Briefly tell us about your book.
Jacintha “Jack” Cross is a security expert hired by companies to hack into their systems and buildings, and report back weaknesses. One night, after a routine job, she comes home to find her husband Gabe has been brutally murdered. Initially, the police treat Jack like a grieving widow, but she soon becomes aware they’re closing in on her as their number one suspect. She has to make the decision whether to sit tight and hope they realise their mistake – or go on the run and solve the case herself. When she makes the decision to cut and run, the clock starts ticking. Will she find Gabe’s killer before zero day – when the police catch up?
What inspired the idea behind this book?
In lockdown I was listening to a ton of podcasts, and a lot were tech-oriented because of my research into two previous books featuring rogue technology. Maybe because I’m a crime writer, I found myself drifting to the darker end of the spectrum, to stories of hackers and cyber-crime, and it was here that I found out about pen testers, people who use the techniques of real hackers and burglars to test systems and report on their weaknesses. Essentially they are good guys, using the skills of bad ones. I loved the idea and thought a pen tester would make an excellent protagonist for a book. But I knew I had to give her a challenge that would be up to her skills – and being suspected of your husband’s murder was the toughest thing I could think of.
If I looked at your internet history, what would it reveal about you?
I sincerely hope no-one ever does because I would be instantly under arrest. It’s full of incriminating questions like “how long does it take for a body to decompose” and “is an insulin overdose detectable in post-mortem”. I try to make sure to regularly google things like “tax for writers” in order to reassure the algorithm that these are purely fictional enquiries, but if half the stuff I’ve read about ISP surveillance is true, I’m pretty sure I’m on some kind of radar.
What are you hoping the reader will take away from reading your book?
Don’t reuse passwords.
What was the most challenging part of writing this book?
There were a lot of technical details to get right, but from a writing perspective, it was probably the challenge of writing about grief. I’ve written about death before – as a crime writer it obviously comes with the territory – but this was the first book I’d written about someone losing the love of their life and trying to come to terms with that. It was really tough and made me hug my husband a bit tighter at the end of each writing day!
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