Bounty: A Novel

· Ballantine Books
4.0
1 review
Ebook
432
Pages
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About this ebook

Relentlessly suspenseful and disturbingly timely, Bounty summons a chilling vision of our Internet culture gone mad, where freedom, privacy, and the rule of law are demolished by a crisis of nightmare proportions—and the future of justice lies in the hands not of the bravest but the most brutal.
 
When a notorious Wall Street vulture is executed in his high-rise office by a sniper’s bullet, it’s the kill shot heard around the world. Welcome to Bounty4Justice.com, a rogue website for vigilante assassins, where outraged citizens bid up bounties on corporate crooks and corrupt elites. As the number of targets soars, amateur bounty hunters and professional hit men compete to exterminate the condemned, “proof-of-death” videos become Internet sensations, and the self-styled Robin Hood pulling the strings threatens to plunge the international community into anarchy.
 
Along with other law enforcement agencies across the globe, the FBI and its agents on the case—led by Roman Novak and Rosemary Michaels—are desperately seeking a way to outmaneuver and overpower an all-but-invisible adversary with millions of dollars at its disposal and the ability to cripple the most sophisticated attackers with a keystroke. Following a black-hat hacker extraordinaire down a rabbit hole of firewalls, encryption, and unbreakable codes leads Novak and Michaels into the virtual underworld of the darknet—a seemingly impenetrable haven for the illicit and illegal where Bounty4Justice’s mastermind is almost certainly hiding. But just when the agents think they are close to breaching their quarry’s digital fortress, they find themselves stalked by an army of cyber outlaws out for blood.

Advance praise for Bounty
 
“[Michael] Byrnes fuses science fiction and espionage in this smart, near-futuristic dystopic thriller. . . . The action-packed story line is full of plot twists and explores such topical matters as cyberterrorism and hacktivism. Byrnes raises some serious questions about humankind’s increasing dependence on—and assimilation with—the digital world.”—Publishers Weekly
 
“Vigilantism goes viral in this thriller about a website that pays bounties for the killing of unpunished child abusers, financial scammers, human rights violators, and other bad actors. . . . Charles Bronson’s Death Wish meets the Internet.”—Kirkus Reviews
 
“This is a grand-scale spin on the vigilante story. . . . Byrnes’s vigilante offers a twist on the theme: he’s mastered cyberspace to the point where he can outsource some of his to-do list, offering a cash reward on his website to anyone who will kill the crooked banker . . . and the weasel who bilked Medicare for $127 million. And he’s just getting started.”Booklist

Ratings and reviews

4.0
1 review
Brooke Banks
September 1, 2016
I was lucky enough to win a free copy from Goodreads First Reads. Bounty follows investigators trying to stop Bounty4Justice, a vigilante democratic website that raises money right the wrongs of the criminal justice system. People submit others for the website, evidence is collected and backers can cast a vote for guilty or acquittal. While the assassinations are what has most people up in arms, that’s not the only way to claim the money or get rid of your bounty once someone’s deemed guilty. Bringing in the target to the justice system will net the same reward or turn yourself in and the money goes back into the pot. It’s also important to note, the targets are all people that the justice system has failed to convict or received a slap on the wrist. Before I start my ramblings on the system, let’s review the book, shall we? The Good The Bad & The Other + Fast paced action - Characters are bland white people + Riveting twists and turns - Could've gone farther, been more relevant and inclusive + Thought-provoking set up - Hypocritical cops aren’t brought to task + Technology is understandable + Liked the Author's Note Bounty starts by introducing a rich asshole who skates through the law and then his murder by sniper. From there the investigators are introduced, and game begins. Who the agents/detectives are make no difference. I had a hard time keeping track of them besides the team lead and his romance interest, whose names I can’t remember now and don’t care enough to look it up. Moments of wait…I thought that was the other guy are not fun. Eventually, I got it straight but their daily lives are meaningless in the scheme of the story. It’s easy to accept the interchangeable typical white crew and roll along. I t easily kept me reading as Bounty4Justice racked up targets and they discovered its depth. There is traditional cop work done but the majority obviously lies in cutting edge technology. The regular joe team members act as audience surrogates for the geek squad explain it all to. Even if I didn’t get the mumbo jumbo, I got the idea and it’s easy to understand what Bounty4Justice has accomplished. I loved the inclusion of social media and hacktivists, not only in the plot itself but with snapshots of posts themselves. Reading those posts was a great insight to the public’s response to the website and investigation. It really brought the concept to life. There are also chat transcripts scattered throughout between two screen names that mean nothing at the time. It piqued my interest and lead me down some false paths about Bounty4Justice’s origins and outcome. The reveal of who’s behind it though was disappointing. Oh. Okay. People familiar with genre tropes could call it early but I was too wrapped up in the story and fell for the red herrings. But the ending? I fucking love it. It’s another haunting open ending. I’ve read so many excellent examples of this usage and I don’t think I can say I hate open endings anymore. I just hate when they suck. It fits Bounty perfectly in tone and content since the technological arms race will never end and we’re always a step behind. Throughout Bounty4Justice’s system had my mind spinning with the implications, complications, and variations, but the last scene…It reminds me of heist books and left me reeling. It’s NOT a good thing to read before bed. Especially not if you continue to read the author’s note. Brynes clearly knows his stuff and I appreciate all the work and concern that went into Bounty.
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About the author

Michael Byrnes is the author of the international bestseller The Sacred Bones, which has been translated into more than twenty languages. He lives in Florida with his wife and three children.

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