In New York Times bestselling author J.A. Jance’s gripping new thriller, Man Overboard, two tech geniuses face off—one intent on saving lives, the other on ending them.

Cybersecurity expert Roger McGeary finally has his life back on track after years of struggling with depression. But when he falls from the balcony of his suite on an all-expenses-paid cruise, the police quickly dismiss it as “death by misadventure,” a vague phrase leaving much to interpretation.

Unsatisfied, Roger’s tough-as-nails aunt, Julia Miller, is determined to find answers and closure. By contacting Roger’s childhood friend Stuart Ramey to help her solve the mystery of his fate, Julia unwittingly sets up a collision course with a serial killer.

Stuart, his sidekick Cami Lee, and journalist turned amateur sleuth Ali Reynolds put the full resources of cutting edge online security firm High Noon Enterprises into learning the truth about Roger’s death. With Cami on the high seas investigating the ship from which Roger disappeared, Stuart stays tied to his computer, locked in a battle of wits and technology against an unusually twisted adversary. Aided by Frigg, an artificial intelligence companion of his own creation, the killer targets victims who have lost parents to suicide and attempts to drive them to the same tragic end.

When the heartless killer and his cyber accomplice set their sights on Stuart, High Noon must race against time to save him and countless others.

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Odin had paid a small fortune to procure powerful new malware that had been developed in Israel. Once installed on a smart device of any kind, it allowed full access to everything on it—keystrokes, e-mails, texts, cameras, and GPS locations, as well as recording devices. Customers paid a hefty six-figure installation fee for the software and then continuing fees based on the number of people being monitored by the program

The book is well written.

A twisted serial killer is targeting the grown children of people who have committed suicide. Ali Reynolds and her company, High Noon Enterprises, agree to help Roger McGeary’s aunt find out what really happened to him. Roger jumped overboard on a cruise and his aunt refused to believe he was suicidal. Roger’s childhood friend Stuart is a computer expert at High Noon and he begins tracking online movements which is how the killer is targeting his victims.

I loved that the life of the serial killer is also described from his perspective – from the lonely suicide of his father on the 4th of July, to growing up in a house where the help did most of the child-rearing, to his passions for the computers. This serial killer also is smart enough to develop his own AI.

He had spent years creating an entity who would comply with his wishes with instant and unquestioning obedience. 

I’m a little bit of a tech nerd, so I found most of the, obviously well researched, details in this novel to be very interesting. The subject of suicide, which plays a prominent role in the story, makes me squirm, but it is handled well, without becoming bogged down in over analysis.  Jance’s AI plot line may throw a damp blanket over some of the excitement we feel about such advances, by introducing some hair raising possibilities, but despite that cautionary warning, I couldn’t help but feel intrigued.

Good bits: nice and techy, good pace. Can work as a standalone book and not as the 12th book in a series about Ali.

Bad bits: no sense of tension or build-up. The pace is constant throughout the book. Self-aware AI was a bit too sci-fi for this murder mystery book.