Deadly Odds 5.0 by Allen Wyler

Although this is the first book reviewed in this blog by Allen Wyler, the author appears to be a fairly prolific writer. Deadly Odds 5.0 is the fifth book in the Deadly Odds series, and he has written several other series as well. The protagonist, Arnold Gold, quit his lifelong passion for gambling because his girlfriend, Rachel, demanded that he quit the thing that he loved and excelled, so if he wanted to continue the relationship with her. He had been living in Seattle, and he and Rachel, a dedicated nurse, agreed to move to Honolulu where Gold bought another home in Honolulu where they began living together, a first for them both. Having not read the earlier books in the series, it’s my assumption that Wyler developed that relationship over the course of the first four books. However, in this book Rachel had no redeeming features. All she did was complain about his work habits as he developed his own computer security company, which he loved doing but which he also said was an attempt to provide for both of them. She was nothing but an intolerant bitch and I just wanted to see Gold tell to get lost, and I won’t tell you if that happened in the course of this novel.

 

This book was a high-tech and hacker story, really a contest between Gold and his chief nemesis Ramesh Singh, about the strange phenomena of two startup companies in Seattle which showed great promise until they were on the verge of going public when seemingly credible information revealed both companies had hidden information from the public and their progress had been bogus. Both companies lost all standing, were not funded in their respective IPOs and ended up in bankruptcy. 

 

As the FBI investigated the companies’ failures, it was due to someone having shorted their purchases of the companies’ shares, so when they lost value, that led someone made a killing. All leads pointed directly to Carlos Lopez who loved his job and was oblivious to the shenanigans of which he was accused. He quickly sought legal advice with a firm that had previously relied on Gold to help them understand financial happenings in the dark web. The story advanced from trying to gather information to high tech sleuthing. Wyler presented a compelling cast of characters, good guys and bad guys, as well as some sexual tension between Gold and a woman he deemed to be an ideal hire to expand his operation, as well as between Gold and a woman lawyer at the firm for whom he was working. The plot was revealed in a timely manner and the end game of this book was very well conceived. 

 

I will be happy to read more of Wyler’s works.

 

West Coast Don