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Armed with my new Nook, I’ve finally been able to dive right into the electronic book world, taking my e-books along to places they’ve never gone before: the living room, the post office, my bedside table. And I can’t imagine a better way to kick off my new e-book experience than with No One Lives Twice—a novel about a bunch of cyber-sleuths.
As NSA anti-hacker Lexi Carmichael approaches her 25th birthday, her high-society mother frets that she’ll die a spinster. But little does Mrs. Carmichael know that Lexi is surrounded by men—like the big, beefy guy who just threatened to kill her outside her parents’ posh Georgetown home.
Beefy is looking for some paperwork that Lexi’s best friend, Basia, supposedly sent her—and he’s not the only one who’s willing to kill Lexi to get his hands on them. While Lexi’s trying to figure out what these big, tough guys want from her, she discovers that Basia has gone missing—so she recruits her ultra-geeky hacker friends, the Zimmerman twins, to help find her. In the meantime, she also manages to attract the attention of a gorgeous Irish lawyer and a charming super-hacker—both of whom definitely know more than they’re telling her. Though the attention of so many men is seriously distracting, Lexi needs to stay focused and find Basia—before the big, beefy guys with guns do.
Stephanie Plum meets James Bond in author Julie Moffett’s first Lexi Carmichael mystery, No One Lives Twice. More amateur spy than amateur sleuth, Lexi Carmichael is an intriguingly inconsistent character. She’s a plain-Jane techno-geek who suddenly starts attracting the attention (and affection) of a whole crew of gorgeous, mysterious men. She double-majored in math and computer science at Georgetown, and she works for the NSA as an information security technologist, yet she doesn’t even own a cell phone—and whenever the twins start speaking in code, she tunes out, claiming that they’re speaking a language that she doesn’t understand.
Still, while the details are often a bit hard to believe, the story is enjoyable—thanks, in no small part, to its entertaining cast of characters. Lexi may be a walking contradiction, but she’s lovable nonetheless, with an awkward charm that will keep you reading and make you want to pick up the next book in the series. And although the supporting characters aren’t as quirky as those in Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series—nor are they as over-the-top as the characters in a Bond flick—they’re often just plain irresistible. From suave super-hacker and Enrique Iglesias lookalike Slash to dashing Finn Shaughnessy to the lovably nerdy Zimmerman twins (whose names, incidentally, are Elvis and Xavier), they help to create a well-rounded cast of characters who just happen to be brimming with character.
Though the mystery makes for a suspenseful read—a tangled tale of corporate scandal, biotechnology, and international espionage—you’ll be even more intrigued by the characters and their tangled personal lives. Download No One Lives Twice to your favorite e-book reader, and you’re sure to become a fan of this light and entertaining new techno-mystery series.
