Title: Deadly Odds 5.0
Author: Allen Wyler
Publisher: Stairway Press
Genre: Techno-Thriller, Mystery
First Publication: 2022
Language: English
Book Summary: Deadly Odds 5.0 by Allen Wyler
In Wyler’s 5.0 installment of the Deadly Odds techno-thriller series, Arnold Gold—reformed hacker turned security consultant—confronts a mysterious new enemy: a treacherous ace hacker who deliberately destroyed two high-technology companies. With Arnold’s personal life spinning out of control, he must juggle cyber-detective work while forming a talented team to grow his cyber-crime fighting company.
Book Review: Deadly Odds 5.0 by Allen Wyler
In today’s world, technology governs practically every aspect of life, from the door locks on our houses to the flight controls of our aircraft, from the remote entry systems on our automobiles to the movements of the global economy as a whole. Our networked world is made possible by thousands of autonomous computer programs. These programs operate continuously in the background of our everyday lives, doing tasks like transferring money, monitoring electricity grids, and facilitating the exchange of electronic mail. Although software is generally harmless, the same cannot be said about the people who create it since their intentions aren’t always good.
Arnold Gold, a former hacker who is now working as a security consultant, faces up against an unknown new adversary in the fifth part of the Deadly Odds cyber-thriller series written by Allen Wyler. This enemy is a wicked, ace hacker who is responsible for purposefully destroying two high-technology enterprises. Arnold Gold and the brightest minds working for his cyber-crime fighting company are in a race against time to determine the identity of the master hacker and get closer to the person responsible for these horrendous crimes.
If you haven’t read previous books in Deadly Odds series or have not met Arnold Gold before, now is the time. He is a brilliant cyber security consultant, very intelligent, and has the unique ability to recognize the psychological aspect of any crime and profile and predict the culprit. I’ve read all of the novels he’s been featured in, and every single one of them is excellent. Arnold’s personal life is a mess, and I feel bad for him as he tries to manage it with his profession and other commitments. However, he is exceptional when he is on the job.
Allen Wyler has an uncanny ability to delve into our worst fears, and his vivid depiction of this story’s setting and characters leaves the reader with a chilling sensation that events like this are all too plausible in a world where so much power—and so many unsavoury activities—can be found in cyberspace. Every book that Allen Wyler writes brings out the best in him as a writer. The reader is subjected to an ever-increasing level of tension as the story progresses, and the many varieties of psychopaths who commit the crimes continue to stun them with their complexity. Arnold Gold takes them on head-on and employs every available strategy to bring justice to the forefront of the situation.
The fact that the novels are based on real-world situations, with stories and people, makes them even more engaging and entertaining to read. Wyler, as is his basic rule, includes a number of socioeconomic reflections inside the narrative of the book; these are the kinds of observations that, despite how much one would try to do so, one just cannot avoid considering.
The premise of Deadly Odds 5.0 is excellent, and the pacing is good right from the beginning. The characters have wonderful chemistry with one another, and they truly bring the story to life. The story unfolds bit by bit, but you are really kept guessing for the majority of the book. There are no hints as to the identity of the hacker, nor is there any indication as to whether or not Arnold Gold will come anywhere close to capturing the hacker in time before more crimes are committed. The characters were believable, had a lot of depth, and were built in such a way that I could envision and feel practically all of them, including the really twisted crime.
