Book Review: Mind Trace by Holly McCaghren

Mind Trace
Author: Holly McCaghren
Publication: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (November 16, 2012)

Description: What would you do to possess unlimited knowledge and power?

Nineteen year-old Alice McArthur never had a choice. A shy girl from a small town, Alice has gained a reputation for her near-genius programming abilities, even getting the attention of EngineerCorp, a rising electronics empire. With her unique skill-set, she is hand-picked to test their network security by hacking into their global mainframe.

But something goes terribly wrong.

The next thing Alice knows, she wakes up on the floor with a migraine, unnatural powers, a server's worth of data in her head and the realization that this job was not what it seemed.

Now a fugitive from justice and on the run from the evil leader of a corporate empire, Alice doesn't know who to trust or where to turn. She must find a way to secure her freedom and stop those who would keep her prisoner for life -- or worse.

My Thoughts: Alice McArthur is a computer genius. She graduated from high school at age fourteen and by nineteen had her Bachelor's and Master's in Computer Science. She is working for a small computer tech company in Asheville when she gets in intriguing email. The email is calling for hackers to try to get into a specific server. Alice can't resist a puzzle but has no idea what her hacking will lead to.

While trying to break into the server she has an accident - nearly electrocuting herself on a computer cable. When she wakes up, she finds she is different. She seems to have all sorts of knowledge from the server she was trying to hack into. Determined to find out what happened to her, she traces the person who sent the email and finds Garrett Wiggins who is the CEO of Cyberconn - a corporation whose reputation was ruined by EngineerCorp.

She finds that she has accidentally hacked into EngineerCorp's servers and now the CEO Eric Martin wants her. He has immense power because his company is so woven into business and government and the power has caused him to become something of a megalomaniac. He is definitely an "end justifies the means" sort of villain who is more than willing to imprison Alice for life to study her and to use her in his plans to dominate the world.

This was an engaging science fiction thriller that has Alice playing mind games with Eric and trying to get her life back. I recommend it to fans of science fiction. 

Favorite Quote:

So I got electrocuted, and now my brain is a supercomputer? How is that possible? And somewhere in there is all of the information from EngineerCorp's servers?

I was pitched this book by the author and decided to buy myself a Kindle copy. You can buy your copy here.