David Belov arrives home one Sunday afternoon to find his wife and son kidnapped. The perpetrators demand he write a code to destroy the value of gold on the stock market, which sets off a chain reaction and allows for the gold to be stolen. David teams up with Vlad, an old friend turned mobster, to discover the identity of the real criminals but quickly learn they are dealing with the best in the business. Meanwhile, the much-admired detective Jake Rivett is hot on their heels, dealing with his own personal demons as he struggles to discover the truth. Can the best investigator in New York catch the best criminals?
FLASH CRASH, the first in the Jake Rivett series and Denison Hatch’s debut novel, provides plenty of action and thrills. Deftly going from the rich world of bankers to the dregs of Chinatown, Hatch’s pacing ensures there is never a dull moment. The plot alternates primarily between David and Jake, occasionally showing Vlad’s point of view, and bounces around in time, from the characters’ rough childhoods to their present day predicament. Halting the story to explain something that occurred long ago is risky and could easily have given way to long stretches of boring exposition, but Hatch pulls it off, making each scene just as exciting as the last.
Despite the sweeping narrative, however, the plot suffers from predictability, offering plenty of twists but few real surprises. The characters, too, are a bit lacking. Despite all the backstory they often come across more as stereotypes than real people and spout unrealistic dialogue. Still, as the stakes ramp up, it is easy even for readers who can see exactly where the story is going to forget about these flaws and get swept away by the exciting ride.
Enthralling from the first page, FLASH CRASH survives its flaws and is a great thriller.
~IndieReader.