happens and it didn’t need to. It came completely out of nowhere, there was nothing similar to it in the rest of the book at all aside from a very minor scene towards the end as everything is coming to a front. Personally, I didn’t feel like it needed to be included or added at all. The scene is dark already, the addition of sexual assault and near rape of Emily didn’t need to be added, further physical torture of Emily could have happened in its place given the context of the scene and still ended with the same outcome. It felt forced and just completely unnecessary.

I will note that there’s quite a bit of punctuation errors that surprised me throughout the book. A lot of character speech missing the “” at the beginning and end, even when a character has stopped speaking and a new one begins, that made it slightly hard to follow along with what’s happening at times and had me going back and rereading once or twice to properly grasp what was happening and who was saying what. There’s even some grammar mistakes that threw me off too. I know it’s a debut novel, but if I had to nitpick I’m a little surprised that this wasn’t more thoroughly looked over before being published. Overall, I did enjoy the story, it was good, definitely a sci-fi thriller/mystery. Outside of the nitpicking of grammar and punctuation errors, and despite the fact that a lot of my review points out negative aspects of this story, Zero Day Ghost was an enjoyable read for me, that kept me hooked the further the story progressed, and had me enjoying the thrilling sci-fi mystery of a bot who got a little too powerful for her own good in the end. Scott Olson definitely seems to have set this up for a possible sequel, but if not, Zero Day Ghost is an enjoyable book all on its own.

[Nancy (The Avid Reader) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zero Day Ghost opens with a blast and never lets until the last page and even then it is still hanging on. Emily Hernandez Used to be a hacker but now she is an NSA analyst.

Emily’s main goal these days is to take down The Collective, a notorious cybercriminal syndicate led by the cunning Zahra Kartal.

"APRIL," a deadly AI botnet has been released into millions of computers. Emily must find Zahra and stop her before it is too late. Emily’s journey takes her to Hong Kong.

Zero Day Ghost has so many twists and turns each one had me racing to the end to see how everything would play out. Emily kept me racing after her page after page wondering what was going to happen next. The suspense kept me hanging on not able to turn the pages fast enough as I tried to figure it all out.

When I read the summary for Zero Day Ghost I was hooked and knew right away that I had to read it as I love computers. Hacking is not my thing but HTML is. I love seeing the code in HTML turn into the pages it creates. It amazed me when I first started teaching myself and it still does today.

If you are into computers, the Cyber world, and thrillers then let me suggest that you grab a copy of Zero Day Ghost today!

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think Zero Day Ghost comes in more at a 2.5 for me - I was engaged and entertained in parts, but overall it was just OK.

Zero Day Ghost launches you at break-neck speed into the life of hacker-turned-NSA analyst Emily Hernandez. She is trying hard not to let her background define her future, but the tangled web of her family history, domestic terrorist and hacker buddies, and current corrupt employers completely upend her world. The story is really less about the technology and more about the relationships of all of Emily's closet skeletons.

If you pick up this book expecting the "near future techno-thriller," you will be disappointed. However, if you are looking for a action-packed revenge and betrayal mystery thriller, you may be pleasantly surprised. I fell into the former category, but about half-way through I found myself one of the latter.

The pace in this story hardly ever lets up. It rolls fairly smoothly from big, bombastic action scene to plot revelations and back again over the course of the story. There were only a few instances where the plot dragged, and they mainly focused around the techno-jargon hacker subplot. Some of this could have been trimmed heavily since the jargon didn't really add anything to the story, and it felt like the hacker lifestyle was pretty Hollywood - stuff we've already seen before and expect from a hacker story.

Where the story really shines is in the characters and their motivations. While the drive behind some the characters felt a little cliché, they all lived their purpose and it made the characters come to life. The only exception to this was Emily herself, where sometimes her motivations seemed misplaced or forced merely for plot convenience. I found myself genuinely wanting to know what happens next as more characters and their backstories popped in. Emily herself did suffer quite a bit from plot-armor and plot-logic to help her get from point A to point B, especially in the second half of the book. She was probably my least favorite character in the whole story, but her situation was so crazy and chaotic, I just had to see where it ended up.

Overall, I felt pretty "meh" about the whole story when I got to the end. One of the big let-downs was that the big mystery that everyone is chasing was pretty obvious after the opening action scene. I held out hope for some sort of subversive twist (since the situation was so chaotic), or a big techno-reveal that would add something original to the space, but alas. I don't feel like my time was wasted reading Zero Day Ghost ; it was just a decent filler between meatier sci-fi thriller reads.

Thank you to NetGalley and publisher The Book Whisperer for providing a digital review copy of Zero Day Ghost in exchange for my honest review.

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review of advance reader copy

Hacker Emily Hernandez, working for the NSA, struggles in her efforts to dismantle The Collective, a group of cybercriminals. Emily is determined to put an end to the group and their worldwide hacking. Can she take down APRIL, an Artificial Intelligence she created as a member of The Collective, without hurting her friends?

But, as she sits with her mother, a car crashes into the house. An accident? A deliberate act? An attempt to kill Audrey? Or could the target have been Emily herself?

Can Emily bring down the Collective? Can she keep her friends safe while dismantling the hackers’ group? And why has she become a target?

=========

Told from Emily’s point of view, this thriller grabs the reader from the outset; the pace is relentless, the suspense deepening. Neither Emily nor the reader knows which people can be trusted and which ones have ulterior motives for their actions. The twisty plot leaves the reader guessing and, like Emily, wondering if her choices are the right ones.

Non-stop action, believable characters, and difficult choices keep readers on the edge of their seats as the unfolding story forces Emily to deal with the consequences of her actions while trying to keep her cousin, Kaylin, and her ex-boyfriend, Seymour, protected.

Readers who enjoy techno-thrillers will find much to appreciate in this unputdownable tale of espionage, intrigue, and secrets. As Emily and the reader discover that many of the people around her are not at all who she believed them to be, everyone will be guessing how the story will end.

Highly recommended.

I received a free copy of this book from The Book Whisperer and NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.
#ZeroDayGhost #NetGalley

[Elio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before starting the review i would like to thank Scott Olson and the Book Whisperer for sending me a pre-release copy. I've been also asked to write a review, and since i genuinely liked the book i did. These are my actual opinions:

It’s nearly impossible to not love Zero-Day Ghost. It’s genuinely hard to put down, not only because you can’t help getting attached to the Characters, but also because you believe how urgent everything that is happening is.

The book doesn’t fall in the trap of over complicating itself just to one-up the reader or deliver a cheap plot twist, so the story is allowed to flow organically. As you discover along-side Emily, the shadowy machinations and dark conspiracy happening all around her, you fully understand what is going on and why it’s important. That is also because the more technical terms are explained in very simply as they become relevant so you can follow along with the action from the very start.

Honestly the Book is a great read, and I recommend it to anyone that loves a good action-packed book that offers great insight to the realities of our information and money driven world and how the powers at be use technology to control the flow of both things.

[judy · Rating 2 out of 5]

thank you netgalley for an early copy of this book.

i really should have dnf this one so at least i could avoid reviewing altogether (& moved on to other books that i have in my queue).

the premise sounded exciting ala Robopocalypse but the execution was awkward, implausible and amateurish.

it read as tech heavy in certain parts (some of the coding sections are superfluous unless you're a programmer) but incredibly naive in others (just glossing over the ease with which all the characters are able to travel internationally when an intelligence agency is looking for them).

the protagonist is supposed to be a genius but is so lacking in self-confidence and any common sense, that i was unable to root for her. she is all set up (anarchist parents, genius hacker, mafia connected - that is a lot of implausible backstory) but no actual personality.

additionally, the dialog was wooden and didn't seem to differ between characters beyond the trite, cockney villain whose dialog was inauthentic and cringey.

i also fear that, given the anticlimactic ending, it's being set up as a series. oof.

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd like to thank Book Whisperer and Scott Olson for the ARC of Zero Day Ghost. I've read quite a few techno-thrillers in the past, but this is one of only a few that centers around hacking and botnets. While the technical aspects of the story were quite interesting, I didn't think that the character development was nearly as good as I was hoping for. Physical descriptions of the protagonists were sort of limited, as was the backstory of the main characters. I would have loved to know more about how the characters got to where they were, and their motivations. I have to admit that I was pretty confused about the relationships between the characters for quite a while, as well as why they took some of the actions they did. However, in the end, the story had a reasonable conclusion where most of the loose ends were tied up. Sort of ignored in the story flow were the military implications of the botnet, as well as the potential reactions of the nation-states that employ significant hacking in their arsenals: China, N. Korea, Iran, and Russia, to name a few.

[Lee Lamp · Rating 4 out of 5]

A completely different genre of story for me. While not technically challenged, the intricacies of cyber warfare, botnets, and self evolving artificial intelligence are somewhat foreign to me. I had a difficult time getting started with the story, however, stuck with it and was rewarded with a solid read. I came to enjoy the characters and gained more of an understanding of the complexity and, frankly, concerns of what AI could mean in the connected world. Having tried ChatGPT a couple times it’s easy to see that this is not science fiction, but a real world threat as experimentation continues. I think you’ll enjoy this story immensely. I got this book through the Book Whisperer and write this review as an open and honest evaluation of the book. Thank you Scott Olson for the introduction to a new genre for me.

[laureen ୨୧ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was completely shocked by the beginning of the book (in a positive way)! It was my first time reading a cyberpunk/futuristic thriller. What I liked the most was the incredible atmosphere of the book and how it dew me into this tech-driven world with its intricate political dynamics and gripping gang narratives. The story was filled with action and the themes of redemption and revenge were well-written. Now, let’s move on to the aspects that saddened me the most.
The 300 pages were too short for me to begin with. I was hoping to find out more about the other characters. The world-building was kind of disappointing. It could have been way more developed because it had so much potential. The overall design of the book was too simplistic, but it worked just fine.

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

With Zero Day Ghost, I stepped outside my usual genres (fantasy, young adult fantasy, SFF, mystery/thriller). This book is best described as a techno-thriller that's culturally relevant, given that AI is en vogue right now. Overall, I found the plot rather predictable and formulaic fare. The worldbuilding is basic because it's based on the world we live in. We know what NYC and Hong Kong are like. There's an interrogation scene that depicts an absolutely necessary sexual assault. There are plentiful ways to show torture without having to resort to sexual assault, and I wish more writers (particularly men) would realize this. I appraise Olson for this debut, and I think he's got a solid foundation for future novels. I hope to see something more original because he's got the skill.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast paced techno thriller, running from the heart of the NSA in Fort Meade through a Mafioso safe-house to a monastery in Hong Kong. Emily is a hacker working for the NSA with one job: to get control of APRIL, a botnet she helped create. People around her keep getting hurt, caught up in her web of danger and Emily doesn’t doesn’t know who to trust when everyone is lying about something. This is a really quick read, there is some tech jive but doesn’t distract from the action, I enjoyed every twist and turn and there are a lot.

Please note, I received an ARC copy of this book for review from NetGalley, but that never influences my honest reviews of books or authors.

[Marissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kindle Copy for Review from Net Galley and The Book Whisperer.

I received a free, advance copy of this book and this is my unbiased and voluntary review.

AN NSA analyst and former hacker finds herself in a dangerous situation. As she must choose to work as a Collective agent or spend more time in jail. She’ll get more than she bargains for in this thriller as she wonders if she made the right choice as her family lives will be in danger.

A compelling gripping read that will keep you engage.

[Ellie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scott Olson has written a remarkably intriguing book. I started it early in the morning and couldn't put it down until I had finished. I don't understand very much about hacking and computer viruses, but this book explained all I needed to know. It's an internationally placed thriller with the good guys, the really bad guys, the love interests, good friends and bad enemies. It's a relatively quick read, and when you pick it up, just know you'll be busy for a few hours. Bravo to this author on a terrific story. Will there be other books with Emily?

[Anonymouse · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried for weeks to get through this book but never managed. I have finally given up. Emily is not the slightest bit interesting as a character. Her most common sentiment is that she is responsible for everything bad that has happened and that she must atone for her sins by surrendering to the authorities and going to prison. This kind of notion might be acceptable once in a story when the character is down, but not every time the character is onstage. Why her friends still go to bat for her is a mystery.

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.com.

[Sheila · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a free copy of, Zero Day Ghost, by Scott Olson, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Emily Hernandez who is a former hacker turned good guy has got a job to do, she wants to dismantle a cyber criminal syndicate, which is easier said then done. This book is much edgier then Im used to, it was hard to understand the computer jargon at times, but is over all a good read.

[Jodi Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a terrifying story as it is so well written you can believe this might happen. Computers are a strange and powerful thing, so maybe this is based upon true events? Emily is having a bad life and it just keeps getting worse. She sees her mother murdered and that event will send her down a dangerous path. You will not be able to put this book down. Bots that have intelligence? Maybe. Either way, read this book. I was captivated the entire way through this story.

[Kylie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zero Day is a decent read, but very heavy in the tech world.
I enjoyed following Emily along her bizarre adventure but felt incredibly detached from the story as a whole.
There are some scenes and relationships that could have used more background and depth. It almost felt as though we should know these characters from a previous book but I think this is the first.
If you’re super into tech, and like the exploration of viruses and AI, this book is for you!

[Lisa Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Received as an ARC, I am leaving my honest review. This story is so exciting. Full of suspense, mystery and heartfelt emotions. There is a who done it storyline that is full of twists and turns as Emily tries to find the person, or group that murdered her mother. Be prepared for a whirlwind of fast paced action as espionage, government entities and family members collide while searching for the truth

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quote: "You'll regret it," she says earnestly. "Everybody who helps me regrets it."

Review:
A very solid read. A bit of a cautionary tale with how technology and such is. You couldn't help but root for Emily and all that she went through. Relatively fast paced read and worth checking out if you enjoy thrillers.
I give this 3 and a half stars.

I'd like to thank, the Author, Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this for an honest review.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this.

I found this to be an interesting read, though I did find that some parts of the book just went over my head.

This is a fast-paced, techno-thriller book that I think many people will enjoy, and obviously some who may not. Overall, I found this book an OK read, but I found the characters very interesting.

Despite my feelings of this book, I would still recommend people give this a go and get their own opinions.

[Dave Milbrandt · Rating 3 out of 5]

While an action sequence in the opening pages was intended to pull the audience into the story, it was not as effective for me as it may be for others. I found the exposition a bit forced, but the story got better after that. I also had some trouble determining the ages of some of the characters. Is seemed all the really heavy technical language was saved for the end. The tension was relatively good throughout.

[Vicki F · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zero Day Ghost by Scott Olson is unlike any novel I have ever read. Entering into the world of the dark web, the NSA, and espionage was totally foreign reading for me. This novel was action-packed. Realistic characters that could trust no one, not even each other, and especially not the NSA they worked for. A copy was provided for my review, but all opinions are my own.

[Tam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clever and imaginative! Great, multi-faceted characters. Very interesting plot. Vivid descriptions. Kept me intrigued from the first page to the last. Simply a GREAT read!

*I received a complimentary ARC of this book in order to read and provide a voluntary, unbiased and honest review, should I choose to do so.

[Firetruckmama · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher, for which I thank them.

Edited Review (1 SEP): Before it's official publication, I received a note from the Publisher that the author had made modifications based upon feedback from reviewers. I redownloaded the book and glanced through it - a number of the things I noted in my original review had been changed, so I thank both the Publisher and Mr. Olson for those changes. The plot still had a bit too many twists for my taste, but characters are introduced more smoothly. I still believe that Mr. Olson dislikes a certain Silicon Valley town, but we can quibble about that at another time. Is the technical information more explained - yes. I still think the bones of the story are good. I will stick with my 4 star rating - though, again, it was a tighter read with fewer things that took me out of the story.

Original Review (11 AUG): “Zero Day Ghost” is a debut novel by Scott Olson. Mr. Olson worked on Amazon’s Alexa and knows a bit about AI and tech buzzwords. I must admit that the idea of this book intrigued me. Overall, I think the bones of a great story are there, but there’s a lot of intrigue, techno speak that I didn’t always understand, and the plot had a few too many twists for my taste. There are some basic flaws that need an editor to tighten up. First - a character is introduced suddenly, like the reader is supposed to know who that person is already. I ended up doing a search in the book to see if I missed a previous reference - nope, just an awkward character introduction. In another scene, the hero notes she doesn’t have her phone, but manages to find a house - after midnight - that’s at least half an hour away from the train station. Had she visited the house before and remembered how to get there? Did she consult a map back at home and remember the rough outline? So many questions that actually took me out of the story! Time jumps abound, which I found a bit jarring to the flow of the story too. Once the main character ends up in Hong Kong, things happen very quickly - at times too quickly, though it did all make sense for a fast-paced action story. For a first time author, again, the bones are here for a really good story, but I wish there’d been a bit more explanation of the technological parts and a bit tighter general storyline. Overall, 3.5 stars, rounded up.

[Doug Yonce · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting cyber thriller with elements of sci-fi thrown in. Good characters and a plot that sometimes went over my head. I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher and voluntarily provided an honest review.

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

She was a hacker but now she works to destroy a cybercrime network and it is not going to be an easy job. She also wants revenge and it is going to be a tough job for her. What is going to happen? Will she succeed? Will they succeed? See where you will be taken in this thrilling read

[Claire Pacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having never read anything like this before, I wasn't sure what to expect. But I have to say I liked it. I found myself wanting to carry on reading til the end. I'm looking forward to reading more like this in the future.