The Blue Nowhere – Jeffery Deaver

When a hacker moves beyond the world of computers and starts killing people in the real world, the California State Police Computer Crimes Division tries to fight fire with fire, getting another hacker out of prison in exchange for his help in tracking down the killer.  When it turns out that the two hackers used to hack together, the hunt becomes personal.

The first thing to know when diving into The Blue Nowhere is that it was published in 2001 so a lot of the technological aspects are wildly outdated in 2020, with dialup access and floppy disks being the most egregious examples.  Other than that, Jeffery Deaver spins a tale that probably resonates more today, with large scale hacks and identity theft being somewhat commonplace.  I’m a little surprised that Deaver never revisited these characters, as he seems to have set things up for the team to be brought back together, but maybe he felt better bringing that computing knowledge into his existing series.