GOLDSTRIKE

Find galloping suspense and action here in the first sequel to Whyman’s Icecore (2007), wherein falsely accused young British superhacker Carl Hobbes escaped from an arctic American prison camp for terrorists. Here, the Americans are still after him, but Carl still has those computer skills, too. The author manages to hold readers’ interest even while setting up his new plot. Carl gets a job in a storage facility for ritzy items, run by a supercomputer. It’s that computer that Carl wants to get his talented fingers on so he can continue to elude the CIA. They’ve set a brutal bounty hunter on his tail to bring him in, but, alas, so has al-Qaeda, and their sexy female assassin intends to kill him. All may be well if Carl’s girlfriend Beth can restrain herself from selling the gold bullion she stole from Fort Knox, but can she? With a narrative pitched to action- and computer-oriented teens, this may well find a wide audience. Learn some hacking and enjoy explosions in this one. It almost seems realistic. (Thriller. YA)