Freefall: A Pen Wilkinson Novel

Pen Wilkinson #3

by Brian Lutterman

Young attorney Pen Wilkinson's life was changed in an instant by a car accident, which killed her young niece and turned Pen into a paraplegic. Four years later, Pen's now-estranged sister calls with horrifying news: Her surviving child, a teenage son named Kenny, has vanished. Pen abandons her preparation for a major trial and travels across the country to search for Kenny, a computer prodigy. She contends with other players, including the FBI, a team of deadly mercenaries, and a hacker backed by Russian thugs, in a frantic search for Kenny, who holds the key to preventing a cyber disaster that could send the world economy into . . . Freefall.

228 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 14, 2017

About the author

Brian Lutterman is the author of the mystery-thrillers Bound to Die, a Minnesota Book Award runner-up, and Poised to Kill, described by the Midwest Book Review as “. . .a masterfully woven tale of tycoons and terrorists.” Lutterman, a former trial lawyer and corporate attorney, writes cutting-edge corporate thrillers, bringing to life the genre’s outsized conflicts and characters. A graduate of the University of Minnesota and Georgetown University Law Center, he lives with his family in the Twin Cities. He can be found on the web at: www.brianlutterman.com

Reviews

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pen Wilkinson has appeared in two previous books in this contemporary amateur sleuth series, and author Lutterman gets points for creating a protagonist who uses a wheelchair. Pen has solid contacts in law enforcement and strings she can pull when she needs investigatory assistance, but everyday issues are a challenge. Lutterman acknowledges the practical aspects of her disability, as well as its impact on her relationships with others.
Pen lost her mobility as an adult, the result of an auto accident, so is acutely aware of how people treat her differently than before. Fine, empathetic work. Pen is a get-on-with-it kind of gal and, at least in this novel, has come to terms with her situation.
Pen was driving when the accident occurred, and her sister’s young daughter was killed. Although she was not held responsible, she blames herself. And so, apparently, does the girl’s mother, Pen’s older sister Marsha. The rupture between them has brought to the surface Marsha’s longstanding resentment of Pen, and guilt over this resentment has led to hostility. Now Marsha needs Pen.
About a year before the book begins, Marsha’s son Kenny, a computer prodigy, left Marsha’s Tampa home to live with his father and stepmother. He then convinced them to move to Minneapolis. Why people would leave sunny Florida for the notorious icy winters of Minnesota, Marsha can’t understand and no one has adequately explained. Now Kenny has gone missing.
Given the settings he’s chosen—Minnesota and Tampa—Lutterman had considerable opportunity to explore how such vastly different urban cultures shape people and events, but this story could have played out just about anywhere, only changing the street names.
Pen agrees to help find him, since the police—and his father—seem unconcerned. It appears Kenny was doing some hacking for a mysterious person called Z. Z is well known to Pen’s old friends in the banking industry for a string of ransomware exploits, but has been strangely quiet of late. The book takes advantage of the growing appreciation of the vulnerability of systems and institutions to cybercrime, financial institutions in particular.
This is a multiple point-of-view novel, and you know Z is planning something big. The risks to Kenny are coming from at least two directions, since Z believes Kenny is expendable and a highly trained team of mercenaries is on his trail.
Lutterman’s complex plot is peopled by members of the Russian mafia, the mercenaries, the hackers, banking insiders, the FBI and local law enforcement, plus Kenny’s friends and family. Many of them are not behaving as Pen would expect them to. Yet she repeatedly arrives at conclusions without much indication of how she reached them.
If you like cybercrime plots and don’t think too hard about it, Lutterman’s fast-paced story will carry you forward. However, the book would greatly benefit from more realistic dialog. The heart of the book is Pen, Lutterman’s captivating protagonist, dealing with her significant challenges and urgent desire to reconnect her family.

[Brent Soderstrum · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third Pen Wilkinson novel. Pen is a paraplegic attorney who fights corporate corruption from a wheelchair. She was in a bad car accident when she lived in Florida in which she was hurt badly but her niece died. She lives with the horror of both her condition and the loss of a family member on a daily basis. She is now a prosecutor in Los Angeles.

This Pen episode begins with Pen finding out her nephew, her sister's only remaining child, is missing. Kenny is a computer genius and it is believed that he has been running with a rough crowd holding companies for ransom with his computer hacking skills. He allegedly works for the infamous Z who the FBI has been trying to catch for years. There is a lot of mystery to who Z even is and where Z is located. Kenny had moved from Florida to Minnesota to live with his Dad recently.

With Kenny missing and many people looking for him, including the authorities, those closest to Kenny are getting roughed up, tortured and chased. Into all of this Pen decides to take family leave from her job and her boyfriend James to help her sister find Kenny and heal some family wounds.

What I love about Lutterman's books is they are full of twists and turns which you don't see coming. The plots are complex and the characters are very well developed. I am looking forward to his next Pen Wilkinson novel which is rumored to be entitled "Nightfall".

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow - never a dull moment - hard to put down. There are lots of sub-plots that are all intertwined to make the story suspenseful and robust. I hadn't read the earlier works in the series but that wasn't necessary to understand this book. References were made to previous story lines that may be spoilers for going back and reading the other books but I'm still going to do it.

I don't care for books with graphic violence and the torture in this book was disturbing but not necessarily graphic. I consider it at the edge of where I am comfortable reading. That is the only "bad" thing that I can say about the book.

[Robin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick, engrossing read. The book grabs you from the start and keeps you wondering what is going on and who is really involved through out. I had not read the other Pen Wilkinson Novels by Brian Lutterman before this and really didn't feel loss even though there were references to the previous books, which will go on my to-read list.

[Marika Charalambous · Rating 5 out of 5]

Freefall is the third book in the Pen Wilkinson thriller series.

Involved in an accident which left her paraplegic and her niece dead, Pen has a major burden in life. An emotional one, but also a physical one: she is paraplegic.

This latest book takes Pen all the way to Minnesota in search for her missing nephew. While Pen and her sister, Marsha, are not in good terms, she is her nephew's best bet in being found alive.

But what Pen finds in Minnesota is far from a simple teen skips parents' house case. It is one that might just cost Pen her life.

Full review: https://mysterysequels.com/freefall-b...

[Debra B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disclosure: I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway.

I wasn't sure I was going to like this book as I found the beginning a bit challenging to follow. But, once I caught on to the rhythm of the author's writing style, I began to relax and enjoy the story. The book is about a teenage hacker on the run from some really bad guys. At his mother's request, the book's main character -- Pen Wilkinson -- heads to Minneapolis to search for her nephew. She has to deal with uninvolved parents, tight-lipped friends, the FBI, local police, and a host of bad people in her search for Kenny.

The book has some surprising twists and turns and will keep you on the edge of your seat to the very end.