Black Nowhere

Can you ever really be invisible? Are you able to hide your identity and not be found? Within the web there are many who have created alter egos , alter identities thinking that they are under the radar and will not fall prey to hackers and cyber attacks. Special Agent Lisa Tanchik has tasked herself with uncovering the secrets beneath the dark web in a site called Kyte. Coming upon it and presenting what she found to her superiors opened up an investigation that would take her to Iceland and even the Dominican Republic and inside the channels of the Dark Web. Kyte is where drugs can be bought and sold and delivered to you at a cost only if you pay in bitcoin. Sellers can contact the coders and other members of the team and arrange products to be sold, transported and sell anything they want. This start up company is run by Nate Fallon a college student gone rogue whose entire focus is building up this business and with the help of several team members he’s made a fortune. But for how long?

Lisa has her own dark past and her pouts with depression and alcohol and the memory of her sister Jess often clouds her judgment and decisions the present. “Depression is a dark room, a black nowhere.” But she would doom learn that you could not live your life madly burning through matchbooks. Lisa was bent and determined to investigate Kyte and the person running it known as CaptainMal. This site was unique and hidden in the Dark Web. It provided what people craved:illegal drugs that could be delivered to their doors at a reasonable price and relatively safe. Just who comprised his team: DJINN, DPAIN and others. His main person was DPAIN whom he thought was loyal and trustworthy but money, greed and power be more powerful and enticing.

As we get to know about the dynamics of the investigation and why Lisa wants to be lead on this case which would be interagency, we learn that it would boost her career and take her mind off of her depression.

Nate is driven and yet mistakes are made as he receives a threat from the head of the Zeta Cartel demanding to become a partner and threatening if he does not comply. Hoping to make him go away his future and life might hang in the balance.

The site is lucrative but there are many who want a piece and Lisa using an alter ego called Rodrigo manages to create a dialogue with CaptainMal who has no idea that she’s a federal agent. When DPAIN’S location is discovered and Lisa snd a team take him down what follows is quite interesting almost like watching CSI or Criminal Minds.

Brian Hardwick signed on as a cider for Kyte but made a fatal mistake. Taken hostage by Zeta and tortured, Nate has a life changing decision to make. Give up his dream to safe his friend or let him die. Added in Lisa/aka/ Rodrigo is hired to take out DPAIN and what and how she does is the imagination and creativity of author Reece Hirsch. Getting him to believe and trust her , following him to Iceland and getting a firm handle on his identity is just the tip of the iceberg. Lisa has won the respect of her superiors and given a team to help lead the downfalls but is that enough? When Nate realizes that Brian is in serious trouble and he’s turning over his business to the cartel in the end will he safe him?

Real life situations and high volume and voltage energy as the final scenes are electric and filled with tension and fear.

Lisa and her team had their strategy but the cartel played by its own rules. Nate wanted to do something to show the world he could create a that would bypass government regulations and be free from restrictions.

CaptMal in his interview with a reporter stated that he was excited by the ability of Tor and bitcoin to enable truly anonymous transactions. Can you really operate beyond the reach of the government? Is the Dark Web really so dark you won’t be seen?

Kyte made it easy for people to sell and buy drugs. Nate felt he was doing a service and morals and ethics put aside. Is that true or did it harm others or his argument that people have the right to put anything in their bodies? The interview the author created was so realistic you could hear the dialogue.

Author Reece Hirsch uses his experience as a partner at a San Francisco office of international law and the cochair of its privacy and cyber security practice to bring the authenticity and realism to this novel.

Some ending are unusual beginnings in different divas the twists, turns and creative ending leads readers to believe that Lisa’s career might take an unusual turn upward and Nate just might be a part of it in an unusual way. Will he try again? Where will they both wind up or will they both fall prey to the dark room and wind up in the Black Nowhere?

Fran Lewis just reviews