Picks and Shovels

A Martin Hench Novel

ePub, PDF, MOBI, 400 pages

English language

Published Feb. 18, 2025 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc., Tor Books.

ISBN:
978-1-250-865922978180454782-3
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3 stars (2 reviews)

New York Times bestselling author Cory Doctorow returns to the world of Red Team Blues to bring us the origin story of Martin Hench and the most powerful new tool for crime ever invented: the personal computer.

The year is 1986. The city is San Francisco. Here, Martin Hench will invent the forensic accountant--what a bounty hunter is to people, he is to money--but for now he's an MIT dropout odd-jobbing his way around a city still reeling from the invention of a revolutionary new technology that will change everything about crime forever, one we now take completely for granted.

When Marty finds himself hired by Silicon Valley PC startup Fidelity Computing to investigate a group of disgruntled ex-employees who've founded a competitor startup, he quickly realizes he's on the wrong side. Marty ditches the greasy old guys running Fidelity Computing without a second thought, utterly infatuated with the electric …

1 edition

Second favorite Martin Hench Novel

3 stars

Not as action packed as "Red Team Blues" books.mxhdr.net/book/57183 , but definitely better than "The Bezzle" books.mxhdr.net/book/84803 , "Picks and Shovels" rounds out the "Martin Hench" series, nicely wrapping up his back story with plenty of nostalgia and more harrowing examples of financial, and other, malfeasance.

The story does kind of drag on the buildup to the climax, which is kind of the opposite of what I normally expect in a climax, but at least it didn't tire me out with a long litany of indignities like "The Bezzle". Also in standard Cory Doctorow fashion, nothing is ever pat, so don't expect too much of a cheap vicarious righteous indignation high. Cory don't play that game. Realism has a price 😉