Sam Hughes is COO for Ainetu, a Silicon Valley tech company that leverages artificial intelligence to predict security threats. At forty-five, he’s at least one generation older than most people in the industry, but he’s determined to make a name for himself, and Ainetu could be just the right place to do it. But when he is called on at the last minute to fill in for the CEO in a widely-broadcasted panel discussion and ends up walking off the stage, he is fired from his job. In a fit of anger, he tells others in the office to “get out while you can” before impulsively yanking one of the fire alarms on his way out the door.

Living above their means in a $3 million house that needs remodeling, Sam relies on his wife Heather to support the family while he tries to figure out what to do next. Disgusted with life in the fast lane, thoughts of returning to his small Ohio hometown, rebooting their lives, and taking over the family sign business is on his short list. Three months after leaving Ainetu, when a former co-worker shares a copy of their 3Q financials, Sam realizes that someone has been “cooking the books” to fluff up the bottom line in order to look better for the company’s potential acquisition by a competitor. He spends the next several weeks talking to board members, former co-workers, and outsiders investigating the possible fraud purportedly committed by Ainetu’s CEO, but then goes back and forth between wanting to do what is right by exposing him and keeping his nose out of it. The more he learns about what has been going on at Ainetu, the more he is torn on what to do. Then, when a board member tells him they intend to fire the CEO and want to offer Sam the position, he is unsure whether it would be in his best interest.

The recurring business ethics theme in Mike Trigg’s BIT FLIP raises many questions. How far will someone go before financial greed overtakes their ethical boundaries? What price is one willing to pay for the loss of integrity? When is it considered crossing the line—only when there aren’t any obvious legal consequences? Do unethical business choices also define someone’s personal life? Trigg deftly illustrates how one man’s high-stake business dealings can pit his personal ethics against greed, ego, and pride and he’s forced to decide what is more important in his life—love of fame and fortune…or family. The characters are interesting, well-developed, and believable and the use of internal dialogue both creative and effective.

Mike Trigg’s novel BIT FLIP is exceptionally well-written, with a satisfying balance of action, intrigue, back story, characterization, and description. He weaves together several compelling story elements, some of them technical in nature, with ease and the manner in which he wraps up the narrative is both concise and provocative.

~Florence Osmund for IndieReader