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Crackerjack
When a sexy engineer hires a reformed hacker in Cape Town to help solve her boss's disappearance, the hunt quickly becomes deadly.
Young, bright and sexy, Carla Vitale has been handpicked to run Supertech, Africa’s leading independent Engineering firm. Then one Friday afternoon in Cape Town, her dream is shattered. Her boss and mentor, Nial Townley, disappears, his luxury vehicle is found in a crevice at the bottom of Chapman’s Peak and $USD 20m is missing from the Supertech’s overseas accounts. Three months later and the police are no closer to solving the riddle.
No job, no car, no phone, Carla turns to the one person she believes can help: software hacker turned day-trader, Daniel Le Fleur. But Le Fleur’s maintaining a low profile in Bantry Bay and he’s in no mood to ruin the serendipity.
Young, bright and sexy, Carla Vitale has been handpicked to run Supertech, Africa’s leading independent Engineering firm. Then one Friday afternoon in Cape Town, her dream is shattered. Her boss and mentor, Nial Townley, disappears, his luxury vehicle is found in a crevice at the bottom of Chapman’s Peak and $USD 20m is missing from the Supertech’s overseas accounts. Three months later and the police are no closer to solving the riddle.
No job, no car, no phone, Carla turns to the one person she believes can help: software hacker turned day-trader, Daniel Le Fleur. But Le Fleur’s maintaining a low profile in Bantry Bay and he’s in no mood to ruin the serendipity.
324 pages, Paperback
Published January 15, 2019
35 people want to read
About the author
Peter Church
4 books26 followersAfter a successful career in Information Technology, Church wrote his first novel,
Dark Video
in 2008. Dark Video was published by Random-Struik in South Africa and New Holland Publishers in Australia. Reviewed as 'one of the best debuts in a long time' by Lindsay Slogrove of The Natal Mercury, Dark Video was a Sunday Times 'Book of the Week'.
In 2011 Church followed up with the 'drink spiking' book Bitter Pill . Cosmopolitan magazine's 'Hot Read of the Month', the plot was described by Gillian Hurst of The Drum as 'adrenalin-laced, gritty (plot) will keep you furiously turning pages long after your bedtime.' Bitter Pill was nominated for the 2012 Sunday Times fiction prize.
In 2015 Two Dogs announced Blue Cow Sky , a novella of sexual proportions.
In 2019 Crackerjack was released by Catalyst Press, California and marked Church's North American debut. A review of Crackerjack was published in the New York Journal of Books.
Peter Church is a member of SA Pen and the Kimberley Club. His acclaimed sporting articles are featured on M&G's Sports Leader site.
A short story, The One, about compulsive love, appeared in a compilation of South African crime fiction called Bad Company . Another shortie, My Side, was selected for the annual Short Sharp Story collection Bloody Satisfied edited by Jo Hichens.
Peter lives in Cape Town with his wife Paula and three children Christopher, Megan and Ross.
In 2011 Church followed up with the 'drink spiking' book Bitter Pill . Cosmopolitan magazine's 'Hot Read of the Month', the plot was described by Gillian Hurst of The Drum as 'adrenalin-laced, gritty (plot) will keep you furiously turning pages long after your bedtime.' Bitter Pill was nominated for the 2012 Sunday Times fiction prize.
In 2015 Two Dogs announced Blue Cow Sky , a novella of sexual proportions.
In 2019 Crackerjack was released by Catalyst Press, California and marked Church's North American debut. A review of Crackerjack was published in the New York Journal of Books.
Peter Church is a member of SA Pen and the Kimberley Club. His acclaimed sporting articles are featured on M&G's Sports Leader site.
A short story, The One, about compulsive love, appeared in a compilation of South African crime fiction called Bad Company . Another shortie, My Side, was selected for the annual Short Sharp Story collection Bloody Satisfied edited by Jo Hichens.
Peter lives in Cape Town with his wife Paula and three children Christopher, Megan and Ross.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 5, 2019
A fast-paced, clever and dark thriller with a complex plot that leaves the reader unable to forsee the twists and turns right until the very end and leaves them sweating.
Whilst not my traditional read (thriller and/or fiction), Crackerjack peaked my interests in particular as it it dealt with themes quite close to my own interests - hacking, cybercrime, Cape Town, and of course a mysterious blonde.
The novel follows Daniel Le Fleur, a hacker forced into retirement from a recent bust, now spending his time day trading in a seaside apartment in Cape Town. His somewhat peaceful change of career is turned upside down the moment he reluctantly agrees to assist a hotshot engineer who is adament to use Daniel's skills to find out what happened to her missing CEO.
The plot manages to get more a more sinister as the story races on, taking Daniel deep into a world of hackers, gangsters, hitmen and corrupt businessmen. A world he once used to feel quite comfortable in, has now left him way out of his depth, forcing him to resort to the very skills he swore to leave behind.
Crackerjack can be a technical read at times, however, Church's writing style allows even not too tech savvy readers to enjoy the fast paced tech-heavy scenes littered throughout the novel. This is a surprising feat as it demonstrates Church's in depth knowledge of the IT world and the intricacies surrounding it.
Crackerjack is a must read for all fans of thrillers, especially those whose interests are peaked by the dark world of cybercrime and hacking, and who are suckers for an intricate plot, filled with unexpected twists.
Whilst not my traditional read (thriller and/or fiction), Crackerjack peaked my interests in particular as it it dealt with themes quite close to my own interests - hacking, cybercrime, Cape Town, and of course a mysterious blonde.
The novel follows Daniel Le Fleur, a hacker forced into retirement from a recent bust, now spending his time day trading in a seaside apartment in Cape Town. His somewhat peaceful change of career is turned upside down the moment he reluctantly agrees to assist a hotshot engineer who is adament to use Daniel's skills to find out what happened to her missing CEO.
The plot manages to get more a more sinister as the story races on, taking Daniel deep into a world of hackers, gangsters, hitmen and corrupt businessmen. A world he once used to feel quite comfortable in, has now left him way out of his depth, forcing him to resort to the very skills he swore to leave behind.
Crackerjack can be a technical read at times, however, Church's writing style allows even not too tech savvy readers to enjoy the fast paced tech-heavy scenes littered throughout the novel. This is a surprising feat as it demonstrates Church's in depth knowledge of the IT world and the intricacies surrounding it.
Crackerjack is a must read for all fans of thrillers, especially those whose interests are peaked by the dark world of cybercrime and hacking, and who are suckers for an intricate plot, filled with unexpected twists.
October 28, 2018
Having barely escaped going to prison, Daniel De Fleur is doing his best not to attract the attention of the world. That said, he is naturally reluctant to get involved when Carla Vitale shows up and asks for his help in determining what happened to her boss and mentor, Nial Townley, CEO of engineering giant Supertech. He has vanished, along with $20M dollars. De Fleur finally agrees to see if he can accomplish what stumped the police, chiefly solving the mystery of what happened when Townley is finally discovered in his car at the bottom of a mountain.
Crackerjack by Peter Church is the fourth book , following the well-received Dark Video and Bitter Pill. Church certainly has the background to write a book centered around technology, having made a career in Information Technology. The book has enough tech-speak to satisfy the average computer geek but is understandable enough for the technologically-challenged reader. I enjoyed this book and hope to see more with the same main character. I give this book 4/5 stars.
*A copy of this ebook is the only consideration received in exchange for this review.*
Crackerjack by Peter Church is the fourth book , following the well-received Dark Video and Bitter Pill. Church certainly has the background to write a book centered around technology, having made a career in Information Technology. The book has enough tech-speak to satisfy the average computer geek but is understandable enough for the technologically-challenged reader. I enjoyed this book and hope to see more with the same main character. I give this book 4/5 stars.
*A copy of this ebook is the only consideration received in exchange for this review.*
February 22, 2019
A South African setting and an intriguing "hero" make this an interesting read. Daniel Le Fleur is a hacker, a hacker without a lot of good things in his life and he's bored. Then Carla shows up and asks him to help her find out what happened to Nial, because his disappearance has basically totalled her life. This isn't too techy (which is a good thing) and the mystery isn't that complicated (but note that cybercrime sometimes does take a minute to get your head around). Thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC. Try this one for something different.
June 20, 2019
When Dark Video was first published in 2008 I thought Peter Church is one to keep your eye on. And Crackerjack doesn't disappoint. Dark, twisted plot. Fast past. Believable, strong characters. A dip into the sordid world of online video's and the dark web. Peter Church write such vivid scenes and pulls his reader right into the world of hacker Daniel Le Fleur.
June 27, 2019
The story was interesting, and the main character intriguing. But one minor character was so crass and another so sexist that I nearly stopped reading (I encountered enough of that in my career). I probably won't read another.
March 11, 2019
South African hacker, damsel in distress...the story just moved too slow for me.
September 8, 2023
A good read, but for me the story didn't quite hang together. Even at the end I wasn't quite sure about a few things in the plot.
June 9, 2024
Loved this. Fantastic suspense building.
January 8, 2020
We are used to Cape Town being depicted as a tourist city with an undercurrent of racial tension, and get-your-hands-dirty gangsterism and corruption. Church has a different take. Cape Town is also a high-tech hub servicing international tech companies. That leads to quite different types of crime and different ways of tackling them.
Daniel Le Fleur is a reformed hacker and very successful day trader. He’s also a loner, a man who keeps himself apart from friendships and relationships, so when an attractive young woman, Carla, arrives unbidden at his door and asks for help, Daniel is far from delighted. She has a story about a missing businessman who has disappeared, and his company’s liquid assets have vanished too. Was the man murdered and his body thrown into the sea, was he kidnapped, or has he absconded with the shareholders’ money? Against his better judgement, Daniel is sucked into the search for the missing man and the money.
In the meanwhile Fallon Trafford is released from prison, and starts killing computer hackers – Daniel’s erstwhile colleagues. Fallon, is in some ways the books most interesting character – a killer we come to understand to the extent that any ordinary person can really understand a psychopath.
It’s not too long before Fallon is after Daniel and Carla, and she’s not the only one. The story proceeds along usual thriller lines, but there are twists as we near the tail. Church’s characters are strong and believable, and the plot keeps the pages turning.
Daniel Le Fleur is a reformed hacker and very successful day trader. He’s also a loner, a man who keeps himself apart from friendships and relationships, so when an attractive young woman, Carla, arrives unbidden at his door and asks for help, Daniel is far from delighted. She has a story about a missing businessman who has disappeared, and his company’s liquid assets have vanished too. Was the man murdered and his body thrown into the sea, was he kidnapped, or has he absconded with the shareholders’ money? Against his better judgement, Daniel is sucked into the search for the missing man and the money.
In the meanwhile Fallon Trafford is released from prison, and starts killing computer hackers – Daniel’s erstwhile colleagues. Fallon, is in some ways the books most interesting character – a killer we come to understand to the extent that any ordinary person can really understand a psychopath.
It’s not too long before Fallon is after Daniel and Carla, and she’s not the only one. The story proceeds along usual thriller lines, but there are twists as we near the tail. Church’s characters are strong and believable, and the plot keeps the pages turning.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews