The Gomorrah Gambit

Starred review from May 13, 2019
British technology philosopher Chatfield (Netymology) makes his fiction debut with an accomplished and chilling high-tech thriller. In the ominous opening chapter, a disillusioned publicist for the jihadist cause, who’s caught in a battle in Syria in 2014, takes a photo of his cousin’s corpse and thinks: “Every life, every death, is now a message. Just add social media and wait for the shares to begin.” Later that year in London, hacker and social misfit Azi Bello gets an urgent message from Sigma, an online friend who sends him documents that suggest 50 Islamic martyrs are actually alive and preparing for a massive terrorist attack called Gomorrah. Within minutes of the communication with Sigma, Azi—a self-taught expert on the dark web—gets a visit from Anna, a member of an unnamed intelligence service who knows every detail of his life and uses Azi to ensnare Sigma. Once Azi meets Sigma, the complex game is afoot, moving to Berlin and Greece and ultimately to California’s Silicon Valley and a superwealthy think tank, the Existential Institute. Chatfield writes with real skill, intelligence, and, despite the grim story, humor. Readers will look forward to his next foray into fiction. Agent: Jon Elek, United Agents.

July 1, 2019
A hacker starts dabbling in the ill-rumored darknet and quickly discovers the rabbit hole goes a lot deeper than pornography, drugs, and weapons. If there's any drawback to this propulsive debut novel by well-known technology philosopher Chatfield, it's that he knows about hacking, underground networks, and the dangers inherent in new technologies so well it could prove demanding for laymen (or become a new Anarchist's Cookbook or Fight Club for others). The novel opens on a chaotic scene where two new recruits for the Islamic Republic are under fire in Syria. Next, we meet the primary protagonist, white-hat hacker Azi Bellow, who uses a base in his backyard woodshed to disrupt bad guys--currently a neo-Nazi political movement called Freedom, led by enigmatic German Tomi Christian. Azi has been trading files on a network called Gomorrah with a source calling herself Sigma. But his fun is interrupted by an intelligence operative named Anna, who threatens to expose him if he doesn't do her bidding. Armed with a powerful new smartphone, he's off to Berlin to meet Munira Khan, a Muslim woman whose cousins were spirited off to Syria and who is a target herself. All these machinations are necessary to set up a complex but imaginative techno-thriller that pits the aforementioned neo-Nazis against a mysterious Silicon Valley-based think tank in a race to see who can do the most damage first and whether Azi, his best friend, Ad, and Munira can stop the attacks only they can see coming. It's full of cinematic set pieces including gunplay, kidnapping, and killer robots, not to mention a globe-trotting plot that visits America, Greece, and Germany. But the pensive author is also pointing out the futuristic dangers--identity theft, social engineering, virtual reality, and video manipulation among them--that are already upon us. A thoughtful but fast-paced techno-thriller that takes many of SF's most frightening ideas and extrapolates them into our evolving reality.

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June 1, 2019
In his debut novel, tech philosopher Chatfield paints a picture of the deadly scenario that skilled hackers seeking world domination are capable of creating. As boys in London's East Croydon, Azi Bello and Adam "Ad" Walker honed their online skills. Years later, with Ad having followed the money to California, loner Azi gets an urgent request from fellow techie Sigma, who's feeling endangered because of information she's gathered about Islamic terrorists. This request triggers a visit to Azi from an organization he later learns is called the Existential Institute, demanding Azi's assistance in reaching Sigma. Azi reasons, however, that the real goal is Gomorrah, a darknet site where anything is available and dangerous individuals lurk. Action moves from London to Berlin, where the threat grows, and Azi goes on the run, first to Greece and then to the Bay Area, where he and Ad reunite to target the institute, Ad's former workplace. But continuing to avert Armageddon is an effort that will require eternal vigilance by skilled operatives. A nonstop thriller that will be a particular treat for high-end techies.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)