That was a good one guys! Things tie in a bit too conveniently at times in this series, but it is such a fun ride and something I have been waiting for finally happened! ❤ ( )

Has Monkeewrench met their match? What happens when they come up against a group that has computer skills that seem to be as good as theirs? Well, there can only be one number one, and it will take a lot for anyone to knock down our favorite group of misfits.

This one starts out with a very improbable occurrence that led me in the direction of thinking it was not a random event. Perhaps this was intentional, but there were so many seemingly improbably things happening that pretty soon it became clear that there was some conspiracy afoot. Someone wanted a group of people dead for some reason, and strangely enough, someone else wanted them kept alive for reasons even the ones doing that didn't know. It all seemed pretty mysterious for most of the book, until a key was found near the end that unlocked the solution. And what a solution it was.

More fun and games for us Monkeewrench fans. I look forward to the next book, but I will wait a bit because it is the last one currently available, and I don't know how long I'll have to wait for the one after that.

( )

Lydia, young artist, meets Chuck on a fight to Minneapolis. While talking, they find that they have something in common. Their deceased grandfathers worked on the hydrogen bomb during WWII. So, they make plans to have coffee after landing. Unfortunately, Chuck is found murdered, so Mpls. homicide detectives Gino Magozzi and Leo Rolseth are called back from a mid winter vacation. Several other seemingly unrelated deaths and missing persons, end up in one confusing case for the detectives. They call on the Monkeewrench computer group to assist with The Beast, a massively powerful computer which starts putting the pieces together. Russian assassin s, Alzheimer's patients, secret government agencies, Christmas season, Cold War intrigue, the proliferation of computers, and a weapon of unimaginable power combine to put the Monkeewrench crew anthe detectives through their paces.

I really love the Monkeewrench series and their misfit crew. A bit if humor helps to move the story along through many twists and turns. ( )

This was different. very different. ( )

Strangers meet on a plane and discover a very unusual connection. Lydia Ascher and Chuck Spencer discover that they are connected via a World War II science project around the invention of the hydrogen bomb. Chuck is in town to meet another man who has the same connection to that science project but Wally is killed and his house destroyed by fire before they can meet. Chuck is murdered outside his hotel in what looks at first like a simple mugging. Magozzi and Gino are pulled away from their winter vacation to investigate both crimes. They also find themselves investigating the kidnapping of a man is the end stages of ALS who is kidnapped from his home.

As they investigate they learn that the man with ALS was also part of that long-ago science project. Someone clearly wants to kill anyone with even the faintest connection to the project and Magozzi, Gino, and the Monkeewrench gang have to find out why.

When Lydia returns home to find two dead bodies in her house, Magozzi and Gino are sure that she is also connected. And she is. She has inherited a pulp paperback from her mother which was given to her by her father just before he died in a plane crash some sixty years ago. While all the other victims have had all their papers and computer stolen, Lydia's book escapes the sweep.

Meanwhile, the Monkeewrench gang which consists of Grace and Harley this time since Annie and Roadrunner are out east conducting a series of sales calls to get new contracts for the business, are trying to gather information and restore a deleted website created by Chuck so that they can figure out what is going on.

This was another fast-paced twisty episode in the long-running and engaging Monkeewrench series. I couldn't put it down. ( )