Buzz

Henrik “HP” Pettersson, the hero of de la Motte’s high-tech trilogy that began with Game, doubles down in installment two, as he matches wits with the ruthless powers behind “the Game,” an alternate-reality game he was lured into playing four months earlier. In Dubai, HP meets Anna Argos, the glamorous cofounder of ArgosEye, an IT consultancy company in Stockholm, who disappears. HP risks returning home to Stockholm, where he goes undercover at ArgosEye in hopes of discovering, among other things, what connection Anna might have with the game. Meanwhile, HP’s sister, Rebecca Normén, finds herself suspended from Sweden’s Security Police while fighting trumped-up charges, as well as targeted by a mystery blogger who may be stalking her. As the dual story lines pinball off one another, the author, an IT security consultant, provides an insider’s peek at stealth corporate manipulation of social media while maximizing the rush of this heady, hallucinatory trip. Agent: Federico Ambrosini, Salomonsson Agency (Sweden). (Jan.)