Ctrl Alt Delete

Run with the Hunted #2

by Jennifer R. Donohue

In the fast-paced, tech-heavy future, even hackers need to take a break. Bits isn’t working right now, and instead spends her days in VR, making necessary additions to the immersion’s neglected night sky. When Dolly shows up with a problem that needs solving, Bits can’t just boot her. Especially not when she finds out Bristol’s been arrested and they have a narrow window of opportunity to bust her out. There’s something wrong, more than jail, more than the effects of all that time in VR, but she can’t remember. She and Dolly have to hit the road first and figure out the details later, because if they lose track of Bristol now, they might never get a second chance.

150 pages, Paperback

Published October 29, 2019

About the author

Jennifer R. Donohue grew up at the Jersey Shore and now lives in central New York with her husband and their Doberman. A member of the SFWA, she works at her local public library where she also facilitates a writing workshop. Her work has appeared in Apex Magazine, Escape Pod, Fusion Fragment, and elsewhere. Her debut novel, Exit Ghost is available now. She tweets @AuthorizedMusin and you can subscribe to her Patreon for a new short story every month: https://www.patre-
on.com/JenniferRDonohue

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

With the sequel to Run with the Hunted, Donohue’s voice has loosened and deepened into a distinctive and fabulous style. The story takes place within the addled mind of the heist team’s cyber expert, Bits, as she navigates a world she’s forgotten with a body full of consequences.
Her partners in crime are in need, and Bits must figure out a way to survive living in the world outside of VR to save a friend. But, what is this mission and why does Bits keep losing chunks of time whenever she tries to focus on it?

The driving narrative is Bits trying to solve her own discrepancies while her friends are patient, but also elusive. There’s a lot of story packed into a short amount of pages, and Donohue balances the mystery with action and banter.

While the end didn’t strike the bell quite as hard as I’d have liked, I loved the distinct and somewhat broken sound of Bits talking her way toward a solution. The first book in this series was from the point of view of Bristol, another team member. Her cadence and attention were focused on being polished and in control. The shift in this sequel to someone suffering a breakdown while trying to save her friends was like fire, fast and furious, and absolutely mesmerizing.

There will be squealing if the third book gives us Dolly’s view on things because who wouldn’t love a triptych of heists and friendship?

[J. Z. Kelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

If Run with the Hunted was a lighthearted heist story in the vein of Ocean’s 8, Ctrl Alt Delete is a buddy road trip story similar to Thelma and Louise, minus the sexual assault. The second book in the series manages to raise the stakes not by adding a third or fourth shady government agency, but by making the danger more personal and the path forward even less clear. I was genuinely so worried about Bits (the narrator of this story) and a new side character that I had to put the book down and take a break a couple of times.

An uncertain number of months after the diamond heist, Dolly pulls Bits out of VR immersion—and out of hiding—for a much more personal job. They need to steal Bristol back from the black site where she’s being held before the government realizes exactly who she is. It’s too complicated and dangerous a job for Dolly to do alone, but Bits is suffering from unexplained migraines, lost time, nose bleeds, memory loss, and a strange inability to even hear what happened between the diamond heist and Bristol’s arrest.

Like the first book in the series, Ctrl Alt Delete is fast paced and short enough to read in an afternoon—assuming you don’t have to take breaks because of how worried you are about the characters. I liked getting to know Bits and Dolly (my love! who gets significantly more screen time in this book than the last) more intimately, and I loved the way that new knowledge fills in little gaps and recontextualizes information from the first book. Really, though, the strength of this series is in the relationships between its main cast, and watching Dolly take care of Bits while she recovered made me fall so hard for these women all over again. My only complaint is I wanted it to be at least 20% longer.

Fans of book one will not be disappointed, but I’d recommend book two particularly to fans of found family stories, VR hacking stories, conspiracy theories, and badass women who can easily carry you up and twelve tons of firearms up six flights of stairs while chain smoking and not break a sweat. Now, where is my Dolly book and why do I have to wait until the 31st to read it????

[Margaret Adelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I reviewed the first in this series a while ago, and I was happy to accept a review copy for this one!

This book is definitely more sci-fi than the first. And it makes sense, as it's from the hackers point of view. Admittedly, that may make it difficult for readers newer to sci-fi to understand it. But if you enjoy futuristic tech, you'll love all descriptions of VR scenarios and code. Admittedly, that isn't my preferred kind of sci-fi (at least with as in-depth as the descriptions got) but Bits was still an interesting character to follow, regardless.

The plot in this one also feels much more vague than the first. The overall plot point, with the rescue, is very straightforward. But it can take a bit to figure out what the individual bit was supposed to be. However, seeing as it was through the eyes of a mentally unwell and unreliable narrator, I can't fault the book for it.

The trio of thieves definitely feels more like a found family in this one (mostly because Bristol and Dolly are so worried about Bits half the time.) Their personalities are as bright as ever and I appreciated all the banter. They work together well and it shows.

In general, this is another great addition to the series. More sci-fi, more found family, more... weird vagueness that almost left ME staring off into the middle distance. If you enjoyed the first one, you'll love the sequel.

[Louise D · Rating 4 out of 5]

With her first book, Run With The Hunted, Jennifer R. Donohue brought me back to the pleasures of great sci-fi, a genre from which I drifted after my teen years. The author creates a compelling and authentic tech world, that seems to be just around the corner from 2020. Although the story lines are original, her work evokes the once and future sci-fi great, William Gibson. Ms. Donohue’s three main characters are fully realized, such that I cared deeply for Bits and disliked Bristol. My emotions are not typically engaged to that extent. The three women are clearly outside the law, yet they have believable heart. I liked that very much as well. The technology is totally believable, though no copy of anything I’ve read. She brings it all together in a masterful way. The sequel is even better than the previous. I hope to read more of her books.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one went really fast. Read like an episode in a long running show where I missed at couple of eps.
Necessary info did get filled in as we went along but I kept getting the sense of missing stuff from previous events, which I guess a choice to better show what the narrator was dealing with but it definitely affected my enjoyment a bit.

Still picked up the next book right away, and am glad that there is 3 books already out to do this with.

[Theresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one is more experimental and I am HERE for it. I love that this is from Bits’ POV especially as she’s an unreliable narrator and she knows it!