The Price of Everything

McGoran (Spiked) conjures a vividly realized near-future dystopia and threads it with a sinewy crime caper. Following the Upheaval, a brief interval of uncontrolled global cyber warfare whose release of virulent malware has so destabilized the internet that cryptocurrencies have tanked, the economy has reverted to “crinkle,” a counterfeit-proof plastic paper used for large cash denominations. Armand Pierce works for the untouchable Couriers Guild, ferrying crinkle to corporate and criminal oligarchs—until the day he discovers that a huge payload in the attache case chain-grafted to his arm has inexplicably disintegrated into a pile of dust. Pierce barely escapes the botched delivery with his life, only to learn that similar evaporations of large cash payments into valueless powder are happening across the country. Desperate to save his skin by proving his innocence, he plunges headlong into a byzantine criminal conspiracy implicating his microbiologist ex-lover, a cult dedicated to halting devastating climate change, and a rogue executive within UniCon, a global, paragovernmental corporate cartel. McGoran’s nuanced characters are believable products of their denatured future and the suspenseful subterfuges they employ to survive keep the pacing brisk. It’s a page-turning thrill ride. (Apr.)