The Software Bomb

The computer virus nesting in a New Orleans bank data file chooses to surface at a particularly bad time, just as the institution is posed to bankroll the city's new lottery. A hacker demands $5 million before he will undo the nasty program, and the loss of all that loot--and, perhaps more significantly, the attendant scandal--could be a sizable headache. High stakes aside, the crime saves freelance PR consultant Jack Lynch's sorry behind. He's loveless, recently orphaned, drinking too much, two months late on the rent for his office and temporarily homeless. Hired to find the hacker, Lynch is soon awash in modems and murder. Then his first good suspect, a bank officer with unhealthy ties to a company aggressively courting the lotto biz, gets gunned down. There's no shortage of New Orleans atmosphere here; the author is especially unforgiving toward gullible tourists and inefficient restaurants with inflated reputations. Lynch is a troubled soul who deserves a little luck--maybe the girl moving into the apartment next door to his new digs will be his salvation. Womack, the author of Smash City , once again delivers an effective work, never too complex and not quite overburdened with woes for the ever-resilient Lynch. (July)